AN anaesthetist whose five-year-old dental patient died at a Bolton dentist's surgery after a routine operation was today found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Karla Selley, who was given a general anaesthetic because she was frightened of injections, choked to death after an operation to remove a milk tooth in August 1999. Anaesthetist Dr George Vanner, now aged 68, of Badgers Wood, Preston, carried out the procedure at the surgery in Leyland, which belonged to Lostock-based dentist Michael Lane.

The General Medical Council's professional conduct committee found that the doctor failed to ensure equipment was up to standard, and also found he failed to monitor the patient properly, failed to administer suction within the patient's mouth when she encountered breathing difficulties and delayed the use of a defibrillator.

The committee will now decide whether to strike him from the medical register.