Doctor Who Carved His Initials Into Patients' Livers Also Published Gruesome Medical Thrillers

A liver-branding surgeon has reportedly been booted out from the medical register after admitting to using an argon beam machine to autograph his initials in the organs of several patients in 2013 during his stint at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

Simon Bramhall, 57, of Tarrington, Herefordshire, said he burned his initials onto the livers of at least two patients overgoing transplant surgery. In 2018, the liver, spleen, and pancreas surgeon was slapped with a 12-month community order on top of a £10,000 (US$13,713) fine after admitting to two counts of assault by beating, The Guardian reported.

During his sentencing, the court heard one of the victims suffered serious psychological harm as a result of the branding.

On Tuesday, a review by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) concluded his actions, which were "borne out of a degree of professional arrogance,” had “undermined” public trust in the medical profession, according to the BBC.

Bramhall, first suspended from his post as a consultant surgeon in 2013, would claim that the branding was a result of his attempts to relieve operating theatre tensions following tedious transplant operations.

His offenses came to light after a colleague spotted his 4cm-high "SB" initials during follow-up surgery on one of his patients. A photograph of the branding was taken on a mobile phone.

Subsequently, Bramhall tendered his resignation at the hospital in 2014 amid an internal disciplinary investigation into his conduct.

In December 2020, authorities suspended Bramhall from the medical profession for about five months. Last year, an MPTS report said a review hearing on June 4 found his fitness to practice was no longer marred, resulting in the revocation of the suspension order.

The General Medical Council (GMC) would appeal against the suspension decision, which saw a high court judge quash the sanction. The matter was sent back to MPTS for its consideration.

In its judgment, the tribunal concluded a suspension order would be “insufficient to protect the wider public interest," noting his erasure from the medical register would be a reasonable sanction.

“The physical assault of two vulnerable patients whilst unconscious in a clinical setting, one of whom experienced significant and enduring emotional harm, seriously undermines patients’ and the public’s trust and confidence in the medical profession and inevitably brings the profession as a whole into disrepute," its decision read.

Meanwhile, the Insider noted that outside of his work as a doctor, Bramhall self-published several gruesome thriller fiction novels, which involve organs and life-threatening injuries. Among his writings were, "Dilemma," "Just Another Night," and "The Letterman," as seen on his website Scalpel Stories.