A Doctor’s Negligence Leads to Devastating Surgery and a Patient’s Fury
A harrowing account has emerged from Berkshire, England, detailing how a woman was forced to undergo extensive surgery to remove a significant portion of her stomach due to a GP’s alleged negligence. The patient, Oriana McDonald, has voiced her profound “rage” upon discovering the doctor in question, Nupur Mittal, has since relocated to India.
The ordeal began for the 57-year-old Oriana in July 2018 when she discovered a lump on her stomach and a slightly elevated temperature. She promptly visited her local GP, Dr. Nupur Mittal, at the Waterfield Practice in Bracknell.
A Two-Minute Consultation and a Missed Diagnosis
Oriana recounted the brief and unsettling consultation, which lasted a mere two minutes. During this time, Dr. Mittal remained at a sink, her back turned to Oriana for the entirety of the appointment. “She was able to diagnose me from the other end of the room, with her back to me and said ‘antibiotics’, ‘cellulitis’,” Oriana explained. “I was like, ‘you didn’t even touch me, take my temperature’,” she recalled, expressing her dismay at the doctor’s apparent lack of engagement. “She was not interested in the least.”
Oriana highlighted a critical oversight, stating that Dr. Mittal should have been under supervision during patient consultations, especially given prior complaints from other patients. However, this supervision was evidently not in place.
Deterioration and a Life-Threatening Diagnosis
Despite taking the prescribed antibiotics, Oriana’s condition worsened over the next three days. She contacted the practice again, speaking with Dr. Mittal over the phone.
“She said, ‘I will give you another antibiotic, if it gets any worse you might have to phone the hospital’,” Oriana reported. “She didn’t really care, she was definitely not interested at all.”
Oriana described the alarming spread of redness on her stomach, accompanied by profuse sweating and an inability to move. Her partner, Ian Gale, a wheelchair user, grew increasingly concerned. On July 11, 2018, he called for an ambulance.
Mr. Gale, unable to accompany Oriana to the hospital, spoke with a doctor there who delivered the grave news: Oriana was facing “life or death surgery.”
The Devastating Consequences
Upon arrival at the hospital, Oriana was diagnosed with a substantial abscess or cyst on her abdominal wall, showing signs of sepsis. Medical professionals suspected necrotising fasciitis, a rare and life-threatening bacterial infection often referred to as the “flesh-eating disease,” which can rapidly spread from a wound. This led to radical surgery, during which a significant amount of tissue was removed from her stomach.
“I have got a scar going from my hip bone to my hip bone, from left to right to left, it took over a year to heal completely,” Oriana shared, visibly affected. She confessed to feeling self-conscious about the extensive scar, which also complicates her choice of clothing.
Seeking Justice and the Doctor’s Flight
It was two years after the traumatic event that Oriana began to contemplate seeking compensation from Dr. Mittal. “I was just happy to be alive and coping and then I was talking with Ian and I was like, ‘I’m not happy unless she is struck off’, because I did not want it to happen to anybody else,” she explained. “We wanted to save anyone else from what I have gone through, the next one might have been dead.”
The couple engaged solicitors, BLV Law, and initiated a civil claim for medical negligence against Dr. Mittal. However, the doctor failed to respond to any communications and did not appear in court. Consequently, in her absence, Oriana was awarded a total of £128,204.30, encompassing damages, legal costs, and interest. The court had definitively found her liable for medical negligence due to her failure to diagnose Oriana, which resulted in her severe injuries.
The couple only discovered Dr. Mittal had left the UK for India when they attempted to secure the debt against her home in Reading. Dr. Mittal’s husband, also a GP, responded to object.
Unearthing the Truth and Lingering Anger
Learning of Dr. Mittal’s relocation to India ignited Oriana’s fury. “I did feel a bit of rage towards her,” she admitted. “If she had just diagnosed this in the first place I would have had a two-inch scar.”
Ian echoed her sentiments, stating, “She was just burying her head in the sand, she was just hiding from everything and running away from it.” He added, “A doctor doing their job, I know they are very busy, they haven’t always got the time, but when they do get to see a patient, they need to see that patient.”
Dr. Mittal, who is now understood to be running a practice in India, was contacted for comment and indicated she was appealing the case against her.
Regulatory Action and Ongoing Investigation
The General Medical Council (GMC) had placed interim restrictions on Dr. Mittal’s practice since February 2016. These were later escalated to an interim suspension following a tribunal hearing in June 2024, effectively preventing her from treating patients. A subsequent hearing in November of the same year saw the interim suspension ordered to remain in place, pending further review.
A GMC spokesperson confirmed, “The GMC is investigating Dr Nupur Mittal. While this is ongoing Dr Mittal is interim suspended, which means she cannot treat patients.”
