Doctor who branded his initials on patients' livers no longer allowed to practice medicine

Doctor who branded his initials on patients' livers no longer allowed to practice medicine

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Dr. Simon Bramhall, a British surgeon who branded his initials on patients' livers, has been struck off the medical register as of Monday, according to a report by BBC News.

According to the U.K. General Medical Council, that means he can no longer work as a doctor in the U.K.

The branding occurred in February and August of 2013, and Bramhall received two convictions for common assault in December 2017, according to records from the Medical Practitioners Tribunal.

The records show that he used an argon beam coagulator, a device commonly used in surgeries, to place his initials on the transplanted liver of a patient at the end of each surgery.

The branded initials were only discovered when an organ transplant failed and another doctor was performing a surgery on the patient, according to BBC News.

The patient suffered from mental health issues from the ensuing press coverage and trauma of the incident, according to records from the Medical Practitioners Tribunal.

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After pleading guilty to both counts of assault, Bramhall was sentenced to community orders with unpaid work and a fine of £10,000 ($13,635).

Bramhall had received a series of titles and honors over the years, according to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal. He was a consultant surgeon and lecturer at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, deputy director of the division of medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal decided to suspend his license for five months in December 2020, citing "professional arrogance of such magnitude that it strayed into criminal behaviour."

His case was recently revisited, and he has once again been suspended from practicing medicine and removed from the medical register on Monday by the General Medical Council.

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