Mum-of-three killed in botched operation by elderly doctor who lied about his age

4 July 2022, 16:52

A mother-of-three was killed by a doctor who lied about his age and botched a routine procedure, a court has heard.

Shahida Parveen, 48, attended an appointment for a bone marrow biopsy to further investigate suspected myeloproliferative disorder.

The disorder causes blood cells to grow abnormally in the bone marrow.

She was seen to by 85-year-old Dr Isyaka Mamman, then 81, who had previously been suspended by medical watchdogs for lying about his age, but was hired by the Royal Oldham Hospital as a haematology specialist, despite previous dismissals for poor performance.

Manchester Crown Court was told by Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, that Ms Parveen, who attended with her husband Khizar Mahmood, was subjected to a botched attempt to extract bone marrow from her hip bone, the standard site on the body for such a procedure.

After that failed, Mamman attempted to extract bone marrow from her sternum, considered a 'highly dangerous' and rare procedure.

Despite repeated objections by both the patient and her husband, he proceeded anyway with the wrong biopsy needle, and pierced her pericardium - the sac that contains the heart - and caused massive internal bleeding.

The court heard that Mr Mahmood ran out of the room screaming: "He killed her.

"I told him to stop three times and he did not listen. He killed her."

Despite an emergency team attending, they were unable to revive Ms Parveen and she passed away later that day on September 3, 2018.

Mamman had quit a previous job after a formal complaint was made about him regarding his conduct during a bone marrow biopsy, where he was described as using "excessive force" on a patient.

Mamman qualified as a doctor in Nigeria in 1965 and had worked in the UK since 1991. In 2004 until Ms Parveen's death, he worked for the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

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However, his age has been a matter of controversy, as he has given several different dates of birth over his career.

Initially, he claimed he was born in 1936, which would have made him 21 when he began his medical degree. However, when he began working for the NHS, he knocked five years off his age, giving his date of birth as 1941, meaning he would have been 16 when he began studying medicine.

However, in 2001 in order to evade the compulsory 65 year retirement age, he claimed he was born in 1947, which would mean he was 10 when he began medical school.

In 2004, he was found guilty of gross professional misconduct for lying about his age, and suspended for 12 months.

Despite being sacked by the Pennine Trust, he was re-employed in 2006 after the General Medical Council restored him to the register, where he gave his date of birth as 1943, which would have made him 14 or 15 when he began his medical degree.

Mamman, of Cumberland Drive, Royton, near Oldham, pled guilty to gross negligence manslaughter, and has been told to prepare for time in jail.

He will be sentenced on Tuesday.