AN OPEN verdict was recorded yesterday into the death of a 61-year-old Co Louth woman who developed septicaemia after having a gastric band fitted in the UK.
The surgeon who carried out the keyhole procedure told Louth county coroner Ronan Maguire it carries a one in 2,000 risk of death.
Catherine “Violet” Donaghy, a retired nurse, had travelled to Birmingham to have the surgery with her daughter Orla O’Brien, who is also a nurse and who also had a gastric band inserted on the same day – March 10th this year. Some 12 days later, Ms Donaghy was found dead in the home she shared with Orla in Bellingham Green, Castlebellingham, Co Louth.
The court heard the dead woman was morbidly obese and had struggled with her weight for more than 35 years. As a result she had diabetes, high blood pressure and pain in her knees. Gastric bands may be inserted to restrict the size of the stomach and thereby food intake.
Dundalk Coroner’s Court heard that on the evening of March 22nd Ms Donaghy had gone upstairs to lie down, as she felt unwell. She died later that evening.
Her daughter described how Ms Donaghy had been listless and was feeling unwell in the days before she died. She was unable to eat properly and could not swallow the tablets for her diabetes.
Pathologist Dr Tunde Adegbola said her abdomen was very distended and there was discolouration around one of the surgical incisions. When he examined it more closely he found pus around a rubber tube in the subcutaneous tissue which was connected to the gastric band around the outside of the stomach. The pus was also around the stomach and the band.
The consultant bariatric surgeon who carried out the procedure, Dr Audun Sigurdsson, said the deceased had a body mass index of 42.2. He said the potential risks and benefits of having a gastric band were explained to Ms Donaghy in full, including the septicaemia risk. “There is a one in 2,000 risk of death,” he said.
It was a standard 40-minute operation, and Ms Donaghy was discharged home the next morning, he added. It was policy to give patients prophylactic antibiotics, which she had, he said.
The surgeon told the coroner it was normal to operate on an insulin-dependent diabetic and more than 50 per cent of such patients would later come off their medication. He added infections were rare, most occurring in the first weeks after the operation.
The coroner heard Ms Donaghy and her daughter had their post-operative follow-up appointment in Dublin four days after the operation, but that a further scheduled appointment had been cancelled. There had been telephone contact between the women and nurses attached to the clinic.
The coroner found the woman died from septicaemia due to infection at the site of the gastric band device. He said the infection had developed at the device location, which caused septicaemia. He returned an open verdict and extended sympathies to the family.