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Doc charged for botched Swedish breast op

A Polish doctor and two nurses have been charged in connection with a breast augmentation operation in 2010 which left a Swedish woman in a coma and suffering from serious brain damage.

“I started to cry when I heard. It feels good that something is finally happening,” said Ann-Katrin Berggren, mother to Christina Hedlund, to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.

The trio of medical professionals based in Gdansk in northern Poland have been charged with grievous bodily harm and for tampering with a medical file.

Christina Hedlund, now 33-years-old, travelled from her home in Malmö in August 2010 to undergo a breast operation ahead of her planned wedding.

However something went badly wrong during the routine surgery and Hedlund sustained serious brain damage due to a lack of oxygen when her heart stopped.

The case received a great deal of publicity in Sweden at the time and was featured in an episode of Sveriges Television’s investigative news programme Uppdrag Granskning in November 2010.

According to the charge sheet, Hedlund was given such large quantities of anaesthetic during the operation that her heart went into arrest.

It also notes that she was not properly supervised during her recovery from the operation, according to the DN report.

Following Hedlund’s return to Sweden, the family has fought a battle to establish responsibility for the botched operation.

Christina Hedlund remains paralysed, able only to breathe and hear on her own, with little ability to communicate with those around her.

TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson

Follow Peter on Twitter here.

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