A SURGEON from Burnley who removed the wrong kidney during a bungled operation on a pensioner was condemned for gross negligence as he stood trial for manslaughter.

Dr Mahesh Goel, 40, of Burnley General Hospital Bungalows, Burnley, denied killing John Graham Reeves following the operation at Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli, Wales, in January 2000, at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday.

He has never worked for Burnley NHS Healthcare Trust.

Father-of-two Goel is charged alongside consultant urologist John Gethin Roberts, 60, who oversaw the operation, where the healthy kidney was removed instead of the diseased one. He also denies manslaughter.

Mr Reeves died five weeks after the surgery on March 1, 2000. Prosecutor Leighton Davies QC told the jury that the actions of Roberts and Goel "fell so far below the standard of care expected of a reasonably competent surgeon" that it deserved to be condemned as gross negligence.

Mr Davies said: "Before the operation was carried out Mr Reeves' only kidney function was the function being produced by his left kidney.

"It was his only good kidney.

After the operation Mr Reeves's body was left with no kidney function whatsoever.

"Without kidney function, a person will die, unless it is taken over artificially or the non-functioning kidneys are replaced by a successful transplant."

But, Mr Davies said that by the time the error of the operation on Mr Reeves was realised, his healthy kidney had been placed in a jar containing an acid-based sterilising agent. This meant there was no possibility of it being re-implanted, the court heard.

Mr Davies said the only option to keep Mr Reeves alive was dialysis -- but the hospital lacked the facilities and Mr Reeves needed to be transferred to Swansea's Morriston Hospital.

The jury was told Roberts then broke the news to Mr Reeves, who had by now recovered from his operation. Mr Davies said: "Roberts explained a mistake had been made and obtained the consent of Mr Reeves to carry out a second operation for the surgical insertion of a tube into the right kidney in a desperate attempt to achieve some sort of activity." Mr Davies said the second operation must have subjected Mr Reeves to "substantial stress" and he later developed cardiac and breathing problems and needed ventilation.

Mr Reeves was transferred to the intensive therapy unity of Morriston Hospital the next day.

Mr Davies said: "He developed septicaemia. Doctors concluded the source was the right kidney."

Mr Reeves's cousin later gave permission for a third operation to remove the right kidney. Mr Davis told the court: "These latter two operations would have been totally unnecessary had the operation on January 24 been correctly performed. It was the setting for and cause of the plight and subsequent untimely death of Mr Reeves."

Mr Davies told the court the pathologist gave Mr Reeves's cause of death as being due to heart problems, Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome and undergoing a series of operations.

(Proceeding)