Soccer star Colin Hendry with wife Denise a year before she died as a result of a botched liposuction surgery seven years before
At the inquest into her death, former
Scottish international soccer star Colin Hendry described his wife
Denise as ‘beautiful . . . inside and out.’
Few could have failed to appreciate the painful irony – maybe if she had truly felt this way, she would still be alive today.
Yet, like so many women, Denise was unhappy with her body. Not desperately so, but after four children, she disliked her ‘mummy tummy’ enough to investigate cosmetic surgery.
The solution seemed so straightforward:
Liposuction, a ‘simple’ technique in which a thin tube is inserted under
the skin to break up and suck out some of the fat. She chose a local
clinic and booked a date.
As her still heartbroken 23-year-old daughter Rheagan says today: ‘She didn’t want to be perfect – she just wanted to feel a bit better in a swimsuit.
'When she said she wanted liposuction, it was one of the first times I had heard her ask for something for herself.
'The rest of her life was all about looking after us. We didn’t think it was that big a deal. 'No one mentioned risks. It sounded as straightforward as getting your hair done.'
But that £2,400 operation went disastrously wrong.
During the procedure the surgeon, Gustav Aniansson, punctured Denise’s bowel – not just once but nine times.
In the following days, she suffered a heart attack, multiple organ failure and blood poisoning as the toxic contents of her digestive system spilled into surrounding tissue.
For five weeks, Denise fought for her life in a medically induced coma and on life support, but miraculously survived.
Her digestive system was destroyed, though, and over the seven years following that first operation in 2002, she was forced to undergo 18 corrective procedures on her bowel and abdomen.
Before she died in 2009, she needed an ileostomy; in which a tube is fitted bypassing the intestines, attached to a bag collecting waste. Denise was just 42 when her body, ravaged by infection, gave up.
Today, Rheagan has agreed to speak out to launch a Mail on Sunday campaign to end the scandal of Britain’s unregulated cosmetic surgery industry.
Little has been done to clean up the substandard clinics which, say critics, are putting commercial concerns ahead of patient safety, despite repeated appeals for regulation from former Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson and leading medical bodies.
Our investigation reveals Denise is far from the only case of horrendous treatment.
While many surgeons undergo extra training to ensure they know how to do cosmetic procedures properly, this is not required by law – and in many cases, doctors are not skilled in the procedures they offer.
A MINIMUM STANDARD FOR SURGEONS
All doctors who carry out cosmetic surgery must have valid training and experience in the procedures they perform.
PROPER REGULATION
Set up a regulatory body to register all cosmetic surgeons. Members must hold UK insurance and keep an annual log of outcomes of all their operations.
END THE HARD SELL
Special offers, deals and glossy advertising undermine the seriousness of these operations, and may cause patients to rush decisions.
SAFETY FIRST
Patients must have a 30-minute consultation with their surgeon, and a two-week cooling off period before consenting, and see the same surgeon after the operation.
BOTOX TRAINING
Only professionals trained to a medical standard should carry out injections of botox, fillers and laser therapy. All must register with the regulator.
Leading plastic surgeon Nigel Mercer,
former president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic
Surgeons (BAAPS), a voluntary professional body whose members adhere to
strict standards, says: ‘As long as doctors are registered with the
General Medical Council, they can come to a private clinic, pick up a
knife and operate.
‘The law in this country says that only a vet can operate on an animal. But the same protection isn’t given to humans.’
When Denise went public after her operation, 46 more patients of Aniansson contacted Denise’s solicitor Stephen Jones with complaints.
Of these, 16 were taken on as legal cases. The clinic, Broughton Park Hospital near Preston, was sold by its owner a month later.
And after 13 separate complaints were made to the General Medical Council – the body that all doctors working in the UK are legally required to be registered with – Aniansson removed his name from their lists in 2003, rather than face being struck off.
In June 2006, he paid a six-figure sum to Denise in an out-of-court settlement. All the other patients won their cases.
But Aniansson is listed as a cosmetic surgeon on the website of a clinic in his native Sweden.
Rheagan, who lives with her two-year-old daughter River in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, was just 12 when her mother became ill.
'It took the nurses two days to realise there was something seriously wrong and transfer her to Preston Royal Infirmary.
‘I remember being taken in to see her for the first time – she was a tiny woman, 5ft 2in, but she looked huge and bloated from all the fluid they had been pumping into her, and she was covered in tubes.’
Although Denise did come home after
six months in hospital, she never fully recovered. ‘She never once said:
“Why me?”
'But she always apologised to us. “I can’t believe what I’ve put you and Dad through,” she’d tell us.’
