![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/65000/images/_67886_consultant150.jpg)
![image: [ Great Ormond Street Hospital, where the operation was performed in 1995 ]](/olmedia/65000/images/_67886_hospital300.jpg)
James Taylor, a consultant paediatric cardiologist at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, had his registration suspended for a period of six months.
Debbie Jenkins, died after suffering irreversible brain damage because of the procedure carried out by Dr Taylor, 61, in 1995.
The child's parents, Ross and Carolyn, said they did not want the procedure to go ahead.
After a four-day hearing the General Medical Council found that Dr Taylor had not been aware that Debbie's parents did not wish the procedure - the insertion of a balloon catheter - to go ahead, but found that he did not have "sufficient medical grounds to proceed in the absence of parental consent".
Debbie, from Sprowston, Norwich, was born with a congenital heart condition and was meant to be undergoing a routine diagnostic procedure to establish if her health problems were cardiac-related.
Dr Taylor told the hearing he decided to go ahead with a procedure to dilate a balloon to try to enlarge a narrowed artery.
After the balloon burst Dr Taylor tried for three hours to remove the remnants of the device but he failed and it cut off blood to Debbie's brain.
Doctors must explain
Dr Herbert Duthie, chairman of the Professional Conduct Committee of the GMC, said there had been no exceptional circumstances in the case.
He said that parents had a right to be involved in the care of their children, "so doctors must do their best to explain what is involved and gain their consent.
"The decision to use the balloon catheter was taken without the parent's consent."
Both parents were devastated by the death of their only daughter and Mr Jenkins said he still cries himself to sleep.
Dr Taylor's lawyer, Nicola Davies, told the hearing that he had believed he was acting in the best interests of his patient when he carried out the procedure.
"He is a man of total dedication and a wise physician. He was devastated by the death of Debbie Jenkins," she said.
Consultant facing misconduct charge
(17 Mar 98 | UK)
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