The investigation, published by the world-famous London hospital into Yaser Jabbar, found widespread evidence of unacceptable practice in the botched operations he carried out.

Jabbar worked at the hospital between 2017 and 2022, providing care to 789 children – 94 of them came to harm, GOSH's report concluded.

Most of those – 91 – were patients he did surgery on. He specialised in limb-lengthening and reconstruction for children with complex problems.

The BBC has attempted to contact Jabbar. The hospital said it was "deeply sorry" for the harm caused.

The treatments he provided, which included inserting metal plates, bone grafts and implants, are considered high-risk and some level of complications are to be expected.

GOSH said it could not determine whether all the cases of harm were avoidable, but Jabbar's practice was substandard in many areas and this had undoubtedly caused harm.

Constant pain

The report highlighted cases of premature removal of bone fixation devices, operations carried out without a clear rationale, problems with how bones were pinned and making cuts into bones at the wrong level. The way complications were identified and managed was also criticised.

More than a quarter of patients he operated on came to harm, the report said. Thirty-five had suffered severe harm. Another child suffered severe harm, but that was not related to surgery.

The report did not detail individual cases, but families have previously spoken about the problems their children have experienced.

One girl, Bunty, who was born with a rare bone disease that caused her left leg to be bowed and short, was operated on multiple times by Jabbar and eventually had to have her lower leg amputated. This was classed as causing moderate harm.

Her father, Dean Stalham, said the findings were "too little, too late" and the problems should have been spotted earlier.

Lizzie Roberts, whose son Tate was operated on by Jabbar when he was 16 to treat the complications of a road accident 10 years previously, said the hospital had effectively "marked its own homework".

She says her son has been left in constant pain after having an unnecessary operation on his ankle that they did not consent to. The surgery was only meant to be on his knee, she says.

He is now facing more surgery and has had to drop out of college. His case was also classed as one of moderate harm.

Both families have asked the police to launch an investigation into the case. The Metropolitan Police told the BBC it would review the findings of the report to see if that should happen.

Jabbar, who trained in the UK, is now understood to live abroad and no longer has a licence to practise medicine in the UK.

Bleakest day

GOSH launched this investigation in 2024, bringing in independent doctors to review patient records, although the hospital itself pulled together their findings and have published them.

The investigation was initiated after the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) carried out a review on behalf of the hospital. It came after concerns were raised by a member of staff.

That review said there were serious concerns in relation to working culture, with some staff upset about the standard of care and saying the environment was "toxic" and that some surgery done on children was "inappropriate" and "incorrect".

NHS England's London region is now carrying out a review into GOSH's handling of the case.

GOSH said it had already acted on recommendations made by the RCS report, including introducing training on handling complaints, investing more in whistle-blowing support for staff and getting surgeons to discuss the most complex cases they are seeing with the National Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.

Before the concerns were raised in June 2022, the trust said it had received seven complaints about Jabber and looked into one serious incident, its handling of which was signed off by NHS England. The trust insists none of these suggested further investigation or action was needed.

But a surgeon who worked in the same service as Jabbar – Sarah McMahon – is reported to have raised concerns to GOSH management in autumn 2021, but said nothing was done to address her warnings at the time, according to a statement made in parliament by her local MP Dame Meg Hillier.

GOSH chief executive Matthew Shaw acknowledged this was the bleakest day in the history of the hospital.

He said he was "deeply sorry" for the harm caused, but insisted the hospital had acted "incredibly quickly" once concerns were raised.

He said in areas like this, which were hyper-specialised and where there were only a small number of surgeons in the NHS, it was harder to detect problems with practice.

But he added in publishing these findings he hoped the hospital could "starting building trust with families again because they rely on us for many of the things that their children need".