Staines woman died after breast reduction surgery

May 20 2009 By Mark Goode

A Staines woman died as a result of an NHS operation to remove cancer infected blood tissue and to resize her breasts, an inquest heard.

Illeen Anil, 63, died on May 22 2008 following an operation by Sunita Shrotria and Janet Higgs, who are both consultant surgeons in St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, a coroner ruled.

Indian-born Miss Anil, who was a retired nurse, received a previous operation in March 2007 where cancer infected tissue was removed, so the later operation meant to reduce one of her breasts so they looked equal.

But during the operation, a blood vessel was cut which resulted in excessive bleeding which couldn't be controlled easily. She suffered a cardiac arrest and was given resuscitation, but later died at around 10.00pm.

Surrey Coroner Michael Burgess said: "In March 07 an operation was relatively successful in that it removed quite extensive diseased tissue and enabled Miss Anil to have a better quality of life for the last 13/14 months of her life."

He said afterwards Miss Anil didn't respond well to chemotherapy, and had another operation in May 2008 for cosmetic purposes and to explore her left armpit, where the disease was developing.

The doctors found that the metastasis, which is the spread of cancer to other parts of the body, had spread to her liver, and they proceeded to operate on ridding Miss Anil of the bad tissue.

But Mrs Higgs, who was using her finger to part tissue, cut a blood vessel, which caused the excessive bleeding. Mrs Higgs said that if the operation had gone right Miss Anil wouldn't have died, but added that she was very poorly and wouldn't have lived for much longer.

Pathologist Peter Jackson, who carried out the post mortem, found a tumour in Miss Anil's liver, which weighed two kilogrammes and measured three centimetres in diameter.

Mr Burgess said: "In the event that she had recovered from the operation, she might have not had much longer to live so I am going to conclude that Miss Anil died as an operational complication from a therapeutic process which was necessary."