The wife of the former Scotland football captain Colin Hendry died today following surgery to correct the botched liposuction procedure that almost killed her seven years ago.

Denise Hendry, who was 43, had been in intensive care at Salford Royal hospital for several weeks suffering from a meningitis-like infection after undergoing an operation to repair the damage.

She nearly died in April 2002 after the liposuction procedure at the private Broughton Park hospital in Preston, Lancashire, went badly wrong, leaving her with multiple complications.

Hendry, from Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, fell ill just two days after the surgery and was treated for septicaemia at the Royal Preston hospital.

Her heart also stopped for four minutes as she went into a cardiac arrest following the botched operation. She suffered nine punctures to her bowel and colon, causing blood poisoning and multiple organ failure, and needed a 16-hour operation in May as part of the long recovery process.

Gustav Aniansson, the cosmetic surgeon who carried out the liposuction procedure, voluntarily applied to be removed from the General Medical Council’s register, and lawyers for the couple later secured a £300,000 damages settlement in November 2006.

Speaking afterwards, Hendry said: “I felt so bad when I thought Colin could have lost his wife and my children would have lost their mother. I felt overwhelming guilt at how stupid I’d been.”

She had been receiving treatment from a specialist in the unit of the National Intestinal Failure Centre, which is based at the hospital.

Her husband, the ex-Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and Rangers central defender, had been at her bedside throughout the ordeal.

The couple have four children aged between 19 and nine.

Yesterday, Colin Hendry paid tribute to his wife and spoke of his family’s sense of loss.”Words cannot describe the desolation we feel,” he said.

“I cannot begin to imagine life without her, but we are a strong and devoted family and somehow, if only for Denise’s sake, we will get through.”