Mother of girl operated on by disgraced surgeon says hospital ‘gaslit’ her

The mother of a young girl operated on by a disgraced surgeon at a famous London children’s hospital says she should never have been left in his care.

Jodee Seeley told BBC Newsnight she was considering legal action after Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), whom she accuses of “gaslighting” her, allowed Yaser Jabbar to operate on her daughter Alana even when complaints had been raised about his misconduct.

Mr Jabbar left the hospital in 2023 after a Royal College of Surgeons inquiry found he had performed “incorrect” or “inappropriate” surgery in several cases.

A spokesperson for GOSH said it understood “why Alana and her family are worried”, adding “we are sorry they feel information was withheld from them”.

Mr Jabbar had operated on Jodee’s daughter in 2022, when she was eight years old, fitting metal plates into her knees for leg lengthening and straightening.

He was a leading surgeon at the renowned hospital, operating on children with complicated disorders and carrying out procedures such as the one undergone by Alana.

The hospital has since initiated independent reports into each of his 723 patients, to conclude what level of harm they had experienced.

Some cases linked to him resulted in harm including life-long injuries and amputation.

Jodee, from Essex, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme she had had no idea of the doctor’s reputation when her daughter Alana was referred to his care in 2021.

At that point, concerns had already been raised about Mr Jabbar.

She said in the family’s first consultation in March 2021, which lasted “about five minutes”, Mr Jabbar had advised the invasive surgery.

“We didn’t want to rock the boat too much because he seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing,” she said.

“So we kind of went along with it thinking he’s an orthopaedic surgeon, it’s Great Ormond Street [Hospital]. We trusted him.”

The operation took place 10 months later, in January 2022. During that period, more professional complaints from other surgeons were raised with the managers at the hospital.

None of this was ever disclosed to Jodee or other families of Mr Jabbar’s patients.

She said the surgery had appeared to go well and, with Alana’s leg bandaged up, there had not seemed to be any immediate problems.

But when the bandage came off a few weeks later, Jodee saw two scars instead of one on the inside of her child’s leg when they had been told it would be just one incision.

“So the alarm bells rang at that point,” she said.

As weeks went by, the mobility of Alana, now aged 11, was not improving and she was reporting pain frequently, often needing painkillers.

Jodee said she had thought at first: “Well, maybe it just hasn’t worked? Maybe that wasn’t the right procedure and it will be removed? Or maybe it’s just too early to tell?”

She said she had expected regular check-ups from the hospital but a follow-up appointment did not come until six months after the operation.

The plates in Alana’s knees were supposed to be there for about two years. Jodee says they saw another surgeon at the hospital in a follow-up in July – six months after the operation – who recommended they not come out.

Then, by chance, they saw Mr Jabbar on the same visit.

Jodee says he took one look and said they “needed to come out immediately” and asked the family to return the following day for another major operation.

He told the family he was worried Alana’s tendons could re-fuse to the metal plates, Jodee says.

“We were really panicked, we were really worried…. [thinking] ‘What have we done, is she okay, is it long-term damage?'”

They returned to the hospital in August 2022 to have the plates removed.

But the family’s concern was now so strong that they moved Alana to a different hospital months after.

She continued to lose mobility and have other problems during this period.

Jodee says she was not informed of anything wrong with Mr Jabbar’s work until February this year, more than 16 months on.

She says the hospital informed her only in a brief letter with few details.

“It seemed like quite a general letter… nothing to worry about,” she said.

She did not realise the extent of Mr Jabbar’s reported misconduct until media reports.

“I did not realise the scale of it or what actually happened or that there had been so many complaints,” she added.

And she noted the most “upsetting” element was that the hospital had issued comments to media at a time when it had not even informed patients and their families.

“I just felt sick, to be honest,” she said. “So obviously devastated. As a parent, obviously you want to protect your child, it is the number one priority. And I knew something was amiss when we had seen him.”

Jodee says her daughter should never have been put under the surgeon’s care and has accused the hospital of a culture of complicity and wider cover-up.

She told the BBC she had heard from the hospital immediately prior to talking to reporters.

She said this could be a coincidence or “they’ve been pushed to do that because they were aware that I’d be coming to talk to you today”.

“It does actually feel like they’ve been gaslighting the whole way,” she added.

Jodee said she and her family were very private but she had felt compelled to speak out so other victims could know they are “not alone”.

“It’s really important for other people to know what’s happened and to understand if they’re being gaslighted as well, that they’re not alone, that this is what’s going on,” she said.

A spokesperson for GOSH said it was sorry to all concerned families, adding that after the Royal College of Surgeons report, it had asked external experts to review all Mr Jabbar’s patients.

The statement goes on: “They are working at pace […] We understand why Alana and her family are worried […] and we have reached out to them.

“We are sorry they feel that information was withheld from them. Once concerns were raised about the surgeon’s practice in June 2022, we shared these with the General Medical Council and undertook rapid fact-finding. During this period the surgeon’s practice was restricted to simple procedures […] and always as part of a wider surgical team.

“We then had to establish the facts before sharing information with patients.

“We are now updating patients regularly about the progress of the review.

“We are aware there were concerns regarding specific patients in 2021 that were raised as formal incidents and were fully investigated. The findings in each individual case and collectively did not trigger the threshold for initiating further action at that time.”

GOSH’s actions in the wake of Mr Jabbar’s departure have continued to come under fire.

This year the hospital has initiated independent reports into each of his 723 patients, to conclude what level of harm they experienced.

But families who have received the results in recent weeks have called the reviews a mis-representation and even a “whitewash” of what their children experienced.

Parents have told the BBC how the hospital “failed their children”, leaving them physically and mentally damaged.

The BBC has spoken to at least four families – and had indirect contact with 12 more – who say the reports do not reflect their children’s experiences or minimise their pain and suffering.

The reviews, carried out by specialist surgeons who did not work at GOSH, were based on patient notes provided by the hospital.

Many of the reports were also made without any interviews with the patient or their family.