Footballer’s Daughter Supports Crusade To Prevent Incompetent Plastic Surgeons From Operating

The former professional footballer, Colin Hendry and his daughter Rheagan are backing a national newspaper campaign to rid the medical professional of surgeons unfit to work.

The campaign, launched by the Mail on Sunday is called ‘Stop Cosmetic Surgery Cowboys’. It follows the untimely death of Denise Hendry, Colin’s wife, who died in 2009 after a liposuction treatment. The wife and mother of four wanted the procedure to look better but it resulted in 7 years of digestive problems because her bowel had been perforated 9 times by the surgeon.

Daughter’s anguish over surgical blunder

Rheagan Hendry who is now a mother herself says that she ‘shakes with rage’ when she thinks about how the surgeon, Gustav Aniansson is still working in the same profession.

She explained that her mother did everything for her children and this was one of the few things she wanted to do for herself. She said that no one had even thought about potential problems that might occur during or after the operation.

While in surgery Denise’s bowel ended up getting punctured 9 times. The toxic chemical coming from her bowels induced a heart attack and multiple organ failures. She was put into an induced coma and kept alive on a life-support machine for over a month.

Incredibly, Denise survived but had to have a total of 18 operations and had to have a colostomy bag fitted towards the end of her life when an infection took hold of her body aged just 42.

An unregulated industry

Prior to Denise’s story, there had been a multitude of similar stories where patients have died or been left severely injured as a result of a less than capable procedure carried out by surgeons.

Following the inquest into her death, her husband Colin Hendry poignantly described his deceased wife as ‘beautiful…inside and out’.

Newspaper campaign targets

The Mail on Sunday campaign is now asking that in a largely unregulated industry there are more changes put in place by the government to stop accidents like this happening to innocent victims. It is believed that not all, but many organisations are prioritising profit above patient well-being.

Published 11th February 2015.