A woman who underwent heart surgery at a private Dublin hospital died three days later following complications, an inquest has heard.
Mary McGrane (77), Philipstown, Dunleer, Co Louth, was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis and underwent an operation to replace her aortic valve at the Mater private hospital on January 20th, 2006, Dublin City Coroner's Court was told.
The operation involved replacing the existing valve, which was too tight, with a tissue valve and was carried out by cardio-thoracic surgeon James McCarthy.
The court heard Ms McGrane made good progress for 48 hours after the operation, but then developed a serious bleeding complication, which caused compression of the heart, a medical condition known as cardiac tamponade. This necessitated further surgery on January 22nd and Ms McGrane died on January 23rd.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the inquest that she died as a result of multi-organ failure and systematic inflammatory response syndrome, with cardiac tamponade complicating an aortic valve replacement procedure.
He returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
Mr McCarthy told the court the two operations put Mrs McGrane's body under "a lot of stress," as is normal with cardiac surgery, and she developed the response syndrome.