AN INQUEST will begin today into the death of woman following surgery in Oxford.

Michelle Ginsburg-Smith died in February aged 50, seven months after suffering serious brain damage after a thyroid removal operation.

Surgery took place at the Churchill Hospital, and the next day she suffered hypoxia and a cardiac arrest due to a blood vessel leak blocking her airway.

From then Mrs Ginsburg-Smith, who lived in Oxford with her husband Mark Ginsburg, had to be tube-fed and lost her quality of life.

A High Court judge gave clinicians permission to switch off her life support, in agreement with her loved ones.

A two-day inquest will take place at Oxford Coroner's Court.