‘I did all I could’ says surgeon after op damage to patient’s vocal cord

Wednesday 18th May 2011, 2:29PM BST.

Princess Elizabeth Hospital
A LOCAL surgeon accused of breaching his duty of care says he did all he could to find an important nerve while carrying out a thyroid operation on Sharon Williams.

Ear, nose and throat specialist Richard Vowles denies the claim made by former patient Mrs Williams, who bases her complaint on the fact that Mr Vowles failed to identify a key nerve in her throat during an operation. That led to her vocal cord being permanently damaged.

But Mr Vowles says he did all he could to find the nerve and had tried to locate it throughout the operation.

‘Once you have looked everywhere and you can’t find it, there comes a point where you feel you have to move forward,’ he told a civil court hearing yesterday.