Mother and former coroner hold Harley Street protest over radiologist’s mistake that may have contributed to the death of Gaia Young

Posted on October 31, 2025 by davidhencke

Dorit Young and an ex coroner on a vigil in Harley Street.

Last year I reported on the tragic death of talented 25 year old Gaia Young 17 hours after she was admitted to University College Hospital with severe headaches. Her mother Lady Dorit Young was subject to an entirely unsatisfactory and unsympathetic coroner’s inquest by Mary Hassell which let the hospital off the hook saying the cause of death was unknown. You can read my original blog here.

The coroner blocked Lady’s Young’s attempt to get independent evidence from a neurologist but since then she has managed to get an independent neuro-radiologist and neurologist’s report and UCLH have opened a further review into her tragic death.

The protest vigil on September 15 was sparked by the findings of the neuro radiologist who examined the CT scans of Gaia’s brain. It showed quite clearly even to a lay person, according to Dorit ,that the first scan taken and I quote ” there is a gross cerebral and cerebellar swelling. There is effacement meaning ( ” literally meaning ‘ rubbed out’: these fluid spaces should be visible but cannot be seen).”

This is the opposite to the consultant radiologist who examined Gaia’s scan who said: “The ventricles and basal cisterns are patent…Impression No acute intracranial finding.”

The independent consultant’s diagnosis was confirmed by Dr Charles House, the medical director, when he met Dorit and compared Gaia’s scan with a normal brain scan.

The consultant radiologist who examined this first scan was Dr Ayman Mahfouz, who was on duty at UCLH at the time Gaia was admitted. Dr Mahfouz, has a private practice in Harley Street.

His entry on the private practice site says he has specialist expertise in breast, gynaecology and general imaging.

He undertakes all aspects of breast imaging including mammographic (plain, contrast enhanced and 3D), Ultrasound, MRI and CT diagnostics. He performs all ultrasound and stereotactic breast related procedures including vacuum excision.

Dr. Ayman Mahfouz is a designated appraiser for doctors at UCLH and has previously been elected as a regional representative for doctors in training at the Royal College of Radiologists. At the time of Gaia’s admission he held the role as Emergency Imaging Lead for UCLH.

Gaia’s mother would like to contact him about the scans but so far he has not responded. She does not know what pressure he might have been under at the time or how much time he took to examine the scan. I did ask UCLH about whether he wanted to say anything about this but there was no response to my question.

UCLH did issue a response about the review into Gaia’s death.

A UCLH spokesperson said:

“We met with Lady Young and apologised that Gaia’s care fell below the high standards we strive to provide. We sympathise greatly that the cause of her beloved daughter’s death four years ago is still unknown.

“We are committed to learning from external opinion and scrutiny and have commissioned a range of independent experts to explore further the circumstances surrounding Gaia’s death. We agreed with Lady Young the scope of the reviews and the experts who will undertake them. 

   “We await the outcomes of all the external reviews to understand if further lessons can be learned and acted upon.”

Dorit’s vigil last month caused more than a flutter on Harley Street. The clinic at 99 Harley Street called the police and also alerted its own security guards. When the one man patrol car turned up with flashing blue lights the policeman turned out to be incredibly polite and said no-one was breaking the law so long as the entrance to the premises and pavement was not blocked.

The friendly security guards curious about the case

Then two security guards turned up, saying they had been informed by a member of the public that large numbers of people were demonstrating there. It turned out to be just three people and they were remarkably friendly and polite when they heard about the circumstances. They didn’t mind having their pictures taken.

The one person who didn’t turn up was the doctor and one of his private practice colleagues politely remonstrated with us that this was not the right way to do things and Dorit should arrange a meeting with the hospital. It was pointed out to him she had been reprimanded by the Trust on various occasions for trying to contact clinicians having cared for Gaia. She never received an answer. The Trust never offered a meeting with any of these doctors.

