Surgeon admits professional misconduct after teen’s death

Updated / Monday, 19 Jan 2026 19:31

A surgeon at University Hospital Limerick has admitted to professional misconduct over delays in seeking help for a teenage girl who died after sustaining massive blood loss during an operation which he performed without having adequate experience or surgical support.

Dr Ashish Lal, a general surgeon, appeared before a fitness-to-practice inquiry of the Medical Council in relation to his care of Jessica Sheedy, including a complex operation he performed on her at UHL on 8 May 2018.

Ms Sheedy, 18, a beauty therapist from Bruff, Co Limerick, died three days later after suffering multiple-organ failure from complications which arose during surgery to remove a tumour from her abdomen.

The inquiry before a fitness-to-practice committee heard the surgeon had failed to seek assistance from a vascular surgeon “in a sufficiently timely manner” after the patient suffered a major blood loss during the procedure, as well as failing to carry out adequate pre-planning for the surgery.

At the outset of the hearing, counsel for the Medical Council, Neasa Bird BL, said Dr Lal had made full admissions to three allegations of professional misconduct and ten allegations of poor professional performance over his care of Ms Sheedy at UHL between November 2017 and May 2018.

Ms Bird said there had been a serious falling short of the standards of care expected of doctors by Dr Lal.

The surgeon admitted that his delay in seeking assistance from a vascular surgeon after Ms Sheedy suffered major haemorrhaging from a damaged aorta during the operation constituted professional misconduct.

Dr Lal also accepted that other allegations of professional misconduct were proven, including providing a misleading statement that he had obtained a second opinion about performing a biopsy on Ms Sheedy and for presenting the case for carrying out the surgery at a meeting of an oncology multidisciplinary team in January 2018 when it was an inappropriate forum to do so.

An expert witness for the Medical Council, Anant Desai, claimed it was “a deliberate act” by Dr Lal to make the case at a meeting where no other surgeons were present so that his decision to carry out the surgery would not be challenged.

Prof Desai said the decision had “profound consequences”.

Among the proven allegations of poor professional performance were Dr Lal’s failure to consider a non-operative strategy for managing Ms Sheedy’s tumour and the decision to proceed with the operation without consulting with surgical colleagues and where he did not have the appropriate experience.

The inquiry heard that a rare but benign form of tumour measuring 14 centimetres had been detected in the teenager’s abdomen after she had presented at UHL in October 2017.

Ms Bird said Dr Lal had underestimated the complexity of the surgery and had failed to plan adequately for the potential risks and adverse outcomes associated with the procedure.

The surgeon also failed to review CT images of the tumour with a radiologist before the operation.

Ms Bird told the hearing that Ms Sheedy had to be brought back to theatre for further emergency surgery due to an inadequate blood flow to her legs and she also had to have her entire large intestine removed.

The inquiry arose following complaints to the Medical Council by both the deceased’s parents, James and Ann Sheedy, and the then chief executive of UHL, Colette Cowan.

Ms Sheedy’s parents said Dr Lal had given them the impression at a consultation in January 2018 about the planned elective surgery that there would be a big team of doctors in the operating theatre.

The inquiry heard that Dr Lal performed the operation with the assistance of just two junior doctors and had refused the offer of help on two occasions after the patient suffered extensive bleeding before a clinical nurse manager asked a vascular surgeon to come to theatre.

The vascular surgeon, Eamon Kavanagh, informed the Medical Council in a statement that there was a long-standing practice of having two consultants in theatre for complex surgery.

Prof Kavanagh expressed surprise that Dr Lal had not contacted him about Ms Sheedy’s case or even mentioned it when he had seen him briefly prior to the operation.

The Sheedy family also complained that the surgeon had not advised them that a “watch and wait” approach could have been adopted to what was recognised as a slow-growing tumour.

They claimed both Dr Lal and UHL had shown disregard for their daughter after they had trusted the consultant.

The couple described Jessica as “a beautiful young girl loved beyond words by her family and friends”.

“She would have had her whole life ahead of her but unfortunately it was taken in such a cruel way,” they added.

Prof Cowan told the Medical Council that the consultant had missed several opportunities to address the patient’s bleeding.

The inquiry heard Dr Lal had continued to work on removing Ms Sheedy’s tumour after she had suffered major haemorrhaging in order to see the source of the bleeding more clearly.

The consultant claimed that not a day goes by that he does think of the teenager and the tragedy that occurred, and also acknowledged that there were “lessons learnt”.

Dr Lal, who qualified as a doctor in New Zealand in 2000, has been registered to work in Ireland since 2011.

He has worked as a general surgeon at UHL since 2012, specialising in breast surgery.

Counsel for Dr Lal, Simon Mills SC, told the inquiry chairperson, Marie Culliton, that Dr Lal had wished to offer an unqualified apology at the hearing for the shortcomings in his care.

However, Dr Mills said they would respect the wishes of Ms Sheedy’s family, who had indicated they did not want to hear an apology, but asked that it would be noted in consideration of any sanction that might be imposed on his client.

The inquiry heard that an inquest into Ms Sheedy’s death at Limerick Coroner’s Court in November 2019 had recorded a verdict of medical misadventure.

Ms Culliton adjourned the hearing to Tuesday, when the three-person committee will issue a ruling on its findings as well as hear legal submissions on sanction.