Breast surgeon neglected biopsies

William Thomson denies misconduct

A surgeon who wrongly cut off a woman's breast had operated on five other patients without fully examining them, a misconduct hearing has been told.

The General Medical Council heard how William Thomson removed the woman's right breast in an operation at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, in the mistaken belief that it was cancerous.

The patient, known only as "Mrs A", underwent surgery without Mr Thomson carrying out a biopsy because he was 99.9% she had a malignant tumour.

On Tuesday, he admitted he had not carried biopsies on five other patients before undertaking the mastectomies.

I made the wrong diagnosis - nobody is perfect

William Thomson

Mr Thomson told the hearing: "In the other five cases the lesions were very obviously cancerous and the decision not to perform a pre-operative biopsy was taken at the first clinical contact with the patient.

"The decision with Mrs A was taken after she had been seen once, had had imaging, and had expressed a wish to have the operation performed without necessarily having a biopsy."

Mr Thomson, from Cambuslang in Glasgow, said he carried out the operation after Mrs A pressured him into treating her case as an emergency.

Influenced by patient

He said: "I made the wrong diagnosis - nobody is perfect. I allowed myself to be influenced by the patient and I should not have done that.

"I felt the biopsy should be done but I allowed myself to be dissuaded."

Mr Thomson admits failing to undertake a pre-operative biopsy to confirm his diagnosis of breast cancer and thus having insufficient medical information to justify his decision to undertake the operation in November 1997.

The operation took place at Hairmyres Hospital

However, he denies failing to obtain Mrs A's informed consent and making inappropriate and insensitive comments to her at a subsequent consultation.

The GMC's professional conduct committee was told how the woman, also from Cambuslang, had gone to the hospital with a lump in her breast.

It was only after the operation that tests showed the lump was benign.

The hearing was told that Mrs A visited Mr Thomson almost two months after the operation and told him she was feeling low.

"He wasn't very nice at all," she said.

Defended remarks

Mr Thomson defended his remarks to Mrs A by saying: "I tried my best to be as kind and sympathetic as I could and to ask her to be positive about her awful experience - to try to put it behind her and realise that it could have been an awful lot worse.

"If my suspicions of cancer had been correct it would obviously have wrecked her life. I said I felt that her family would be very important to her in helping her come to terms with what had happened.

"I felt her husband, in particular, could be a source of strength and comfort to her. I said he was still there and it wasn't as if she had gone through a divorce and was left alone."

The hearing continues.