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unfit to practice
Surgeon struck off for punching a patient 'like a boxer' to fix his broken cheek
Professor Ninian Peckitt claimed he was “manually reducing the fracture.”
AUTHORITIES IN BRITAIN have struck off a facial reconstruction surgeon accused of punching a patient 10 times during surgery for a broken cheek bone.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service today ruled that Professor Ninian Peckitt was unfit to practice, and removed his name from the medical register.
Peckitt, 63, was performing facial surgery in Ipswich in 2012 on a man who had suffered serious injuries in an industrial accident.
According to Erica Rapaport, Peckitt suddenly “rolled his hand into a fist and hit the patient in the face on the left side of his cheek,” the Daily Telegraph reports.
Rapaport, an associate specialist and dental surgeon, was then asked to hold the patient’s head while Peckitt “applied about 10 punches like a boxer.”
“He took aim and then punched,” she added.
According to ITV News, the man was under anaesthetic at the time.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Peckitt maintained he was acting properly.
I’m not accepting that I punched the patient. But I am saying that I manually reduced the fracture because he was not fit for surgery.
The chairman of the tribunal, Ian Spafford, noted that the patient in this case hadn’t suffered harm from Peckitt’s approach, but that it could have caused “instantaneous blindness.”
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