One ordinary evening in February 2010 an experienced consultant colorectal surgeon saw his last patient of the day, a 66-year old retired builder who had developed abdominal pain shortly following an elective knee replacement. Three years later on a cold November day David Sellu was sentenced to prison for 2 and a half years for unlawfully killing John Hughes.
Did He Save Lives? charts the events between these two dates that would lead to the conviction of a surgeon with a previously unblemished record of gross negligence manslaughter. Sellu’s methodical, sparse yet descriptive prose depicting the day-to-day of prison life belies the quiet horror of a life stripped of freedom, autonomy, and dignity.
Born in a rural village in Sierra Leone to illiterate farmers it was not in Sellu’s destiny to become an eminent surgeon in England. Two things changed …