Beauty therapist died after taking flight eight days before cosmetic surgery operation

A beauty therapist who died from a blood clot following breast enlargement and tummy tuck surgery had been on a three-hour flight eight days before her operations, her mother has told an inquest.

Louise Harvey, 36, from Norwich, died on July 5 2018 after undergoing the procedures in London on June 17 2018.

A post-mortem examination recorded that the mother of three died of a bilateral pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that occurs in the lungs.

Secondary causes were recorded as breast augmentation and abdominoplasty, the medical term for a tummy tuck.

Louise Harvey, 36, from Norwich, died on July 5 2018 after undergoing the procedures in London on June 17 2018.

Linda Harvey, 53, said that her daughter had been on a family holiday to Bulgaria, with flights of around three hours each way, from June 3 to June 9 2018.

Norfolk's area coroner Yvonne Blake read a statement from Mrs Harvey to Tuesday's hearing in Norwich.

In the statement, Mrs Harvey said the flights were from Norwich Airport to Bulgaria direct and "I believe were just over three hours each way".

She said it was her daughter's first time on a plane and she had been "very excited" about the flights and the holiday.

Anaesthetist Thaventhran Prabhahar, who worked on Ms Harvey for the cosmetic surgery, said that a flight would only have been a consideration if it was long-haul of more than five hours and "a week or five days within surgery".

He added that he had not been aware of Ms Harvey's flight at the time.

Dr Prabhahar said surgeon Manish Sinha, who performed the operations, told him that Ms Harvey would be treated as high risk.

"Once we decided we were going to treat it that way, I didn't probe into it," he said, adding that he did not know if it was due to family history of blood clots or due to Ms Harvey having a contraceptive injection.

He said the treatment pathway would have been the same with both.

Dr Sinha said earlier in the inquest that he was not aware of Ms Harvey's family history of blood clots at the time of the surgery.

Dr Prabhahar said that if the risk with Ms Harvey was "anything more serious then you would have expected it to be investigated".

He said he was not aware that a prescribed dose of blood thinners was not administered four hours after Ms Harvey's surgery, adding: "We work in a team and you expect everyone to play their role."

The inquest continues.