Surgeon banned by private practice is working for NHS

Finally, in April 2024, she was seen by another consultant at a different hospital run by the same trust - the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath - when she found out what was causing her pain.

"The main problem is a 180 degree twist on the small bowel causing an internal hernia and twisting the anastomosis [the surgical joint]," said the discharge sheet given to Ms Hunter by the hospital after the procedure.

"When they did the reconnection [of the intestines], they put it on backwards," Sheryl said she was told.

"That [creates] a risk of rupture. If you rupture, it's a two-hour window before death.

"Had I not been manually opening my bowels for five years, they said that would have happened."

The trust said surgical error was only presented as one of a range of possibilities.