Doctor jailed in former first lady's death

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MADRID, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Spanish doctor who botched a cosmetic surgery has been sentenced to a year in prison for the death of a former first lady of Nigeria, officials said.

The doctor, identified in court records only by the initials AM, was sentenced for negligent homicide in the 2005 liposuction death of Stella Obasanjo, the BBC reported Tuesday. Obasanjo the wife of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, was Nigeria's first lady from 1999 until her death at 59.

Obasanjo died a day after the doctor inadvertently punctured her colon and lacerated her liver with a tube used to remove fat, the BBC reported.

The surgery was performed at a luxury clinic in Marbella, Spain, specializing in cosmetic surgery.

Obasanjo's injuries would have been detected, and could have been treated, if the doctor and his medical team had performed simple blood tests or an ultrasound, court records said.

The doctor also was banned from practicing medicine for three years and ordered to pay $176,000 in fines to Obasanjo's son, the BBC reported.