A former doctor from Oldham who killed a mother-of-three after botching a routine procedure has been jailed for three years.
85-year-old Dr Isyaka Mamman pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter at Manchester Crown Court this week over the death of Shahida Parveen, 48 – who died at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 2018 when Dr Mamman had been carrying out a routine appointment to take samples.
Dr Mamman – who was 81 at the time – used the wrong needle for the procedure, and inserted it in the wrong place, which pierced the sac holding Mrs Parveen’s heart.
The court heard Mrs Parveen attended Royal Oldham Hospital on 3 September 2018 to give a bone marrow sample, which is usually taken from the hip bone, but, after failing in his first attempt, Dr Mamman tried to instead take it from her sternum.
This was a “highly dangerous” procedure, the court was told.
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Despite objections from Mrs Parveen and her husband, the court was told Dr Mamman performed the procedure and used the wrong biopsy needle, missed the bone, and pierced her pericardium (the sac containing the heart), which caused 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.”
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85-year-old Dr Isyaka Mamman pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter at Manchester Crown Court / Credit: Google Maps
Before this fatal incident, Dr Mamman had already been suspended for lying about his age, and was subsequently sacked but then re-employed by the hospital, where he was also then responsible for a series of critical incidents before the fatal appointment – including one which had led to another of Mamman’s patients being permanently disabled three years earlier.
Jailing him for three years at Manchester Crown Court, Mrs 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.
She called the execution of the procedure on Mrs Parveen “grossly incompetent”.
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Following Mrs Paveen’s death, a consultant provided an expert opinion that the procedure had been inappropriately and incompetently performed, and the court heard that at the time, there were no standard operating procedures, guidelines, or local safety standards for taking bone marrow biopsies.
Shahida Parveen, 48, died at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 2018 when Dr Mamman had been carrying out a routine appointment / Credit: Google Maps
Speaking on the outcome of the sentencing, Dr Chris Brookes – Group Chief Doctor and Deputy Chief Executive for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs The Royal Oldham Hospital – said: “We wish again to offer our sincerest condolences to Mrs Parveen’s family and friends and we are deeply sorry for their loss.
“Following Mrs Parveen’s death in September 2018, the Trust launched a thorough internal investigation to examine the circumstances leading up to and following this tragic incident and The Trust implemented improvements following investigation, which were shared with Mrs Parveen’s family.
“The Trust has admitted liability in relation to a civil claim brought by the family.
“The Trust has liaised closely with Greater Manchester Police throughout their investigation and the subsequent legal proceedings concerning Dr Mamman.”
Featured Image – Greater Manchester Police
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NHS to begin offering new one-minute jab to women with ‘aggressive’ form of cancer
Emily Sergeant
The NHS is set to begin offering new immunotherapy for hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer across the country.
Pembrolizumab – which experts have described as being able to ‘take the handbrake off’ the body’s immune system to target cancer – will now be presented as a new treatment option for women in England with locally-advanced cervical cancer, which means the cancer has grown beyond the cervix to regions such as the pelvic wall, but not yet spread further around the body.
Trials found that adding pembrolizumab to standard chemoradiotherapy helped keep cancer ‘at bay’ for longer, and improved survival rates overall.
Two years after starting the treatment, nearly seven in 10 patients (68%) were still living without their cancer progressing, compared with 57% for those receiving chemoradiotherapy alone, according to NHS figures.
The trial also found that 82.6% of patients were still alive three years after treatment with pembrolizumab and chemoradiotherapy, compared with 74.8% with chemoradiotherapy alone.
Hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer are to be offered a new immunotherapy treatment.
It marks one of the biggest improvements in treatment for the disease in years, and could help more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long term.
The drug is either given every three or siz weeks via an infusion, or as a ‘one-minute’ injection, alongside chemoradiotherapy.
The NHS estimates around 550 patients in England will be eligible for the treatment – which has been approved this week by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – over the next two years.
Patients will now receive fast-tracked access, funded by NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund.
“This is great news for women facing a diagnosis of aggressive cervical cancer, and represents one of the biggest improvements in treatment for this disease in recent years,” commented Professor Peter Johnson, who is the NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer.
“Combining this immunotherapy with existing treatment has had very positive effect for patients in trials, helping the body’s immune system to target cancer more effectively.
“We’re delighted it will be available for patients on the NHS as it could help hundreds more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long-term.”
Featured Image – NappyStudio (via Unsplash)
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Andy Burnham wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has set out his vision for the country if he is to become Prime Minister.
In case you need brining up to speed first, after it was announced earlier this month that Andy Burnham had clinched the victory in the crucial Makerfield by-election, winning 24,927 votes (54.8% vote share) and a majority of 9,231, he then went onto announce his intention to run for Labour Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister, after Keir Starmer confirmed he would be stepping down.
And this week, Mr Burnham has now delivered his first speech as part of his ongoing campaign, addressing how he plans to give the country a ‘new direction’.
Burnham says that he wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster.
A lot has been discussed and reported on when it comes to Burnham’s intentions to create a so-called Number 10 North here in Manchester, but what exactly does it mean to take the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to the capital?
“The Greater Manchester way is based on strong partnership between all sectors: public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith, and our trade unions,” Burnham said in his speech.
He continued: “When I started as Mayor in 2017, we set about building a new approach, a new politics based on the exact opposite of the Westminster approach.
“Place-first, not party-first. Problem-solving, not point-scoring. Long-term, not short-term.
“A decade on, it’s incredible how much we’ve been able to achieve by working together instead of fighting against one another.”
Burnham said he feels the truth is that the country spends ‘too much time arguing and not enough time doing’ and that for Britain to get back where it ‘should be’, his Government would ask everyone to ‘face the same way’ and then ‘pull in that same direction together’.
He declared that No 10 North will be the ‘nerve centre’ for a rewired Britain.
“It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK,” he concluded. “It will coordinate all parts of Government, at national and local level, to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.”
The Manc -
5th July 2022 
