Mother-of-two dies during weight loss surgery
Story by Victor Itodo ABUH
A mother of two children has tragically died after a weight-loss operation went wrong in Turkey.
An inquest revealed that Janet Lynne Savage, 54, a driving examiner from Bangor, Gwynedd, suffered severe arterial damage during the procedure, leading to cardiac arrest.
Despite emergency interventions by hospital staff in Antalya, she passed away in the intensive care unit on August 6, 2023.
The inquest in Caernarfon recorded a narrative verdict, concluding that Mrs Savage’s death resulted from acute blood loss during gastric sleeve surgery.
According to reports, Mrs Savage contacted Regenesis Health Travel, a health tourism company, in early July 2023. Within 24 hours of initial contact, she had scheduled surgery for the following month in Turkey.
Mrs Savage mentioned to the company that she had been using the weight-loss drug Ozempic but no longer had access to it and was worried about regaining weight.
She expressed her intention to lose three stone (19 kg) and reported a body mass index (BMI) of 30.7. According to NHS standards, a BMI of 30.7 is categorised at the beginning of the obese range, which spans from 30 to 39.9.
Alison Ergun, a client service officer at Regenesis, stated that she was informed on the day of the surgery about a complication.
“There was a complication and she had stopped breathing in the first few minutes of surgery,” Ergun said.
Senior coroner for North West Wales, Kate Robertson, noted that translated notes from the surgeon, Dr Ramazan Azar, detailed a 3-4mm “defect” in the aorta artery at the start of the operation, causing significant bleeding.
Although the surgical team repaired the aorta and abandoned the gastric sleeve procedure due to complications, the intensive care team was unable to locate a pulse, and Mrs Savage was pronounced dead early in the morning.
A post-mortem examination was conducted at Glan Clwyd Hospital after Mrs Savage’s body was returned to Wales.
Pathologist Muhammad Aslam confirmed that the cause of death was acute bleeding from the abdominal aorta, which had been repaired.
The coroner expressed her sympathy to Mrs Savage’s family during the proceedings.
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