Mother claims daughter left unable to walk after procedure by former Great Ormond Street surgeon
Claire Osborne has recounted hers and her daughter's experiences with surgeon Yaser Jabbar, who is under review for the care he showed hundreds of children, ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia reports
The mother of a young girl, who became wheelchair-bound after being operated on by an orthodpaedic surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), has said more scrutiny is needed.
Yaser Jabbar performed surgery on Claire Osborne's daughter, Ella, in 2020 to correct her genu valgum, known as "knock knees" - but left her in even more pain than before.
Ms Osborne told ITV News in an interview that she was "frustrated" by what had happened and that if the alarm had been raised sooner, "Ella may never have had to come under his care".
The family was not alone in their experience.
GOSH said last week that it was launching an urgent review into its paediatric orthopaedic services after a leaked report found that Jabbar was alleged to have caused "serious harm" to at least another 720 children at the hospital in London from 2017 to 2023.
The report found that of the 37 cases already reviewed by GOSH, 22 children have been found to have come to some degree of harm, 13 of them classed as "severe harm" - that is, likely to include lifelong injuries.
Ella was referred to Jabbar after she was experiencing a return of the deformity and the surgeon who performed her initial operation had left the hospital.
Ms Osborne told ITV News that when Jabbar saw Ella, he immediately suggested re-inserting the plates - a rare and risky procedure in paediatric cases.
He made this decision without conducting proper assessments - no X-rays, no CT scans, and no detailed analysis of Ella's case, she claimed.
“We were guided by him, I'm not a doctor, I'm just a mum,” Ms Osborne continued.
On the day of the surgery, which was at the height of the pandemic, Ms Osborne said she never had any interaction with Jabbar, neither a pre-operation briefing nor any "aftercare".
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"I was disappointed but I assumed because it was Covid that's why he didn't come round", she added.
But problems quickly emerged and Ella suffered from severe pain post-surgery again, with the screws used to hold the plate in place so prominent that they could allegedly be felt over her skin.
"Her knees were clicking every time she walked, her gait had become weird and her knees would cross over each other. She kept saying to me 'Mummy, my knees are really hurting.'"
During her six month post-operation check up, Ms Osborne claims her concerns were dismissed by Jabbar.
"He leaned back in his office chair and said: 'Well if I'm not worried, you shouldn't be worried'.
"And I said: 'Well, it doesn't really work like that because this isn't my nine to five. Ella's my life, you know, I'm the one getting up in the night with her when she's crying.
"I'm the one who constantly has to watch my child in pain. I'm the one with a child looking out the window, her friends playing outside going, 'Mummy, why can't I play like that?'"
Ms Osborne said that during the meeting Jabbar instructed her to keep giving Ella paracetamol for her pain and to come back in three months.
To cope with the pain, Ella spent two years of her life in a wheelchair. She is now receiving care under a new surgeon and is walking again.
Jabbar joined GOSH in 2017, but concerns were raised to the department within six months of his employment.
The hospital said it was June 2022 before senior managers were alerted to the issues and soon after an external investigation was commissioned.
Just over a year later, Jabbar stepped down as a surgeon at the hospital. He is now practicing in Dubai.
Ms Osborne, who has since sought legal advice for medical negligence, said her daughter had been treated at GOSH most of her life for various conditions and had always received excellent care, but claims her complaints were never taken seriously.
Jabbar told ITV News he was unable to comment, citing the ongoing review and patient confidentiality.
A spokesperson for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children apologised to the "patients and families" who "will be extremely distressed by the issues raised by the review we commissioned into our orthopedic service."
"We are committed to being open and transparent with our families when care falls below the high standards we strive for. Any information from patient reviews that relates to individual families has been shared with them.“
They added that the findings of the review will be "addressed at pace".
A Royal College of Surgeons of England spokesperson said: "It is important that Great Ormond Street Hospital supports all patients who have experienced or are worried they might have experienced poor care.
"We always advise NHS hospitals to be open and transparent about any review they have commissioned, considering how best to communicate sensitively to patients and their staff.”
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