Gaia’s case has been taken up by an Islington councillor, Dr Hannah McHugh. She wrote a strongly worded opinion piece for her local paper, The Islington Tribune. You can read it here.

She says:” As an Islington councillor, I’ve supported Lady Young in this painful journey. It has revealed something of concern to us all: when things go wrong in our healthcare system, the path to truth is too often long, difficult, and unjust. Tragedies become injustices.”

Slowly but surely the facts about Gaia’s death are coming to light. But so far it has taken four years to achieve with no help from coroner Mary Hassell.

This to me is a general problem across the NHS. Rather than acknowledge to patient’s relatives that mistakes have been made, trust managers initially go on the defensive and are prone to cover up what went wrong and who was responsible. It is only people with guts and determination like Dorit who are prepared to fight for years until they get answers that the true facts start to come to light.

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£5.00

£10.00

£20.00

£5.00

£15.00

£100.00

£5.00

£15.00

£100.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

You can also donate to Westminster Confidential via Pay Pal on the link below.

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/865JAS3QJ3

Revealed: How a whistleblower doctor’s career was wrecked by a NHS trust manager aided by NHS Resolution

Posted on October 21, 2025 by davidhencke

Two weeks ago I published a critical examination of how NHS Resolution’s Practitioner Performance Advice service contributed to the demise of whistleblower doctors revealing patient safety issues who stand to lose in 97 per cent of cases when they come before an employment tribunal.

Since publication a number of doctors and patients have contacted me about their experiences with NHS Resolution and it makes disturbing reading. This is one of the cases.

One of the key points in the previous blog is that NHS Resolution does not require the health trust to inform a doctor when it has received advice from NHSR on what action to take against a doctor accused by the trust. So the doctor is completely ignorant that this has happened.

The paragraph in their letter, which is similar in other cases involving doctors, reads: “We encourage transparency in the management of cases and recommend that practitioners should be informed when their case has been discussed with us. I am happy for you to share this letter with the practitioner unless you consider it inappropriate to do so. Moreover, the practitioner is also welcome to contact us for a confidential discussion regarding their case.”

The London and North West University NHS Trust

I am not naming the doctor – an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant – as there will be an employment tribunal in 2027 – six years after the incident – but I am naming the trust, the London North West University NHS Trust- and the manager involved Dr Martin Kuper, then its chief medical officer – as events following this case were in the public domain.

A very tragic story

The incident that caused the referral to NHS Resolution is a very tragic story. An Afghan woman came to the hospital for a myomectomy – a surgical procedure to take out fibroids ( small lumps) from the uterus.

The operation can be performed by either an incision into the abdomen or key hole surgery. The woman chose to have keyhole surgery as it is less invasive. The doctor performed the operation with an anaesthetist putting her to sleep. Unfortunately during the operation she arrested, bled heavily and died.

The doctor was blamed by the trust for acting ” seriously below the accepted standard” despite PM Examination clearly reported absence of any injuries to major arteries and veins. According to the doctor what NHSR was not told that the delay in helping the patient was caused by the delay in transfusing blood products especially platelets as Ealing theatres did not stock any Emergency Platelets like Northwick Park theatres when the incident took place. The surgeon used to operate at Northwick Park and he was asked to move his complex surgeries to Ealing Hospital because he had a number of cases waiting more than two years. The day prior to index surgery the surgeon wrote to Trust management explaining that his cases were complex and should be operated upon at Northwick Park and not at Ealing theatres.

Worse the record of the conversation involving Dr Kuper in a letter from NHSR says the doctor was accused of tampering with the electronic record of the incident and omitted to tell NHSR that the doctor was a whistleblower who had raised serious questions about maternity and gynaecology services by that hospital which had not pleased the management.

The doctor says this account is distorted. He had made an electronic draft entry into the record at 07:30, then made few linguistic corrections to finalise the draft and few hours later at 11:45 he submitted his statement. All these entries and the changes made to the draft are available should you press the Audit Tap of the software used at any time.

