A SURGEON from Burnley accused of killing a patient after taking out the wrong kidney in a bungled operation may have looked at X-rays back to front, a court heard.

Mahesh Chard Goel, 40, of Burnley General Hospital Bungalows, Burnley, faces a charge of manslaughter alongside consultant urologist John Gethin Roberts, 60.

They were charged following the operation on kidney patient Graham Reeves, 70, at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli, south Wales, in January 2000. Goel has never worked for Burnley NHS Healthcare Trust.

Retired pipe lagger Mr Reeves died five weeks after the healthy kidney was removed instead of his diseased one.

Leighton Davies QC, prosecuting, told the jury at Cardiff Crown Court that Roberts said in a statement to police that he could have looked at the X-rays the wrong way round prior to the operation.

He said Mr Roberts told police: "I can only assume that when I put the X-ray films up to look at them I inadvertently put up the right kidney on the left side."

Mr Davies went on: "He appears to be claiming that he put on the X-ray films back to front."

Mr Davies added the X-ray error would have been picked up if Roberts had checked Mr Reeves's notes and consent form and that Roberts also told police that he did not recall seeing any labels on the X-rays.

The court heard that Roberts could have looked at more than 20 other X-rays relating to Mr Reeves.

The surgeon described in another statement as part of the hospital's internal investigation how his "heart sank" when he heard Mr Reeves was not passing urine after the operation.

"Mr Roberts said: "My heart sank and I became concerned lest we had removed the incorrect kidney. I went to the ITU to see Mr Reeves.

"I came to the conclusion that I could not understand why I had previously decided that a left nephrectomy was correct when a second view made it obvious that the nephrectomy should have been right-sided'."

Mr Davies said that if Roberts and Goel had done their job properly the "conflict" between the correct information on the consent form and notes and incorrect information on an operating list would have been noticed.

Roberts, of Pastoral Way, Tycoch, Swansea, and Goel both deny manslaughter.