An NRI woman died of excessive bleeding after a surgeon, who had previously been banned from performing spinal surgery, damaged an artery attached to her heart during an operation, reports in London said.
Satwant Vohra (55), from Welwyn, Hertfodshire bled to death after her aorta was ruptured following the surgery on a damaged disc in her back at a private hospital, an inquest was told on Tuesday.
Chinh Nguyen, the 43-year-old surgeon who performed the operation, had been earlier banned from carrying out spinal surgery. He was also jailed last month for five years on charges of laundering millions in profit from a network of cannabis farms.
The ban was put on Nguyen for a year after five cases, including one in which a patient nearly died, raised concerns. Nguyen admitted that he might have injured Vohra's aorta at the Garden Hospital in Hendon, north London, in December 2008.
The inquest heard that Vohra's condition started to deteriorate after the operation. She was taken to National Health Service (NHS) hospital but doctors could not stem the bleeding, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Andrew Walker said, "There were no intensive care facilities available and Mrs Vohra was transferred to an NHS hospital where two operations to save her life took place, but sadly she died."
