A FAMILY'S two-year battle over the death of their mother is to be decided at the General Medical Council next month.

Margaret Poole, 62, from Rudheath, died in April 1999 after routine surgery under local anaesthetic at Leighton Hospital went wrong.

An inquest into her death revealed that Mrs Poole would almost certainly have been alive today - if three critical mistakes had not been made by Dr Kaleem Toori.

Now her family are hoping a hearing of the GMC on April 18 and 19, will finally end their campaign for the doctor to be held to account.

Daughter Judith Finney, who lives in Winsford, said: "We doubt that he will be struck off, but that's what we would like to happen.

"We won't rest until he's stopped from working at Leighton Hospital."

Mrs Poole, a former secretary at Cloughwood and Witton Church Walk schools, had been admitted to hospital to have fluid drained from her right lung.

But Dr Toori started the procedure on her left lung by mistake.

He should then have ordered an urgent X-ray be taken to check there was no damage, but failed to do so.

Dr Toori was suspended shortly after her death but has since been allowed to return to work with a final written warning, following an internal disciplinary hearing.

Mrs Finney added: "What we have been through over the last two years has been heartbreaking and we want to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to another family."