Mr Alexander Hotouras 2024-04-01 Person 5 5 0

Mr Hotouras operated on my wife performing a laporoscopic sigmoid colectomy after three attacks of diverticulitis, each requiring an emergency admission for treatment with I-V antibiotics The operation was difficult and my wife had been prepared to expect a diversionary ileostomy but Mr Hotouras was able to perform a successful anastomosis without the need for this. The operation has been very successful, her health is steadily improving and she is slowly regaining the 20% of her body weight lost before the operation. We first met Mr Hotouras during the third emergency admission. Jane had been looked after by his consultant colleagues and the junior doctors on the team and had received excellent care, but he was asked to take over her care when the decision was made that an operation to remove the diseased section of colon was necessary. He gave advance notice when he was coming to see her on the surgical assessment ward so that I could be present and as a retired consultant surgeon I greatly appreciated this. He has a kind, sympathetic bedside manner and my wife and I were both impressed and had full confidence in the treatment plan proposed. She was booked to come in for her operation in three weeks time with antibiotic treatment over this period to prevent a further bout of diverticulitis and to reduce the inflammation at the site which would facilitate the operation. The operation took place on Feb. 8th and took 5 hours but was a complete success. After 2 days in ITU she was returned to the surgical ward but it took a further 2 weeks before she was well enough to be discharged home because of chest complications and then she was re-admitted with asthma and a chest infection and was found to have contracted influenza A. After a week’s treatment with steroids and antibiotics she recovered and is making steady progress at home convalescing. Throughout the recovery period in hospital Mr Hotouras and his medical and nursing staff provided excellent post-operative care and I was particularly grateful for the regular briefings on her progress. Without the surgical treatment performed so well by Mr Hotouras we are convinced that recurrent attacks of diverticulitis would have had a fatal outcome and we and the rest of our family will be for ever grateful.