Mother who had gastric bypass so she could visit Disney World dies after she becomes too malnourished to fight infection
Operation was a 'terrible mistake' says widower as he urges others to avoid the procedure.
Kim Swan, 43, who weighed 24st before the £10,000 operation, became so malnourished afterwards she was unable to fight off a fatal abdominal infection caused by the procedure, an inquest heard.
She died on January 25, after enduring nearly six months of agony.
Today her husband John, 45, said he believed overweight people should not have weight-loss surgery.
He said: 'Whatever you do, don't have it done. People should think long and hard about the risks, and try dieting and exercise instead.
'This operation was meant to improve Kim's life, but it has ended up killing her.'
Mrs Swan, from Peacehaven, East Sussex, had been overweight since she was a teenager and became morbidly obese after her pregnancies with daughters Jodie, 24, and Bethany, 18.
She became too embarrassed to leave the house and struggled to walk up a flight of stairs but still dreamed of one day taking her family to a park in Florida.
After losing - and regaining - ten stone on a dieting plan, she finally decided to have surgery to reduce the volume of her stomach drastically, and spent two years on a waiting list.
She finally had the NHS-funded operation at St Richards's Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex, on August 5 last year. The surgery at the hospital's world-famous bariatric unit passed without incident and she was discharged three days later.
Within a few days of leaving hospital, however, Mrs Swan started feeling abdominal pain and began vomiting.
At a hearing on Thursday, Mr Swan told Brighton Coroners Court: 'She was absolutely crawling the walls with pain.
'In the morning she had been complaining she had stomach pain. She thought it was wind. She didn't seem to think it was that bad.
'But when I got home from work she was a completely different person.'
After she was rushed to the Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital on August 13, surgeons found a leak in Mrs Swan's abdomen and drained three litres of infected fluid from her side.
During a further operation one week later, doctors found a one centimetre hole in her stomach lining, but were unable to say if the incision had been made during the initial bypass operation.
Consultant Guy Slater, who performed the initial weight-loss procedure, told the inquest Mrs Swan's weight and 'apple-like' body-shape made surgery difficult but he was 'pleased' with the initial outcome.
He said: 'I knew that the operation was good, the ends had joined and there was no leak. I was pleased with that operation although it was difficult. The patient was unharmed.'
Mr Slater said her subsequent complications were caused by 'poor healing rather than technical failure in the initial operation.'
Mrs Swan was sent home from the Royal Sussex County Hospital on November 5, but she was unable to fight off the infection and died weighing 19st after being readmitted to the same hospital in January.
Categories:Advocacy | Nutrition | Health | General
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