A JUNIOR DOCTOR has told a Medical Council inquiry that he was “taken aback” when a consultant asked him to perform major surgery on a child with less than five minutes’ notice.

Dr Sri Paran told the inquiry that, as a junior doctor, he could not refuse the request made by senior consultant surgeon Professor Martin Corbally, reports RTÉ.

Paran explained that, using Corbally’s notes, he proceeded with a kidney operation on an eight-year-old boy.

Paran said that he had previously performed 11 nephrectomies, but only two or three of these had been on his own. He said that during the surgery he was surprised to notice that the kidney marked to be removed seemed to be healthy, and checked the notes given to him by Corbally.

The consultant’s notes stated that the left kidney was to be removed, so Paran continued as directed.

However, Corbally’s notes were incorrect and it later emerged that Paran had removed the wrong organ.

Paran gave an emotional testimony to the inquiry, saying that he had trusted the direction he had been given but that, ultimately, he had seriously failed the patient.