Brit mum dies during weight loss op in Turkey as devastated fiancé pays tribute

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Emma Morrissey died during a weight-loss operation in Turkey, an inquest has heard.
Emma Morrissey died during a weight-loss operation in Turkey, an inquest has heard.

A British mum-of-two died during a gastric sleeve operation in Turkey after surgeons failed to stem internal bleeding, an inquest has found.

Emma Morrissey, 44, didn't meet the criteria to have the weight loss surgery on the NHS, so travelled abroad to have it done privately at a cheaper cost than in the UK. She underwent the operation on July 7 last year. The procedure should have taken around three hours, heard the inquest, but medics told her family that it was taking longer than expected due to complications after she started to bleed internally.

She was sadly pronounced dead the next day after suffering a number of blood loss-related cardiac arrests. The inquest, presided over by senior coroner for Cheshire, Jacqueline Devonish, heard that if surgeons had stopped the operation and restricted the blood loss when it first appeared, then she would not have died.

In a medical death certificate provided by Turkey, Emma's cause of death was given as natural causes, specifically cardiac arrest, according to the Warrington Guardian. But independent pathologist Dr Mark Lord reportedly told how no post-mortem was carried out, saying there was no evidence that Emma's body had been embalmed to the standard usually seen in the UK.

While Emma did have a family history of heart disease, he found no problems with her cardiovascular system during the post-mortem. Giving her findings, Ms Devonish disagreed with Turkey's death certificate, saying Emma's cause of death was "shock and haemorrhage due to a ruptured ligament due to a gastric sleeve operation."

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The coroner added: "There is evidence that Emma's stomach had undergone the procedure, and had been stapled. The treatment offered to Emma Morrissey did not contain sufficient clotting factors and platelets to stem the bleed."

In her conclusion, she said: "Had the bleeding been stemmed at the time of discovery, Emma would have survived."

Katie Weston

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