A cardiologist in the UK who allegedly coerced patients into undergoing an unnecessary and experimental heart procedure to boost his reputation as a "famous medical pioneer" now faces misconduct charges relating to his treatment of 24 patients between 2003 and 2007, including one who died on the operating table.
Dr. Joseph Motwani, who, according to the Daily Mail, had been trying to create an alternative to open-heart surgery at the Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, also apparently conducted consultations while patients were sedated and ignored fellow doctors who wondered about his conduct. Motwani's procedure, the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), involved inserting a wire into a patient's wrist in order to get to blocked arteries.
"He should have listened," Andrew Hurst of the General Medical Council said, according to the Mail. "He should have respected what his clinical consultant colleagues were saying to him ... In the center of this case is his ambition. We say this ambition overtook and overrode, on occasions, his clinical judgment."
Motwani did not get informed consent from eight of the 24 patients, and also did not consult a surgeon for advice regarding those patients, according to The Herald. What's more, the doctor apparently also conducted two clinical trials at Derriford deemed "inadequate, careless and unethical," the newspaper reports.
To learn more:
- read this Daily Mail article
- check out this piece in The Herald