DOCTORS who carried out high-risk heart surgery on a pensioner who died days later said yesterday they were right to do so.
An inquest into the death of Alexander Robertson heard how the 80-year-old was operated on at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, for a heart valve condition.
The operation on the retired plasterer, of Throckley Avenue, Acklam, seemed to have been a success and he was moved out of the intensive care unit and on to a ward.
But within days he developed an infection, which led to pneumonia, and he died on May 9, 2001.
Anaesthetist Dr James Park told Teesside Coroner's Court that the elective surgery was high-risk, but if he hadn't had it Mr Robertson's prognosis would have been "very poor".
Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield, recording a verdict of death by misadventure, said he was satisfied the operation had been carried out correctly.
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