Doctor, 85, who killed mother-of-three after botching routine procedure is jailed

A doctor who killed a mother-of-three after botching a routine procedure during a hospital appointment to take samples has been jailed for three years.

Dr Isyaka Mamman, 85, had pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter over the death of Shahida Parveen, 48, in 2018 at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Dr Mamman, who was 81 at the time and had already been suspended for lying about his age, used the wrong needle and inserted it in the wrong place, piercing the sac holding Ms Perveen’s heart.

Jailing him for three years at Manchester Crown Court, Ms Justice Yip said the death was his main responsibility but the hospital trust should have done more after Dr Mamman had lied about his age and botched two earlier similar procedures, injuring patients.

Shahida Parveen, 48, had gone to the hospital with her husband, Khizar Mahmood, for investigations into possible myeloproliferative disorder, the court heard.

A bone marrow biopsy had been advised and the routine procedure was allocated to Mamman, who was working as a specialty doctor in haematology, Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, said.

Normally, bone marrow samples are taken from the hip bone but Mamman failed to obtain a sample at the first attempt.

Instead, he attempted a rare and “highly dangerous” procedure of getting a sample from Ms Parveen’s sternum - despite objections from the patient and her husband.

Mamman, using the wrong biopsy needle, missed the bone and pierced her pericardium, the sac containing the heart, causing massive internal bleeding.

Ms Parveen lost consciousness as soon as the needle was inserted, with her husband running from the room shouting: “He killed her.

“I told him to stop three times and he did not listen. He killed her.”

A crash team arrived but Ms Parveen was confirmed dead later the same day, 3 September 2018.

Mamman qualified as a doctor in Nigeria in 1965 and had worked in the UK since 1991. From 2004 until the time of the fatal incident he was employed by the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

But his “true age” is a matter of “controversy”, the court heard, as his birthplace in rural Nigeria had no system of birth registration.

During his medical training he gave a date of birth of September 16 1936, which meant that he was 21 years old when he began his medical training and 81 at the time of the fatal hospital incident.

But he knocked years off his age by adopting a birth date in 1941, provided to the NHS, suggesting he began his medical degree at the age of 16.

However, in about 2001 and approaching what was then the compulsory retirement age of 65, Mamman adopted an even later birth date - October 1947 - which he relied upon in an application for naturalisation as a British citizen - suggesting he started his degree course at the age of 10.

In 2004 he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council and suspended for 12 months for lying about his age.

The Pennine Trust sacked him but then re-employed him in 2006, after he had been restored to the register by the GMC, who accepted his date of birth to be 1943 – which meant he was 14 or 15 when he began his medical degree.

Additional reporting by Press Association