Health

Surgeon at centre of investigation into Temple Street spinal surgeries working in Ukraine

Orthopaedic surgeon Connor Green teaching reconstruction surgery for those injured in war with Russia

Connor Green will spend up to three weeks in Ukraine. Photograph: Dave Meehan

David Raleigh
Sun Jun 23 2024 - 13:35

A surgeon at the centre of an ongoing investigation into spinal surgeries at Temple Street Children’s Hospital has taken up a voluntary role in Ukraine teaching reconstruction surgery for those seriously injured in Russia’s military invasion.

Mr Connor Green, a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, accompanied an American trauma surgeon group to Ukraine in recent days. They will spend up to three weeks in Ukraine.

“He and the team are looking at limb reconstruction, in other words people who have had their arms and legs blown off, or half blown off, in order to try to salvage life and limb – it is the most serious orthopaedic trauma from shrapnel wounds, bullet wounds and explosions,” said Prof Damian McCormack, the head of paediatric orthopaedic surgery at Temple Street.

Mr Green graduated from UCD and trained as a specialist limb reconstructive surgeon in the US, before he returned to Ireland to treat children with complex orthopaedic conditions.

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He has not performed surgery on his patients in Ireland in almost a year after he was referred to the Irish Medical Council by Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), which runs Temple Street, after concerns were raised about poor outcomes for some of his patients including one patient who died, and the use of medically unapproved spring devices in three patients.

Prof Damian McCormack, who has publicly defended Mr Green, called for his reinstatement at Temple Street and said his colleague had described the situation in Ukraine as “chaotic”.

Repeated bomb shelling has led to “intermittent power and signal” which has resulted in continued communication breakdowns.

“There are those people who think Connor is content sitting at home or that he is irrelevant, but they don’t know my colleague like I do – his raison d’être is to care for others,” Prof McCormack said.

“He did not look to go to Ukraine, he was asked to go by those who recognise his unique skill set in limb reconstruction; a skill set which is unfortunately very necessary now in Ukraine, he was asked to go to help train others to reconstruct the devastating injuries of war.”

CHI launched internal and external reviews of high infection rates and repeat surgeries for 17 of Mr Green’s patients, including one who died.

Reviews are also looking into how and why spring-devices, that were not authorised for medical use, were implanted in three patients.

One group of parents of Mr Green’s patients, OrthoKids Ireland, has also called for Mr Green to be immediately reinstated at Temple Street.

The State’s health watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), is also investigating the use of the springs, as well as what management knew or didn’t know about the use of the springs.

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