Coroner rules botched cosmetic surgery led to Hendry tragedy

Denise Hendry, 43, whose husband was nicknamed “Braveheart” as captain of Scotland, endured an agonising seven-year battle with illness after the disastrous cosmetic surgery procedure in April 2002, Bolton Coroner’s Court heard.

Her family and friends had been, “cruelly and tragically” deprived of a special person and herself “robbed” of life, the inquest heard.

The mother-of-four suffered punctures to her bowel nine times during the “routine” surgery performed by foreign doctor Gustaf Aniansson, at the private Broughton Park Hospital near Preston, Lancashire.

It left Mrs Hendry with terrible injuries to her stomach area and she had to have a series of operations to correct the damage.

And it was after one such “high risk” 16-hour operation at Salford Royal Hospital, that she died in July 2009.

Coroner Jennifer Leeming, yesterday gave a narrative verdict after hearing two days of evidence.

Addressing Mr Hendry directly, she added: “The respect and admiration I feel for your wife Denise as a result of her immense courage and fortitude in dealing with what happened to her is beyond words. You, your children, Denise’s parents and all of her family and friends have in my view been cruelly and tragically deprived of a very special person and Denise herself has been robbed of the life she so much enjoyed. Would you accept my most sincere condolences for her loss.”

Mrs Leeming cited brain inflammation, blood clotting from a drain inserted into her head to relieve pressure and meningitis as the medical cause of death on Mrs Hendry’s death certificate.

Ultimately, the coroner ruled, it was the punctures to her abdomen as they started off the chain of events.

Doctors had realised something was wrong with Mrs Hendry not long after her final operation on April 22, 2009. On May 5 there was a “sudden” neurological deterioration due to “Klebsiella Meningitis” rather than the more common “staph” strains of the brain infection.

Dr Chinari Subudhi, a microbiologist at the hospital, said he took samples from Mrs Hendry while she was in intensive care after the last surgery.

He added that, in his opinion, Klebsiella, a bacteria which can occur naturally in the gut, had spread from her stomach to her lungs and then to her brain in the blood stream, which is common in critically-ill patients who are on a ventilator, as was Mrs Hendry.

Dr Aniansson, who is believed to be still practising in his native Sweden, had been notified of the hearing but did not attend and instead sent a written statement in which he described the liposuction operation as “uneventful”.

In fact Mrs Hendry was subsequently rushed into intensive care at the Royal Preston Hospital where NHS medics were left “disgusted” Mr Hendry said, by her condition.

Mrs Hendry’s abdominal wall had “died” and left a gaping open wound which had to be covered with a surgical mesh and required constant dressing and constant surgery.

Earlier Mr Hendry told the hearing: “To look at Denise, even when ill, she was beautiful. She did not let anybody really realise what was going on.”

Mr Hendry, 45, was a former captain of Scotland who also played for Rangers and Blackburn Rovers.

The couple, who lived in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, were together for 25 years and had four children.