Tumour doctor back in practice

Dr Krishna Singh was order to carry out re-training

A doctor who failed to spot a football-sized tumour in a nine-year-old girl's stomach has been allowed to practice again.

Sherine Rouissi died from cancer after Dr Krishna Singh diagnosed her violent sickness as dehydration.

Six weeks later, in January 1999, Sherine was rushed to hospital where she fell into a coma within hours and died.

The General Medical Council found Dr Singh, of Rochford Gardens, Slough, Berkshire, guilty of serious professional misconduct in January 2001.

He told me to...go away and stop being a paranoid mother

Barbara Rouissi, speaking in 2001

He was ordered to undergo 16 months of retraining before he could work again.

At a meeting on Tuesday to discuss his return to practice he sobbed as the committee told him he could return to his surgery in Heston, Middlesex.

Chairman Roland Doven said the committee agreed they "cannot see what more could reasonably be expected" of Dr Singh following his re-training.

His comments came despite "low scores" achieved by the doctor during a simulated surgery exercise in which he was required to diagnose eight actors with imaginary conditions.

'Hard lump'

Barbara Rouissi took her daughter to see Dr Singh at his surgery in North Hyde Lane, Heston, on 8 December, 1998.

She told the GMC hearing in 2001: "My daughter had a lump on her stomach. It was hard and bulging. I could see it.

"I was extremely concerned. But when I took her to see Dr Singh he said she was dehydrated.

"He told me to give her plenty of fluid and go away and stop being a paranoid mother."

Cancer diagnosis

Sherine's condition worsened by 13 January, 1999, and during a second consultation Dr Singh told Mrs Rouissi to take her to hospital.

Doctors at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital diagnosed Sherine with cancer, and she died within hours.

The tumour in her stomach was later discovered to be 25 centimetres in diameter.

Jane Sullivan, for the GMC, said on Tuesday: "It is not said that he should have been able to specifically diagnose her condition but that he took inadequate steps to examine her."