A young mother who wanted to lose weight for the sake of her son died from complications days after undergoing gastric bypass surgery.
Twenty-nine year old Suzanne Murphy, who weighed more than 19st (120kg), waited 16 months for the operation which she wanted for her five-year-old son Jacob's sake.
She went into hospital in October 2006 for a stomach-stapling operation, which reduces the amount a person can eat and how much food is absorbed but suffered a massive adverse reaction and died from multiple organ failure four days later.
However an inquest into her death has heard that Ms Murphy had contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and may also have been genetically predisposed to have an aggressive response to surgery that her body could not fight.
The inquest in Huddersfield heard that Ms Murphy, of Lightcliffe, Halifax, West Yorkshire, was put on the list for bypass surgery after a consultation with surgeon, Dr. Brian Dobbins, in June 2005, tests showed that she was no more at risk than anyone else.
She was admitted to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on October 30, 2006, for the operation, which was deemed to have been successful, however on the following day Dr. Dobbins noticed her pulse rate had quickened and her blood count had dropped.
A transfusion did not resolve the issues and she underwent an exploratory operation 24 hours after her gastric banding surgery.
Doctors found little wrong except for a small leak from the operation wound, which was considered normal and Dr. Dobbins, who has performed around 50 bypass operations, says the expectation was that her condition would improve.