Monique Cousley, 40, of Curzon Avenue, Enfield, died in March at the Clinical International Centre for Advanced Plastic Surgery in Santo Domingo.
Her death was reported to East London Coroner’s Court by funeral directors when her body was repatriated.
“A preliminary investigation indicates that Mrs Cousley had attended a hospital in Santo Domingo for removal of an implant and for another cosmetic procedure,” said senior coroner Graeme Irvine.
“It seems that she passed away in the course of that process. A post-mortem took place in Santo Domingo but we have not received a copy of the records of that post-mortem.”
Mr Irvine said he had ordered his own autopsy but it had been “adversely affected by the previous post-mortem investigation and the embalming process necessary for the transport of the deceased back to the UK.”
As a result, the cause of death is currently listed as “unascertained”.
“Given those circumstances, I will open an inquest,” said Mr Irvine.
Coroners are required to hold public investigations into all unnatural or unexplained deaths and whether future similar deaths might be prevented.
He declared Mrs Cousley’s family “interested persons” – a legal status entitling them to be represented by lawyers, to review evidence ahead of the inquest and to question any witnesses called to testify.
He asked his officers to obtain a statement from the family setting out “any documentation of information that they may have from Santo Domingo, why it was that Mrs Cousley went to Santo Domingo and the circumstances of her treatment in that country”.
“Could they raise any specific concerns that they have and provide any details about the treating doctor and the investigation that took place in Santo Domingo?” he added.
Mr Irvine said he would ask the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for diplomatic assistance in obtaining records of the Dominican Republic’s post-mortem, police investigation and any investigation conducted by the hospital.
The final inquest was provisionally listed for December.
