Gastric band DEATH: Thirty six stone woman DIES after NHS weight-loss surgery complication

A woman has died following complications after gastric band surgery

 

COMPLICATIONS after gastric band surgery saw Joanne Merchant drop from 36.5-stone to just 8 stone, and then die.

 

A mourning husband has revealed how his 36.5 stone wife lost her life after having a gastric band fitted. 

Heartbroken Aijaz (AJ) has spoken of his heartbreak after she died weighing just 8 stone when a procedure to correct the surgery went horrifically wrong.

 

Joanne Merchant weighed nearly 37 stone when doctors warned her she was living on borrowed time and needed to lose weight urgently.

They recommended she have a gastric band fitted - which she did in March 1999. And, for a time, it was successful and she shed 28 stone and felt fabulous. 

Speaking about his wife, Joanne's widower said said: "For me, weight is superficial – I always saw beyond that. Her losing weight didn't make me love her any more.

 



Joanne and Aijaz were the happiest of couples with two young children



 



Joanne suffered complications after surgery and was hospitalised



She had lost most of her mobility...couldn't even walk to bed

Aijaz Merchant

 

"But she looked amazing and it was just so nice to see how happy she felt in herself.

"We'd jump in the car and go to theme parks and the beach."

But in June 2008 the mother-of-two noticed a bulge sticking out of her chest where the gastric band's port had fidgeted up towards her neck and needed to be readjusted.

Just a month later she had a sleeve gastrectomy at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London, where part of her stomach was permanently removed.

Joanne became so ill she had to be fed through a tube - and over the years, she caught infections, never regaining her full health.

Speaking about her various medical issues, including having to wear a colostomy bag, AJ said: "Jo was not her old self. She had lost most of her mobility. And I had to empty out her bag five or six times a night. She couldn't even walk to bed and had to sleep on the sofa.

 

The mother-of-two died in 2013 in a hospital in London

"We didn't wallow though – I used to say to her 'there's always someone worse off than us,' and she'd smile. We felt so lucky to still have each other."

Unfortunately, it was this procedure that triggered a series of medical problems leading to blockages forming in her stomach. 

By March 2009 she was in a coma and while she came out of this, she never fully recovered. 

When Joanne started coughing up blood in August 2012, a scan showed she had a hole in her lung. After that, she was hooked up to a ventilator at Southampton General Hospital, where she was bed-bound for the rest of the year – away from her family. 

In December 2012 she suffered a cardiac arrest and died aged 46 in January 2013.

Later that year a coroner returned a narrative verdict and said she died "due to complications associated with sleeve gastrestomy and gastric bypass undergone in London in 2008".

Her family have now been awarded £182,000 from St George's NHS Trust, thanks to help from BL Claims Solicitors.

AJ said: "In my view, if Jo had not had that operation, she would be with us today.

"The children would still have their mother and I would still be sharing my life with my beloved wife."