Paterson denies operation was a mastectomy

11 hours ago

Eleanor LawsonWest Midlands

News image — Marie Pinfield, a child protection officer for West Midlands Police, died of metastatic breast cancer in 2008

Family A woman in a police officer's uniform and hat grins with her arm in the air, while hugging a young blonde girl in red armbands who smiles at her. — Marie Pinfield, a child protection officer for West Midlands Police, died of metastatic breast cancer in 2008

Breast surgery performed by jailed surgeon Ian Paterson was "never planned as a standard mastectomy", contrary to what was recorded on the patient's consent form, an inquest was told.

Marie Pinfield, a West Midlands Police child protection officer from Solihull, died of metastatic breast cancer in 2008. The hearing into her death was told Paterson performed two mastectomies on her in 2006.

The inquest heard she repeatedly told Paterson she wanted a completely flat chest following the surgeries and was upset at the results of both operations.

After the second operation, Pinfield had mounds of flesh left on her chest and was still wearing a B-C cup bra.

However at the inquest, Paterson alleged the plan was never for Pinfield to have a standard mastectomy.

Inquests are ongoing to determine whether the deaths of 68 women, all then patients of the disgraced surgeon, were caused by his treatment and care.

Paterson is serving a 20-year jail term after being convicted of multiple counts of wounding in 2017, through botched and unnecessary operations on patients.

Warning: This article contains images of post-surgery scarring

Paterson said he and plastic surgeon Chien Kat had faced a difficult operative challenge due to the size of Pinfield's breasts, which he described as the largest he had operated on in his career.

He claimed surgery was "a bespoke oncoplastic modification" and was neither "a mastectomy or a cleavage-sparing mastectomy."

"She didn't have a flat chest wall, that was never the plan," he said. "I did think I'd delivered what she wanted."

The inquest saw a letter written on the day of Pinfield's surgery in which Paterson said: "Marie had her bilateral mastectomy today."

In another letter, he said she had been unhappy and would have preferred to have a flat chest wall.

Family A middle-aged woman with short dark hair and wearing a pale blue cardigan is holding a glass of red wine and smiling at the camera. Her other hand is on the shoulder of another woman of a similar age with shortish blonde hair, who is also smiling at the camera. — Marie Pinfield (left), pictured with her sister Shirley Moroney, who said her sister had asked for a double mastectomy

The inquest has heard from Pinfield's sister, Shirley Moroney, who described how unhappy her sister was not to have a flat chest, despite complaining and having a second operation.

Moroney told the inquest Pinfield had specifically asked for a complete double mastectomy.

She said Pinfield told Paterson that she wanted a bilateral mastectomy, to which he had retorted "You can't possibly want that" and told her she was too young.

Moroney also told the inquest that her sister had been approached by a breast care nurse after her first surgery, who apologised and said: "I'm really sorry Marie. I knew this wasn't what you wanted, but I didn't have the strength to be able to tell him."

When asked why Pinfield's consent form for surgery said she had consented to a mastectomy, Paterson said: "I perhaps should've been more specific in changing the consent form provided by junior staff."

He added he was the last person to see Pinfield before her operation.

'Danger of the approach'

Paterson admitted cancer was found in the second mastectomy, performed a month after the first when Pinfield said she was unhappy with the results.

However, he claimed it was not a tumour that had been left behind and could have been metastatic, meaning the cancer might have spread.

Speaking via video-link from prison, Paterson said the first operation had been oncologically safe.

However, he was challenged by the counsel for Pinfield's family, Jonathan Derrington, in regards to the cancer found in the second operation.

Derrington said: "The fact that you missed something, that you were able to go back in that, if nothing else, demonstrates the danger of the approach you took in leaving so much tissue on the chest wall, doesn't it?"

Paterson replied: "No, I don't think it does."

He had said earlier in the inquest the surgery was safe because she did not have a recurrence of cancer in her breast.

Handout A medical photo showing Marie Pinfield's breasts after her second mastectomy. There is still visible volume left in the breasts and there is a long red scar across them. — Medical photographs taken after Pinfield's second mastectomy, showing she still had considerable flesh on her chest

The inquest became heated when Paterson was quizzed about statements provided by whistleblower Dr Hemant Ingle, who had worked at Solihull Hospital along with Paterson, calling them libellous against him and other medical professionals.

He was also asked to comment on claims made in a letter sent by Dr Ingle to the hospital's clinical director in 2007, in which he expressed his concern and distress about Paterson's operations on Pinfield.

Paterson said: "There are several bits of it that are frankly lies and not just what he says about me, what he says about himself as well – I think his evidence should be treated with the disrespect it deserves."

He also dismissed a claim made by Moroney, who had said that when trying to schedule a date for Pinfield's second mastectomy, Paterson had said there were women out there with cancer, "so make your mind up".

"That's a lie, I never got angry with patients, it's counterproductive," he said.

"What I think I was probably saying was, 'You now don't have cancer so [you] don't need another operation right now – you could have it in the future after adjuvant treatment'."