Doctor jailed for killing woman with botched procedure at Royal Oldham

Mother-of-three Shahida Parveen died in 2018 after Isayaka Mamman botched a routine bone marrow procedure

Doctor Isayaka Mamman
Author: Frankie GoldingPublished 5th Jul 2022
Last updated 5th Jul 2022

A doctor has been jailed at Manchester Crown Court for three years for killing a patient during a routine procedure at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 2018.

The patient was Shahida Parveen, a mother-of-three who died aged 48 from internal bleeding, after Isyaka Mamman performed a botched bone marrow biopsy.

The Royton-based doctor, 85, pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter.

During the trial, the court heard that Ms Parveen had gone to the hospital with her husband, Khizar Mahmood, for investigations into possible myeloproliferative disorder.

A bone marrow biopsy had been advised and the routine procedure was allocated to Mamman, who was working as a doctor in haematology.

Normally, bone marrow samples are taken from the hip bone but Mamman failed to obtain a sample at the first attempt.

Instead, he attempted a rare and "highly dangerous" procedure of getting a sample from Ms Parveen's sternum - despite objections from the patient and her husband.

Mamman, using the wrong biopsy needle, missed the bone and pierced her pericardium, the sac containing the heart, causing massive internal bleeding.

Ms Parveen lost consciousness as soon as the needle was inserted, with her husband running from the room shouting: "He killed her. I told him to stop three times and he did not listen. He killed her."

A crash team arrived but Ms Parveen was confirmed dead later the same day, September 3 2018.

The botched procedure took place at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 2018

Before this incident, Doctor Isyaka Mamman had already been suspended by medical watchdogs for lying about his age and was sacked but then re-employed by the Royal Oldham Hospital.

His "true age" is a matter of "controversy", the court heard, as his birthplace in rural Nigeria had no system of birth registration.

As such, he was able to firstly give his date of birth as September 16th 1936, during his medical training - meaning he was 21-years-old when he began his medical training and 81 at the time of the fatal hospital incident.

However, he then knocked years off his age by adopting a birth date in 1941, provided to the NHS, suggesting he began his medical degree at the age of 16.

Again, in about 2001 and approaching what was then the compulsory retirement age of 65, Mamman adopted an even later birth date - October 1947 - which he relied upon in an application for naturalisation as a British citizen.

This suggested he started his medical degree course at the age of 10.

In 2004 he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council and suspended for 12 months for lying about his age.

Isyaka Mamman was today sentenced to three years at Manchester Crown Court

He was also responsible for a series of medical errors before the Ms Parveen's appointment.

One incident involved seriously injuring another patient during a bone marrow biopsy, by inserting a needle in the wrong place.

After this incident, the patient survived but has been left permanently disabled.

Further to this, In 2015, a formal complaint was made to the Oldham hospital when a patient stated that the doctor used "excessive force" during a bone marrow biopsy.

Mamman had also left his previous employment with the Medway Trust because of "poor performance".

Barrister Michael Hayton said it was clear Mamman was a "failing" doctor and he should not have been allowed to continue treating patients.

He added: "He is not the only person at fault. He should not have been allowed to be in the position he was.

"There's a grotesque catalogue of failings by the trust from 2015."

Dr Chris Brookes, Group Chief Doctor and Deputy Chief Executive for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs The Royal Oldham Hospital, said:

“We wish again to offer our sincerest condolences to Mrs Parveen’s family and friends and we are deeply sorry for their loss. We would like to reiterate our sincere apology previously provided to Mrs Parveen’s family. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to them.

“Following Mrs Parveen’s death in September 2018, the Trust launched a thorough internal investigation to examine the circumstances leading up to and following this tragic incident. The Trust implemented improvements following investigation which were shared with Mrs Parveen's family.

“The Trust has admitted liability in relation to a civil claim brought by the family.

“The Trust has liaised closely with Greater Manchester Police throughout their investigation and the subsequent legal proceedings concerning Dr Mamman.”

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