A doctor who performed an abortion which left a woman fighting for her life had never performed a termination on such a large foetus, the General Medical Council has been told.
The woman, known only as Miss A, was 20 weeks pregnant when she had the operation at the Calthorpe Clinic in Birmingham in November 2000.
During the procedure, carried out by Andrew Gbinigie, her uterus wall was torn and her right ovary, fallopian tube and right ureter were all removed.
The GMC hearing was told Mr Gbinigie, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, only realised something was wrong when he removed a piece of bowel and called for help.
Miss A was transferred to Birmingham Women's Hospital where three consultants removed the largely intact foetus and spent five hours trying to save her life.
However one of her kidneys had to be removed.
Mr Gbinigie, from Barnt Green, West Midlands, denies serious professional misconduct and further charges of behaving improperly towards two female hospital staff.
The GMC was told the foetus was 20 weeks old when Mr Gbinigie carried out the termination which led to the woman being injured.
He had previously assured staff at the clinic he was capable of dealing with operations where the foetus was more than 15 weeks old.
Between July 2000 and January 2001, Mr Gbinigie worked in three private clinics
in the West Midlands - Blackdown in Leamington Spa, Dean Park in Solihull and
Robert Clinic in Kings Norton.
The hearing, which is expected to last another two weeks, was adjourned until