Jessye Norman's brother sues over procedure he claims left her paralysed

She had a voice described as a “grand mansion of sound” , won four Grammy awards and thrilled audiences in opera houses across the world – but suddenly stopped performing in 2015.

- Denis Campbell

When Jessye Norman died four years later, aged 74 , her family said her death was from septic shock and multi-organ failure secondary to complications of a spinal cord injury she had sustained in 2015. The circumstances surrounding the injury and her disappearance from public life were never explained.

However, the Guardian can reveal that the legendary American soprano’s brother is suing two renowned doctors and a leading London private hospital for allegedly leaving her paralysed when she underwent surgery in 2015 to try and cure a longstanding and painful back problem.

James Howard Norman Sr has launched a lawsuit alleging that medical negligence by the anaesthetist and pain specialist Dr Adnan AlKaisy , the consultant spinal surgeon Khai Lam and the London Bridge hospital left his sister unable to move her body below the waist. The doctors and the hospital disput e his claims.

Norman Sr alleges that she suffered horrendous damage as a result of undergoing a procedure called epidurolysis , used to dissolve scar tissue around nerves in the spine.