I was a victim of NHS surgeon who botched 100 ops – I’ve been offered 6-figure sum but my life’s ruined by constant pain
A MUM was left with life-changing injuries at the hands of a bungling surgeon who was sacked for botching almost 100 operations.
Angela Glover, 51, was offered a six-figure sum in compensation but now lives in constant pain from irreversible damage inflicted during procedure she didn’t even need.
Doctor Mian Munawar Shah, the surgeon who operated on Angela, was later sacked after he botched operations so badly that some patients had the wrong bones removed.
Angela suffered a muscle tear in her shoulder after a fall at work in 2018 but was incorrectly told by Mr Shah that she had dislocated it.
The mum-of-one was subjected to three operations at Walsall Manor Hospital at the hands of the disgraced surgeon, where he chipped away at her bone and installed metal bolts into her shoulder.
But the series of procedures left her in constant “excruciating pain”, unable to move her right arm and feel her thumb.
A further CT scan in 2020 revealed the surgeon had bolted down the shoulder bone in the wrong place.
Angela, who works at the same hospital, reported Mr Shah before an internal investigation found he’d botched a total of 91 operations.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust has since apologised to the patients after a report found Mr Shah did not have the “necessary” competencies to carry out the treatment.
Angela, who lives with partner Simon Roberts, a delivery driver, said: “He told me I had partial shoulder dislocation after I saw him over pain in my shoulder after a fall.
“I work in the scan rooms and a lady slipped out of the wheelchair onto the floor. She pulled onto my shoulder and caused a muscle tear. I had physio but it didn’t get better.
“I went and saw this consultant Dr Shah and he said I needed some pins putting in.
“Off we went and had the surgery and then two or three weeks later I was back in A&E. I was on lots of medication and painkillers because it was that painful. Long story short it didn’t feel right.
“After a while I had a mental breakdown, nothing was working. We did a CT scan and found that he had bolted the shoulder bone down and done the bolts in the wrong place.
“I had lost all feeling in my thumb. I went to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham and they said I hadn’t got a shoulder dislocation so what he’d done wasn’t needed.
“They took all the metal out in a series of operations.”
After logging a complaint to the hospital Angela began a lengthy legal battle with the trust – which eventually awarded her a six-figure settlement.
But due to Mr Shah’s work, Angela says she can’t hold her new granddaughter due to weakness and general day-to-day tasks are virtually impossible.
Angela, who has worked at the hospital since early 2018, said: “I struggle with tasks, opening jars, getting out of the bath, I don’t go to the gym anymore. I can’t ride my bike.
“Birmingham have operated after Mr Shah but they can’t keep operating as I’ll have no bone left.
“They said if I’d had persistent physio and no surgery that I would’ve made a full recovery in six months. He’s taken so much away from me.
“He basically didn’t have any competence in the work he was doing, he wasn’t trained in the Latarjet [a surgical technique to treat shoulder dislocations]. I think he was an orthopaedic consultant.
“It’s like a rollercoaster, I live with the pain on a daily basis. I’m on medication for it. I live with it, it’s been so long I put up with it.
“I’ve got a new granddaughter and I can’t hold her, she’s 13 months old. I can’t hold for her some time because of the pain. It’s caused nerve damage too.
“I have to have a chair to support my back and my neck, I have an up and down desk, I can’t move beds and any of the physical stuff because my shoulder won’t allow me.
“I’m trapped, I can’t forward my hospital skills in the workplace now.”
Damning report
An internal review was carried out and discovered that Mr Shah had actually injured 91 patients in total during wrist and shoulder examinations.
A Trust report that was released this week raised concerns over his “technical competence” to complete operations, saying it was the “most significant area of concern” relating to his practice.
The report added: “It was the area of concern that was by far most likely to be assessed as having contributed to having caused direct patient harm.”
It found Mr Shah was originally undertaking the duties of a more “general” trauma and orthopaedic consultant.
However, he moved into more specialist and more complex upper limb surgery without having developed the necessary abilities.
Angela added: “We’ve been to hell and back, it’s been a nightmare injury. The trust solicitors wanted an independent expert to assess my shoulder.
“We’ve been to 36 private experts all over the country, for physio and psychiatrists.
“He’s fused the wrong bones before and took the wrong bones out.
“I want people to know, why shouldn’t people know what he’s done? I don’t care if I work for the trust.
“There’s loads of us that have had something done by him.
“He was reassuring and very polite, I had no doubts whatsoever. It wasn’t until I started to dig deep that I realised something was on.
“They offered me an injustice payment of £10,000 initially.
“But I don’t care about my six figure sum – I want to see him in a court room.”
The trust's full apology
Joe Chadwick-Bell, Group Chief Executive of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We want to thank all the patients and families who helped the external consultants to conduct their thorough review into care received by those undergoing complex upper limb procedures carried out by Mr Mian Munawar Shah.
“We appreciate the review may have been a distressing time for patients and we once again sincerely apologise to those patients who were affected by the surgery Mr Shah carried out.
“We provided support to patients who received poor standards of care and, where relevant, also to their families.
“As we promised at the time, the review findings regarding patients’ individual care were shared with them first, before the final report being publicly released.
“As detailed in Trust Board papers, a number of actions have been taken to improve clinical governance, safety and oversight, and learning shared with colleagues across the organisation as we continue to deliver high-quality care for all users of our services.”