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Tragic husband's warning to women
A HUSBAND whose wife died after undergoing cosmetic surgery has warned other women about the dangers.
Poulton mother-of-two Pauline Bainbridge suffered a heart attack last July just two days after having liposuction on her thighs.
A coroner yesterday ruled the 3,500 procedure played a significant part in the 50-year-old's death.
Her devastated husband Alan and sons Paul and Danny were in court to hear the decision.
Mr Bainbridge, 54, managing director of T Print in Bispham where his wife was company secretary, said he accepts the decision and has warned others against elective surgery.
He said his wife had fulfilled a long-held wish for surgery, was aware of the risks and had researched the procedure before being referred to Gerard Laitung, a plastic surgeon with more than 20 years experience, at Capio Fulwood Hospital in Preston.
Mr Bainbridge said: "She had wanted it for a long time, for years. She was so fit and healthy we didn't think anything would go wrong.
"It just shows you can't have operations without consequences and probably, especially, with liposuction.
"She had an operation that, really, led to her death.''
Mr Bainbridge said unless a patient really needed cosmetic surgery, he would not advise others going ahead.
"I think if it is really needed, something on your face perhaps, and you really want it, then go ahead," he said.
"I think liposuction procedures or tummy tucks, I would not, definitely would not, do it.''
Mrs Bainbridge, of The Downs in Poulton, died on July 22 in Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) after collapsing at the couple's city centre apartment.
Manchester coroner Nigel Meadows heard she had a "moderate degree" of heart disease, expected in a woman of her age.
After hearing evidence from pathologist Dr Emyr Benbow he said the risk of heart attack increased by having surgery.
It, both the coroner and pathologist agreed, had probably contributed to the formation of a small blood clot in Mrs Bainbridge's coronary artery.
But Mr Meadows said he found no evidence of neglect or wrong doing on behalf of the Capio Fulwood or the MRI where she was treated with clot busting and blood thinning drugs.
He said: "The evidence indicates the liposuction procedure must, on the balance of probabilities, have had a contributory effect here because she would not have died at the time she did, when she did in the circumstances she did, without the procedure.''
Mr Meadows gave the formal cause of death as first, a heart attack, with a second cause as "liposuction on both thighs''.
He added: "I don't think it is possible or appropriate to record natural causes because of the elective procedure.
"The most appropriate is to return a verdict of misadventure; the unintended consequences of a human act.
"Coronary thrombosis, together with the procedure, that has led to a combination of events that has led to Mrs Bainbridge's death.
"There is nothing really risk free, and sometimes a rare combination of circumstances can occur. It is a very sad occasion.''
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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