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A woman died after a back operation by a surgeon barred from doing spinal surgery, an inquest heard today.
Satwant Vohra's aorta ruptured following the routine operation on a damaged disc at a private hospital. Her surgeon Chinh Nguyen had been suspended from performing open spinal surgery after concerns were raised about him.
Nguyen, currently serving a prison sentence for money-laundering, acknowledged he may have injured Mrs Vohra's aorta at the Garden Hospital in Hendon last December.
The inquest in Hornsey heard that Mrs Vohra, 55, a sub-postmistress from Welwyn, started to deteriorate in the hours after the operation.
She was taken to the NHS-run Whittington Hospital in Archway for emergency surgery but doctors were unable to stem the bleeding.
Nguyen had been stopped from performing spinal surgery from 2007 until last year and was permitted to restart only after a period of retraining.
Asked today how Mrs Vohra's injury occurred, he said: "Probably as a result of my surgery."
The hearing continues.
