CALLED OUT: Anaesthetist Suspended After Patient Died When He Left Op To Take Calls

Officials in Singapore have suspended an anaesthetist after he walked out of the operating room several times to answer phone calls and his patient died.

Photo shows an illustrative image of Gleneagles Hospital, undated. Gleneagles Hospital is a private hospital on Napier Road, Singapore. (Newsflash)

A Singapore Medical Council disciplinary tribunal suspended Islam Mohammed Towfique for 30 months in a decision published on 11th January.

The tribunal found he had left the operating room at Gleneagles Hospital multiple times amid a high-risk surgical procedure to take phone calls.

Despite his presence being required throughout the operation, Towfique had spent up to nine minutes at a time on his mobile phone outside the operating room.

While undergoing open reduction internal fixation bone cement right femur surgery on 1st September 2016, the patient suffered a cardiac arrest.

The medical team revived him, but he died from a pulmonary thromboembolism in the ICU the next day.

He had been a high-risk patient because he was 64 years old, obese, had coronary heart disease, and had multiple myeloma – a type of bone marrow cancer.

Photo shows an illustrative image of Singapore, undated. Singapore is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. (Newsflash)

The anaesthetist pleaded guilty to professional misconduct following hearings in October and November.

The tribunal found he had failed to provide appropriate care to his patient and that his conduct amounted to serious negligence.

It said: “While the chances of the patient’s survival were low, they may have been further lowered by the respondent’s delay in recognising the changes in the patient’s vital signs and consequent delay in initiating supportive and resuscitative treatments.”

The tribunal added that his conduct had caused “significant harm to public confidence in the medical profession”.