Dr Isyaka Mamman, who is believed to be 85, had already been suspended for lying about his age and his colleagues felt he should retire after failing similar procedures before the fatal incident. He used the wrong needle on Shahida Parveen, 48, and punctured her pericardium – which contains the heart – causing fatal internal bleeding. During a bone marrow procedure on the mother of three, Mamman had tried to take a sample from Parveen’s sternum instead of the hip, where they are normally taken. Parveen had gone to the Royal Oldham Hospital on September 3, 2018, to give a bone marrow sample. It was supposed to be a routine procedure and was attended by her husband, Khizar Mahmood, Manchester Crown Court was told. She passed out as soon as the needle was inserted, while her husband ran from the room shouting: “He killed her. I told him to stop three times and he didn’t listen. He killed her.” A cardiac arrest team arrived, but Parveen was confirmed dead later that day. Mamman had previously been struck off once by a medical guard for lying about his age and had been sacked, but was then re-employed at the Royal Oldham Hospital, where he was involved in a series of incidents before the fateful appointment. In 2015, he performed two bone marrow operations that caused distress or harm to patients. A patient made a formal complaint to Oldham Hospital saying Mamman had used “excessive force” during a bone marrow biopsy. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Despite the patient’s assurance that Mamman would be on light duty in the future, he went on to perform another bone marrow procedure that same year, in which he inserted the needle in the wrong place and left a patient permanently disabled. In handing down the sentence, Ms Justice Yip criticized both Mamman and the hospital that employed him, saying there was a “disturbing background” to the case. He said: “It is difficult to understand why these incidents did not lead to your retirement. Likewise, it is difficult to understand why the trust did not do more and why you were allowed to continue working. Unfortunately, there were failures in the system.” Dr Chris Brooks, the deputy chief executive of the North Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which now runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, reiterated his apology. The trust has admitted liability in relation to a civil claim brought by the family. The actual age of Mamman, who had a medical degree in Nigeria in 1965 and started working in the UK in 1991, was a matter of dispute, the court was told, as his hometown in rural Nigeria had no official birth registration system.
