By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
GMC disciplinary panel hears that fertility specialist sent vomiting woman home
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre , run by Mohammed Taranissi
Britain’s most successful IVF specialist discharged a woman patient from his clinic who complained of repeated vomiting, hours before she collapsed unconscious with a life-threatening condition, a disciplinary panel heard yesterday.
Britain’s most successful IVF specialist discharged a woman patient from his clinic who complained of repeated vomiting, hours before she collapsed unconscious with a life-threatening condition, a disciplinary panel heard yesterday.
Mohammed Taranissi, the wealthy doctor and entrepreneur who runs two London fertility clinics and regularly tops the league table for the most live births, sent the patient home, after earlier telling her “she was suffering from anxiety and that she had a mental block about her treatment”, the panel of the General Medical Council heard.
He was accused of failing to provide basic medical care to the woman who was later admitted to intensive care. She had been vomiting and had swollen wrists and was taken to hospital after suffering a seizure. There she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal electrolyte imbalance.
Mr Taranissi, 53, is charged with serious professional misconduct over his failure to refer the woman for further investigation or advise her to see her GP on 11 August, 2004.
The woman had called the clinic the previous day to say she had been vomiting and had been seen by Mr Taranissi. At 2am that morning, her husband telephoned the doctor to say she was being repeatedly sick, when Mr Taranissi made his remark about her problems being psychological.
She attended his clinic, the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC), near Harley Street, London, later that day and was “crying and feeling unwell”. She had a scan and was discharged. Later that evening, after collapsing, she was admitted to intensive care at Whittington Hospital, north London.
Joanna Glynn QC, for the GMC, told the disciplinary panel that Mr Taranissi would not have been expected to diagnose the woman’s exact condition.
“The allegation focuses on the seriousness of letting a patient leave his clinic with no proper investigation or advice in circumstances that called out for it,” she said.
Mr Taranissi is also accused of advising a second woman, aged 36, to have treatment with a controversial drug called Humira without telling her it was not licensed for infertility.
After she refused the drug, he is said to have become angry with her at a second meeting in June 2004 and of saying he would not be held responsible if she had another miscarriage.
She was told by one doctor at the ARGC that she needed immunological tests costing hundreds of pounds although she believed the tests were “a waste of money”. But she said she was “very, very, very angry” when she discovered they were unrecognised fertility tests. In cross-examination, Nicola Davies QC, representing Mr Taranissi, told the panel that the woman had written letters of complaint about the treatment she had received at three separate units: the ARGC, the Lister Hospital in London and St George’s in south London.
Ms Davies also referred to letters where the woman had referred to another doctor by name and said it was as “clear as daylight” that she had been talking about this other doctor applying pressure regarding immunological tests, and not Mr Taranissi.
Mr Taranissi denies the charges.
The hearing continues.
YOU CALL THIS HEALTH CARE?! 