Rheagan’s anger has been unrelenting: ‘I think about it every day. I just want to ask Aniansson why?
'He must have known he made a mistake – it wasn’t one puncture, it was nine. He killed my mother – I hold him completely responsible.
‘And he’d been complained about before – if the clinic had been properly regulated, perhaps Mum would still be alive today.
'It makes me shake to think he’s still working as a surgeon.’
Rheagan, who is a carer in a home for the elderly, says she has never considered having cosmetic surgery herself, but has friends who have done.
‘I would like to think if I was in an accident and left disfigured, I could have a cosmetic procedure without fear of the surgeon not being properly trained.
‘What happened to Mum was more than a decade ago and still the Government has done nothing – if anything, things are worse.
‘The whole PIP breast implant scandal just goes to show how little regard some clinics have for patient safety. The fact so few have agreed to fix the shoddy work proves the people who run them answer to no one.
‘How many more women need to die or be disfigured before someone takes action? It has to stop. My mother cannot have died in vain.
When having heart surgery or a hip replacement, British patients can be assured that the person operating on them will be an expert. So it is shocking that the same is not true for cosmetic procedures.
As long as a doctor is registered
with the governing body for all medics, the General Medical Council
(GMC), they can pick up a knife and carry out a breast enlargement or
tummy tuck.
There is little to stop, say, a gynaecologist from performing nose jobs. It happens.
All patients, when choosing to have surgery, must be equally protected, but the law doesn’t do that well enough.
Yes, this is no Mid Staffs scandal – there are huge problems within the NHS that need urgent attention – but Ministers must not ignore patient safety in the private sector.
More than 40,000 Britons a year go under the knife and hundreds of thousands more have fillers or Botox.
It’s big business, worth £2.3billion a year, but legislation hasn’t kept pace with this rapidly evolving sector, leaving the door open to cowboy operators more concerned with money than medical ethics.
Denise Hendry paid for this lack of regulation with her life, and many more have been left to live with horrific results and pain. Most are too ashamed to admit publicly what has happened, and can’t afford corrective operations.
As Sir Bruce Keogh prepares to present the Government with his review of the cosmetic surgery industry, The Mail on Sunday has five proposals made in consultation with key figures in medicine, including the Royal College of Surgeons, the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons, and the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors. We believe these are necessary to make the industry safer.
Most importantly, there must be a minimum standard of skills for every doctor carrying out cosmetic surgery.
We suggest a qualification of ‘cosmetic surgeon’ relating to the type of operation the doctor performs. If that doctor wants to do nose jobs, he has to prove to the GMC, through assessment, that he is skilled in nose jobs.
Advertising, financial deals, Groupon offers and other incentives must be banned. These can cause people to rush into surgery, and undermine the seriousness of operations.
Before being booked in, patients must be properly assessed by their surgeon – physically and mentally – and warned explicitly of risks.
A regulatory body should be set up with mandatory membership. It will make sure all doctors hold UK insurance and keep records of surgical results so any problems are quickly spotted.
Those carrying out injectable or laser treatments must be medically trained, assessed and registered.
No one deserves to be butchered like Denise or the other women in our campaign. We urge Sir Bruce to listen to our recommendations, and for the Government to take serious measures to protect the public.
Few could have failed to appreciate the painful irony – maybe if she had truly felt this way, she would still be alive today.
Yet, like so many women, Denise was unhappy with her body. Not desperately so, but after four children, she disliked her ‘mummy tummy’ enough to investigate cosmetic surgery.
Tragedy: Soccer star Colin Hendry with wife
Denise a year before she died as a result of a botched liposuction
surgery seven years before
As her still heartbroken 23-year-old daughter Rheagan says today: ‘She didn’t want to be perfect – she just wanted to feel a bit better in a swimsuit.
'When she said she wanted liposuction, it was one of the first times I had heard her ask for something for herself.
'The rest of her life was all about looking after us. We didn’t think it was that big a deal. 'No one mentioned risks. It sounded as straightforward as getting your hair done.'
Heartbroken: Denise and Colin's daughter Rheagan, aged 23, backs campaign
During the procedure the surgeon, Gustav Aniansson, punctured Denise’s bowel – not just once but nine times.
In the following days, she suffered a heart attack, multiple organ failure and blood poisoning as the toxic contents of her digestive system spilled into surrounding tissue.
For five weeks, Denise fought for her life in a medically induced coma and on life support, but miraculously survived.
Her digestive system was destroyed, though, and over the seven years following that first operation in 2002, she was forced to undergo 18 corrective procedures on her bowel and abdomen.
