BBC / Mark NormanA surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.Prof Graeme Poston, an expert witness on clinical negligence and a former consultant surgeon, told the BBC: “It surprises me and appals me. Firstly, a penknife is not sterile. Secondly it is not an operating instrument. And thirdly all the kit [must have been] there.”Police are separately looking into at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence at the trust and considering manslaughter charges.The surgeon in the penknife case, who the BBC is not naming, was operating on a patient at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton when he struggled to find a scalpel.Instead he used a Swiss Army knife which he normally used to cut fruit for his lunch.The patient survived but internal documents show the surgeon’s colleagues felt his behaviour was “questionable” and were “very surprised” he was unable to find a scalpel.The BBC has also discovered the same surgeon carried out three supposedly low-risk operations in two months where all three patients died soon after.The BBC has previously reported that:Four whistleblowers said patients had died unnecessarily and been “effectively maimed” at the trustA former surgeon claimed a “gang culture” existed in the neurosurgery department. The same doctor alleged one surgeon had disproportionate deaths and a second did complex operations without adequate trainingAn internal review conceded doctors could have saved the life of student Melissa Zoglie had they acted soonerSussex Police has recruited extra staff as part of its manslaughter probe concerning the trustA Royal College of Surgeons review found a “culture of fear” at the trust and suggested senior managers may need to be replacedThe trust lost a nine-month legal battle with the BBC and The Times to block access to and redact documents in two employment tribunal casesThe trust launched a series of internal investigations into the three patients who died – and concluded that they had experienced “poor care”.It also conceded one woman who died “would have survived if there were no post-operative complications”.The woman’s daughter, who asked not to be identified, said: “We didn’t understand how mum died. No one seemed to know why the operation was not successful.“There needs to be a thorough investigation into these deaths, not just an action plan. That’s no …
