A U.K. surgeon pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of assault by beating for allegedly branding his initials into the livers of two separate patients he performed transplant operations on in 2013, according to The Guardian.
Here are seven things to know about the case.
1. Simon Bramhall, MD, a former consultant surgeon at the liver unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in Edgbaston, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to the two charges during a court hearing Wednesday. However, he pleaded not guilty to more serious charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, the report states.
2. The charges relate to two separate incidents that occured on Feb. 9, 2013, and Aug. 21, 2013. Dr. Bramhall, 53, admitted during Wednesday's hearing to using an argon beam — typically used to stop liver bleeding during operations — to burn his initials into the patients' organs.
3. While some medical experts claim the marks left by an argon beam do not impair the organ's function and usually disappear by themselves, Dr. Bramhall was suspended from his position at the hospital after a colleague discovered his initials on one of the patient's organs during a follow-up surgery.
4. The hospital conducted an internal investigation into Dr. Bramhall during the summer of 2014, during which he tendered his resignation. At the time, Dr. Bramhall said his actions were a mistake, according to the report.
5. The U.K.'s General Medical Council issued a formal warning to Dr. Bramhall earlier this year in February, stating his conduct did not meet the standards required of a practicing physician. The council said at the time, his actions risked "bringing the profession into disrepute and it must not be repeated. Whilst this failing in itself is not so serious as to require any restriction on [Dr.] Bramhall's registration, it is necessary in response to issue this formal warning."
6. During Wednesday's hearing, one of the prosecutors for the case said Dr. Bramhall's actions represented "an intentional application of unlawful force to a patient whilst anaesthetised. [Dr. Bramhall's] acts in marking the livers of those patients, in a wholly unnecessary way, were deliberate and conscious acts on his part."
7. Dr. Bramhall was granted unconditional bail during the hearing and is expected to be sentenced Jan. 12.