Before she died in 2009, she needed an ileostomy; in which a tube is fitted bypassing the intestines, attached to a bag collecting waste. Denise was just 42 when her body, ravaged by infection, gave up.
Today, Rheagan has agreed to speak out to launch a Mail on Sunday campaign to end the scandal of Britain’s unregulated cosmetic surgery industry.
Little has been done to clean up the substandard clinics which, say critics, are putting commercial concerns ahead of patient safety, despite repeated appeals for regulation from former Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson and leading medical bodies.
Happier times: Colin and Denise Hendry with Rheagan and her brother Kyle in 1993
While many surgeons undergo extra training to ensure they know how to do cosmetic procedures properly, this is not required by law – and in many cases, doctors are not skilled in the procedures they offer.
OUR FIVE DEMANDS
A MINIMUM STANDARD FOR SURGEONSAll doctors who carry out cosmetic surgery must have valid training and experience in the procedures they perform.
PROPER REGULATION
Set up a regulatory body to register all cosmetic surgeons. Members must hold UK insurance and keep an annual log of outcomes of all their operations.
END THE HARD SELL
Special offers, deals and glossy advertising undermine the seriousness of these operations, and may cause patients to rush decisions.
SAFETY FIRST
Patients must have a 30-minute consultation with their surgeon, and a two-week cooling off period before consenting, and see the same surgeon after the operation.
BOTOX TRAINING
Only professionals trained to a medical standard should carry out injections of botox, fillers and laser therapy. All must register with the regulator.
‘The law in this country says that only a vet can operate on an animal. But the same protection isn’t given to humans.’
When Denise went public after her operation, 46 more patients of Aniansson contacted Denise’s solicitor Stephen Jones with complaints.
Of these, 16 were taken on as legal cases. The clinic, Broughton Park Hospital near Preston, was sold by its owner a month later.
And after 13 separate complaints were made to the General Medical Council – the body that all doctors working in the UK are legally required to be registered with – Aniansson removed his name from their lists in 2003, rather than face being struck off.
In June 2006, he paid a six-figure sum to Denise in an out-of-court settlement. All the other patients won their cases.
But Aniansson is listed as a cosmetic surgeon on the website of a clinic in his native Sweden.
Rheagan, who lives with her two-year-old daughter River in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, was just 12 when her mother became ill.
Demanding change: Rheagan, holding her daughter
two-year-old daughter River, is outraged that Dr Aniansson is still
practicing plastic surgery in his home country
She recalls: ‘The surgeon had hurried
to finish her operation as he was flying back to Sweden immediately
afterwards. 'It took the nurses two days to realise there was something seriously wrong and transfer her to Preston Royal Infirmary.
‘I remember being taken in to see her for the first time – she was a tiny woman, 5ft 2in, but she looked huge and bloated from all the fluid they had been pumping into her, and she was covered in tubes.’
Still working: Dr. Gustaf Aniansson is listed as a plastic surgeon at Nackakliniken in Stockholm
'But she always apologised to us. “I can’t believe what I’ve put you and Dad through,” she’d tell us.’
Rheagan’s anger has been unrelenting: ‘I think about it every day. I just want to ask Aniansson why?
'He must have known he made a mistake – it wasn’t one puncture, it was nine. He killed my mother – I hold him completely responsible.
‘And he’d been complained about before – if the clinic had been properly regulated, perhaps Mum would still be alive today.
'It makes me shake to think he’s still working as a surgeon.’
Rheagan, who is a carer in a home for the elderly, says she has never considered having cosmetic surgery herself, but has friends who have done.
‘I would like to think if I was in an accident and left disfigured, I could have a cosmetic procedure without fear of the surgeon not being properly trained.
‘What happened to Mum was more than a decade ago and still the Government has done nothing – if anything, things are worse.
‘The whole PIP breast implant scandal just goes to show how little regard some clinics have for patient safety. The fact so few have agreed to fix the shoddy work proves the people who run them answer to no one.
‘How many more women need to die or be disfigured before someone takes action? It has to stop. My mother cannot have died in vain.
Don't let anyone else be butchered like Denise Hendry
By Barney Calman, health editorWhen having heart surgery or a hip replacement, British patients can be assured that the person operating on them will be an expert. So it is shocking that the same is not true for cosmetic procedures.
HOW MANY BOTCHED JOBS?
So just how big is the problem? That’s the unknown – and those that have information refuse to reveal it.
The NHS has no record of the number of operations carried out to patch up botched cosmetic surgery. Even if it did, this figure would only be the tip of the iceberg, as care is not offered on the NHS unless there is a serious risk to health.
