Mr Jabbar had operated on Jodee’s daughter in 2022, when she was eight years old, fitting metal plates into her knees for leg lengthening and straightening.
He was a leading surgeon at the renowned hospital, operating on children with complicated disorders and carrying out procedures such as the one undergone by Alana.
The hospital has since initiated independent reports into each of his 723 patients, to conclude what level of harm they had experienced.
Some cases linked to him resulted in harm including life-long injuries and amputation.
Jodee, from Essex, told the ‘s Newsnight programme she had had no idea of the doctor’s reputation when her daughter Alana was referred to his care in 2021.
At that point, concerns had already been raised about Mr Jabbar.
She said in the family’s first consultation in March 2021, which lasted “about five minutes”, Mr Jabbar had advised the invasive surgery.
“We didn’t want to rock the boat too much because he seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing,” she said.
“So we kind of went along with it thinking he’s an orthopaedic surgeon, it’s Great Ormond Street [Hospital]. We trusted him.”
The operation took place 10 months later, in January 2022. During that period, more professional complaints from other surgeons were raised with the managers at the hospital.
None of this was ever disclosed to Jodee or other families of Mr Jabbar’s patients.
She said the surgery had appeared to go well and, with Alana’s leg bandaged up, there had not seemed to be any immediate problems.
But when the bandage came off a few weeks later, Jodee saw two scars instead of one on the inside of her child’s leg when they had been told it would be just one incision.
“So the alarm bells rang at that point,” she said.
As weeks went by, the mobility of Alana, now aged 11, was not improving and she was reporting pain frequently, often needing painkillers.
Jodee said she had thought at first: “Well, maybe it just hasn’t worked? Maybe that wasn’t the right procedure and it will be removed? Or maybe it’s just too early to tell?”
She said she had expected regular check-ups from the hospital but a follow-up appointment did not come until six months after the operation.
The plates in Alana’s knees were supposed to be there for about two years. Jodee says they saw another surgeon at the hospital in a follow-up in July – six months after the operation – who recommended they not come out.
Then, by chance, they saw Mr Jabbar on the same visit.
Jodee says he took one look and said they “needed to come out immediately” and asked the family to return the following day for another major operation.
He told the family he was worried Alana’s tendons could re-fuse to the metal plates, Jodee says.
“We were really panicked, we were really worried…. [thinking] ‘What have we done, is she okay, is it long-term damage?'”
They returned to the hospital in August 2022 to have the plates removed.
But the family’s concern was now so strong that they moved Alana to a different hospital months after.
She continued to lose mobility and have other problems during this period.
