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Kandi told her mum she felt "poisoned" after breast surgery. Months later she was dead.

A week after 32-year-old hairdresser and mum of one Kandi du Cros underwent breast enlargement surgery, she developed a fever and began vomiting.

Over the next two months, her condition progressively worsened and she died four days after she was admitted to hospital in January 2014.

Now an inquest has heard the surgery may have triggered a rare autoimmune disease that led to her death.

Her husband, Raymond du Cros, who lived in Cornwall, UK with this wife, told the inquest that Kandi “looked absolutely awful” and “could barely walk” after she fell ill in the weeks after her surgery.

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Raymond also said his wife had told her mother, “Mum, it feels like I’m being poisoned”, before her death.

The inquest also heard that is was “probable” the breast surgery triggered a flare-up of a rare autoimmune disorder, leading to organ failure and Kandi’s eventual death.

Kandi was rushed to Royal Cornwall Hospital by ambulance in January 2014. Four days later, Raymond faced the heartbreaking decision to switch off his wife’s life support machine.

breast surgery
Kandi's husband said not enough tests were done to ensure her safety before her surgery. Image via iStock.
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Until her surgery, Kandi led a healthy life and did not need treatment for her condition, which was dormant.

But it's believed the breast enlargement triggered the condition, leading to a rise of antibodies and anti-coagulants in Kandi's body, causing blood clots to form in some of her organs.

Her husband argued that more tests should have been done to ensure Kandi was safe before the surgery.

"Should there have been more tests done into Kandi's tissue disease before she had a breast implant operations?" he asked the inquest.

"I don't think the severity of her condition was fully appreciated and the right treatment was put in place at the time she was in hospital."

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Dr David Hutchinson, rheumatology lead at Royal Cornwall Hospital, told the inquest that there was "clear evidence" Kandi's surgery had triggered a flare-up of her disorder.

But, he argued, "undergoing the breast surgery was not unreasonable given the information that was at hand at the time."

The inquest into Kandi's death is expected to finish this week.