Ash Mosahebi, consultant plastic surgeon and a spokesperson for BAAPS, says: ‘Most of the time, patients will have to go private if they want something redone. If they can’t afford it, they just have to live with the result.
‘We know there is a problem because our surgeons are performing increasing numbers of repair jobs on patients. Either they have received a substandard first operation, were not properly warned about the risks, or misled about the possible outcomes.
‘Honesty and management of expectations is key, and commercial High Street clinics often don’t provide this, promising the unachievable to patients who have an unrealistic view of what can be done.’
An informal survey of the BAAPS Council – 20 of Britain’s leading surgeons – revealed all had seen at least ten corrective cases in the last year and one had seen over 50. On average, a third of their workload was corrective work after botched surgery.
Most doctors are insured by either the Medical Protection Society or Medical Defence Union. Both admit that claims against cosmetic surgeons are a growing concern, but refuse to give numbers of claims made, saying it is sensitive information that could be used by the other to gain a commercial advantage.
MP Ann Clwyd has been arguing for tighter regulations since 1994 and is backing the Cosmetic Surgery Minimum Standards Bill, which would improve industry regulation.
She said: ‘Why should these figures be hidden? In too many cases, the NHS is having to patch up shoddy work of cosmetic cowboys and it has to stop.’
The NHS has no record of the number of operations carried out to patch up botched cosmetic surgery. Even if it did, this figure would only be the tip of the iceberg, as care is not offered on the NHS unless there is a serious risk to health.
Ash Mosahebi, consultant plastic surgeon and a spokesperson for BAAPS, says: ‘Most of the time, patients will have to go private if they want something redone. If they can’t afford it, they just have to live with the result.
‘We know there is a problem because our surgeons are performing increasing numbers of repair jobs on patients. Either they have received a substandard first operation, were not properly warned about the risks, or misled about the possible outcomes.
‘Honesty and management of expectations is key, and commercial High Street clinics often don’t provide this, promising the unachievable to patients who have an unrealistic view of what can be done.’
An informal survey of the BAAPS Council – 20 of Britain’s leading surgeons – revealed all had seen at least ten corrective cases in the last year and one had seen over 50. On average, a third of their workload was corrective work after botched surgery.
Most doctors are insured by either the Medical Protection Society or Medical Defence Union. Both admit that claims against cosmetic surgeons are a growing concern, but refuse to give numbers of claims made, saying it is sensitive information that could be used by the other to gain a commercial advantage.
MP Ann Clwyd has been arguing for tighter regulations since 1994 and is backing the Cosmetic Surgery Minimum Standards Bill, which would improve industry regulation.
She said: ‘Why should these figures be hidden? In too many cases, the NHS is having to patch up shoddy work of cosmetic cowboys and it has to stop.’
There is little to stop, say, a gynaecologist from performing nose jobs. It happens.
All patients, when choosing to have surgery, must be equally protected, but the law doesn’t do that well enough.
Yes, this is no Mid Staffs scandal – there are huge problems within the NHS that need urgent attention – but Ministers must not ignore patient safety in the private sector.
More than 40,000 Britons a year go under the knife and hundreds of thousands more have fillers or Botox.
It’s big business, worth £2.3billion a year, but legislation hasn’t kept pace with this rapidly evolving sector, leaving the door open to cowboy operators more concerned with money than medical ethics.
Denise Hendry paid for this lack of regulation with her life, and many more have been left to live with horrific results and pain. Most are too ashamed to admit publicly what has happened, and can’t afford corrective operations.
As Sir Bruce Keogh prepares to present the Government with his review of the cosmetic surgery industry, The Mail on Sunday has five proposals made in consultation with key figures in medicine, including the Royal College of Surgeons, the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons, and the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors. We believe these are necessary to make the industry safer.
Most importantly, there must be a minimum standard of skills for every doctor carrying out cosmetic surgery.
We suggest a qualification of ‘cosmetic surgeon’ relating to the type of operation the doctor performs. If that doctor wants to do nose jobs, he has to prove to the GMC, through assessment, that he is skilled in nose jobs.
Advertising, financial deals, Groupon offers and other incentives must be banned. These can cause people to rush into surgery, and undermine the seriousness of operations.
Before being booked in, patients must be properly assessed by their surgeon – physically and mentally – and warned explicitly of risks.
A regulatory body should be set up with mandatory membership. It will make sure all doctors hold UK insurance and keep records of surgical results so any problems are quickly spotted.
Those carrying out injectable or laser treatments must be medically trained, assessed and registered.
No one deserves to be butchered like Denise or the other women in our campaign. We urge Sir Bruce to listen to our recommendations, and for the Government to take serious measures to protect the public.
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