A doctor who risked a patient’s life by withdrawing treatment, ripped up notes and gave incorrect diagnoses – against the advice of colleagues – has been suspended.
Maryam Davoodi-Semironi has been banned from practising medicine for eight months after a professional standards panel deemed her a danger to patients.
The panel made its decision after hearing a litany of professional offences made while she was on a six-month clinical fellowship at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Dr Davoodi-Semironi was fired by NHS Grampian in December 2012, just a month into her fellowship, after senior doctors at the hospital became worried about the risk to patient safety.
She was not present at the Medical Practitioner’s Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester, which took place between April 29 and May 1, and chose not to be represented by another party.
The panel heard that Dr Davoodi-Semironi had become fixated with the idea that a patient was brain dead, despite the fact that the individual was breathing – a clear sign that they were not.
She had then discontinued the use of specific drugs based on her own diagnosis, risking the patient’s life.
Dr Davoodi-Semironi was also found to have ripped up pages from the patient’s notes, and kept poor medical records.
In its report the panel said: “Dr A said that Dr Davoodi-Semiromi should not have removed the entries from the patient notes because they showed the development of a patient’s case from the time of admission and could contain information which might be relevant for a patient’s case.
“She was found to have discontinued drugs without consultation with other medical professionals and without making a record of her actions and the reasons for them.
“The panel considers that ripping pages from Patient A’s medical records, not properly maintaining medical notes, and discontinuing Patient A’s drugs without consultation with any other medical professional has the potential to cause serious harm to patients.”
The panel ordered that another review should be heard before the suspension expires.