Doctor 'lied about dying patient'

Mr Walker told Mrs McPhee's family the operation had gone well

A surgeon bungled an operation and then tried to hide his mistakes from the dying woman's family, the Old Bailey has heard.

Steven Walker told Dorothy McPhee's husband a cancer operation on her liver had "gone well", the court was told.

Mrs McPhee, 71, who had lost 18 litres of blood after surgery at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, died less than two hours later, Rebecca Poulet QC said.

Mr Walker, 47, of Camberley, Surrey, denies two counts of manslaughter.

He also denies stealing an operations log and perverting the course of justice.

'Deliberately deceptive'

Miss Poulet, prosecuting, said Mr Walker, a consultant surgeon, had telephoned Mrs McPhee's husband, Donald, after she left theatre "barely alive".

He told him it had been a "bloody operation" and she might have to come back in to have swabs removed but, apart from that, the operation had gone well.

He then filled in his operation notes, saying Mrs McPhee left the theatre in a satisfactory state.

But when her daughter phoned the hospital she was told her mother was in a "critical condition."

Her family rushed to hospital and got there just before she died, less than two hours after the operation.

The court heard a nursing sister had then heard Mr Walker tell the family that Mrs McPhee had left the theatre with "reasonable blood pressure".

"This was so far from the truth that the sister compiled a critical incident report," Miss Poulet added.

She said that the surgeon had made similar comments to the family GP, adding: "We say this was deliberately deceptive."

Mr Walker denies the manslaughter of Mrs McPhee and a similar charge relating to another patient, 66-year-old Jean Robinson.

The trial continues.