Cancer surgeon and Chanel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies doctor, Dr Manu Nair, is being sued by 57 patients he treated at NHS and private hospitals.
The allegations include leaving patients infertile, treating male patients for prostate cancer they didn’t have, and the unnecessary removal of a kidney.
The patients are taking legal action against Dr Nair following prostate, bladder and kidney treatments carried out by the surgeon at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham and Spire Parkway private hospital in Solihull.
The General Medical Council (GMC) have placed restrictions on Dr Nair’s practice, and he now works under supervision at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust.
One of the cases is for a man who alleges that the surgeon “cooked” his prostate gland. Dr Nair used a laser treatment on this patient that had not been approved by health watchdogs.
Some of the claimants are suing the doctor because they underwent cancer treatment, later to be told that they’d never had cancer.
Another claimant alleges to have been left at risk of prostate cancer after the doctor botched an operation.
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham has contacted around 170 patients treated by Dr Nair after concerns were raised. Patients treated by the doctor at the private Spire Parkway hospital have been warned that there is a review into his practices.
Many allege that they received laser therapy from the doctor that has yet to be approved by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). This treatment is known as High intensity focused ultrasound treatment.
One of the patients claims Dr Nair left him infertile and incontinent following laser treatment in 2012.
After being advised by Dr Nair that laser treatment has virtually no side-effects, he chose this treatment option.
A month after the treatment he woke in the night in agonising pain, and unable to urinate. When he eventually was able to, he passed part of his prostate.
“My whole way of life has changed and being told that I can no longer have children is just soul-destroying. I was relatively young when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I had so much to look forward to in my life. I was horrified when I discovered that I had passed part of my dead prostate gland after treatment I had been recommended by Dr Manu Nair. It was the single most painful experience of my life and it has left me with permanent damage”, said the man.
The GMC restrictions mean that Dr Nair is not allowed to work in private practices. In addition to that, he is only allowed to work for the NHS under supervision whilst the investigation is being carried out.