As for his concerns about maternity services, it was confirmed on the following month when the Care Quality Commission inspected the hospital and ruled the service as ” inadequate.”

The letter showed NHSR had been told by MD (Chief Medical Officer) that there were ” no other concerns in relation to this surgeon of a clinical nature brought to his attention in the last two years”, i.e, since he joined the Trust.

The letter from NHSR – based on Dr Kuper’s submission- advised as the doctor went off sick following the incident that the doctor should be referred to the Occupational Health service for possible mental and physical health problems. The surgeon also suffered series of sanctions upon his practice including his maternity work despite no concerns were raised at any stages in relation to his maternity work. On the contrary, he was one of the two consultants appointed to the Trust in 2006 to turn the maternity services around following CQC imposing measures on the maternity unit being ranked in 2005.

Trust was selective and biased during collecting and while considering various witnesses statements aiming at victimising the surgeon. The surgeon and all gynaecologist involved were excluded from the initial stages to set him up for the next step. He was also subjected to an internal special investigation taken through Maintaining High Professional Standards procedure which amounts to an internal disciplinary procedure. Trust was selective

None of this advice was conveyed to the doctor and the trust ignored the suggestion from NHSR that they should be open and transparent about the letter.

The letter was not sent to the doctor in a timely manner prior to start of MHPS investigation and he had to submit a subject access at some point, which cannot be refused, to obtain all the correspondences between Trust and NHSR.

There had been a coroner’s hearing under senior coroner Lydia Brown in which he was blamed for the death and the coroner blocked his barrister from pursuing questions about the action taken or not taken by the anaesthetist especially the delay in transfusing coagulation factors and the trust emphasised he had been reported to the General Medical Council for Fitness to practice investigation to protect patients and public.

However, this was not enough for the trust which made it impossible for him to get a job elsewhere by requesting NHSR to issue HPAN against his practice advising other potential employers not to appoint him advising responsible officers in other organisations to contact Dr Kuper’s successor Dr Johnathon Baker, the current CMO). By issuing the Notice the NHSR was given Trust another opportunity to wreck the surgeon career. This HPAN notice will be kept at NHSR records for thirty years before it can be destroyed.

Dr Baker raised numerous concerns regarding the Surgeon practice following carrying out an unjustifiable look back investigation into his unblemished practice, ending up referring a total of 23 cases to GMC but did not mention at any stage that the doctor raised patients’ safety concerns.

Helen Vernon, chief executive NHS Resolution

But when the report came back from the GMC he was completely exonerated of any clinical allegations in relation to the index case or any of the other 22 cases.

The surgeon complained to the NHSR in November 2023. The reply from Helen Vernon, the chief executive a month later is very revealing.

First the adviser was on prolonged sick leave and was unable to be involved. But her reply raises points on the role of the NHSR which show how weak it is.

She says: “As the Advice Service is not a decision-making body, any decisions regarding the management of a practitioner must rest solely with their employer/contracting body. Whilst the employer/contracting body may have regard to any advice provided by the Advice Service, having considered and weighed up all the relevant information available, they may take a view which differs from the opinion expressed by the Advice team.”

It was also clear that NHSR did not know he was a whistleblower, and were not certain whether it was aware of the bad CQC report on maternity care at the hospital. An unsatisfactory reply. altogether.

There is a postscript about the senior manager involved in this case – Dr Martin Kuper. He went on to become chief executive of the prestigious Moorfield Eye Hospital NHS Trust.

This year GB News reported that no fewer than 80 consultants had sent a letter to the board of the hospital complaining it had a culture of bullying, financial mismanagement and lack of transparency.

The report is here. As a result both the chair and the chief executive resigned. The trust in a statement said “Martin Kuper has taken the decision to resign from his position as chief executive of Moorfields and will formally leave the organisation.” There was very little about his achievements while he was there and at the moment does not appear to have got another job in the NHS.