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A patient fell off an operating table while having his appendix removed at the same hospital which botched his hip operation three years earlier.

Plumber Ian Martin, 52, has to use a wheelchair as a result of the first operation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and is considering whether to take legal action over the second.

After the appendix operation he was kept sedated for 24 hours and remained in intensive care for six more days while tests were carried out.

Mr Martin, of Blackheath, has not been able to work for three years and his broken femur has still not healed despite four further operations.

The South London Healthcare NHS Trust has admitted liability for failing to do the hip replacement properly.

Mr Martin said: “I needed a hip operation and was told that it was uncomplicated surgery and that I would be back at work quickly. But since the first surgery my leg’s never been right and I’m in constant pain. So when I was told I had to have my appendix out I was worried they might hurt my hip. I specifically told them not to roll or lift me.

“What they did to me was the worst thing that they could possibly do to someone in my situation. They should have taken more care.

“A person who knew me happened to be working in the operating theatre next door and saw me fall. He rushed in and stopped them from moving me. If he hadn’t gone in there I don’t know what would have happened.”

After the surgery he was moved to the ICU and not back to the general ward. “My family thought for a bit that something terrible had happened to me,” he said. “This has been really hard on my wife, who’s been caring for me for so long, and for my son and daughter.”

Mr Martin said he has not yet decided whether to take legal action.

His solicitor, Jenny Kennedy, of law firm Anthony Gold, said: “When he went into A&E at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and was told he had appendicitis, he didn’t expect to be dropped off the operating table. Nobody expects that, especially not when the hospital is aware it has already injured them previously.”

Ms Kennedy said that hospital officials told Mr Martin and his wife that he had fallen from the table during surgery and that a report is being prepared.

However, a member of hospital staff is said to have admitted that during a very difficult part of the operation, Mr Martin had to be tilted slightly and it was at this point — when he was unconscious — that he was allowed to slip off the table.

In November last year control of Queen Elizabeth Hospital passed to Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

Their spokesman said: “We have received a formal complaint about this incident from Mr Martin and a full investigation is currently under way into what happened. As soon as the investigation has concluded, the trust’s chief executive will contact Mr Martin directly with the findings.”