The surgeon who removed a Manawatū woman's stomach following the operation in Turkey is raising concerns about the risks of medical tourism.
Helen Watson says she started to feel unwell immediately after her gastric sleeve surgery at the Medicana Health Group clinic in Istanbul in September.
But the clinic denies it did anything wrong, instead claiming Watson did not follow her post-operation plan.
By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ
Alexandra Gordon, Watson's surgeon at Palmerston North Hospital, refutes Medicana's claims, saying in her view there's nothing Watson could have done to prevent her gastric sleeve leak and months of pain.
Gordon, an upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon, spent six hours operating on Watson.
"I can say that even if she'd gone and eaten a cheeseburger after her [original] operation, it wouldn't have caused the problems that I found during the surgery, which was scarring and lack of blood supply to the top of the stomach."
Watson travelled to Türkiye for the weight-loss surgery in September. She says she knew something wasn't right immediately, and shortly after her return to New Zealand, she saw her GP, who sent her straight to hospital.
She ended up spending almost two months there, undergoing six smaller operations before last month's major corrective surgery.
"What I found was that the proximal - the top part of her stomach - had become very narrowed and scarred and had formed a severe stricture [abnormal narrowing]. The leak had formed above that," Gordon says.
"What I found was a large number of surgical clips that had been placed around the upper stomach, which has suggested to me that they had potentially had bleeding during their operation [in Türkiye]."
Those clips compromised the blood supply to Watson's stomach, causing the narrowing and scarring, Gordon says.
"Unfortunately, the stomach wasn't salvageable, and I had to remove the entire stomach, but what I can say categorically is that this wasn't something that the patient did wrong afterwards.
"This complication occurred during the surgery."
Medicana alleges that after her return to New Zealand, Watson didn't comply with its post-surgery recommendations, such as the nutrition plan and avoiding "medical interventions" without approval of its clinicians.
But, Watson says she wasn't able to eat or drink anything and the only medical procedures she had were emergency operations.
Lack of responsibility 'troubling'
Gordon says these kinds of complications occur in about 0.5% of gastric sleeve operations, according to medical literature.
"One of the issues with people having surgery overseas is often you're not under the original team for long enough for these complications to be apparent.
"I think that it was a technical issue, but all surgeries can have technical issues and can have complications."
In this case, that wasn't the problem.
"The troubling aspect of this for me is the unwillingness of the team overseas to acknowledge that there was an issue and there was a complication.
"The shifting of blame on to the patient is a big red flag."
When asked about the case by RNZ Medicana says they followed "international medical standards".
"It is not possible to attribute any fault to the physician involved or to our company," they say in an email.
They say Watson wants to damage Medicana's reputation, and the "entire process is under the supervision of our legal team".
"We formally request that our brand not be used in your broadcasts."
Watson wants a refund of $5500 for the cost of the operation and is considering instructing a lawyer in Türkiye to pursue this.
'Certainly won't have a normal quality of life'
Watson is now recovering in Palmerston North Hospital.
"It's been really challenging - just baby steps now," she says.
"Surgery went really well. Now, it's just up to my body. I'm going to listen to my body and hear what it's going to do, to see if it accepts the changes that have happened."
Watson's weight reached 80kg last year, which on her small frame was classed as obese.
She looked overseas for surgery because she knew she wouldn't get on the public waiting list in New Zealand, and procedures can cost more than $20,000 in private clinics.
"I feel like I've lost about 10 years of my life, but I've been given that second chance, which is great.
"Now, it's just what's my body going to do? I can't do anything more or anything less than what I'm doing now. I'm really in tune with my body."
As well as removing Watson's stomach, the Palmerston North surgical team have reconstructed her digestive tract so she can eat and drink.
"She's recovering well, but life without a stomach is a big adjustment and she's going to need long-term follow-ups.
"She will be long-term risk of nutritional deficiencies," Gordon said.
"A total gastrectomy is something we would usually only do for patients who have cancer. It is really major. She certainly won't have a normal quality of life."
SHARE ME