A surgeon has agreed to pay more than £500,000 compensation to the family of a woman who died during a routine operation.

Catherine Ferguson, 41, who studied at Brighton University, bled to death after Davor Jurkovic punctured a major artery during a simple hospital procedure.

Lawyers acting on behalf of Ms Ferguson's 11-year-old son Fergus sued the doctor for clinical negligence.

Her parents Donald and Patricia, who live in Eastbourne, said they had been devastated by her death.

Ms Ferguson, a £90,000-a-year BT manager, saw Mr Jurkovic as a private patient at London's King's College Hospital in July 2003.

She was suffering from abdominal pains, so he carried out a laparoscopy - a procedure in which a fibre-optic cable with a camera on the end is inserted into the stomach while the patient is under general anaesthetic.

The probe slipped and ruptured Ms Ferguson's aorta, a major artery connected to the heart.

Despite frantic attempts to save her, she died from blood loss.

Soon after her death, colleagues at BT set up a website in her honour which received more than one hundred messages of condolence.

Patricia Ferguson said: "Catherine was a lovely and very well-rounded person. She always had a lot of friends and just enjoyed life generally.

"She wasn't really ill she just had the odd pain in her tummy.

"Unfortunately it was a simple operation that just went horribly wrong."

Ms Ferguson's father was an RAF pilot and she spent her youth living in Singapore, the USA and Norway, as well as Germany and the UK.

She went on to study business at Brighton Polytechnic, now Brighton University, for four years.

Mrs Ferguson said: "She travelled all over the world and was a very good sportswoman, playing golf and skiing, as well as hockey for Brighton and Hove.

"She loved her time in Brighton.

"She had friends all over the world. Catherine was quite a girl."

Mr Ferguson, now retired, said: "It's been a very difficult time for everyone and now we are just trying to get on with our lives."

A verdict of misadventure was recorded at an inquest into Ms Ferguson's death at Southwark Coroners' Court in 2003.

A further clinical negligence case was due to be heard at the High Court but Mr Jurkovic agreed to pay substantial compensation, thought to be at least £500,000, in an out-of-court settlement only days before the hearing.

The compensation payment will be covered by Mr Jurkovic's insurers.

Mr Jurkovic, who qualified in Yugoslavia in 1981, denies that he was negligent, claiming that he followed "standard textbook procedures".

However, he has issued an apology to the Fergusons.

The apology, delivered by his counsel, said: "Whether this court would ultimately have held Mr Jurkovic legally liable in respect of this tragedy is a matter for conjecture.

"What is not in doubt is that, legally liable or not, Mr Jurkovic is, and keenly feels, responsible for what happened.

"The fact that his patient died during a minor operative procedure is something for which he offers a heartfelt and sincere apology."

Speaking outside court, Ms Ferguson's lawyer Paul McNeil said: "At the very beginning of the surgery, the operation went terribly wrong."

Ms Ferguson was living in West Norwood, London, at the time of her death.

She worked at the London Stock Exchange before joining BT, where she headed a department pioneering new technology.

Her son, Fergus, now lives in Lambeth, London, with his father Mark Endersby, a chartered accountant who was divorced from Ms Ferguson.

Mr Jurkovic claimed that the rupture of the aorta was "an event which could occur even in the best surgeon's hands".

He made medical history in 1999 when he led a team of surgeons who delivered triplets, one of whom had grown outside the womb.

The baby had created its own placenta there, putting the life of the mother, Jane Ingram, in danger.

The delivery was the first time such a pregnancy was successful, with the mother and all three babies surviving.