Death of Mother-of-Two After Weight-Loss Surgery in Turkey

An inquest has revealed that a driving examiner, who traveled to Turkey for a weight-loss procedure, succumbed to fatal bleeding following complications during the surgery. Janet Lynne Savage, a 54-year-old mother of two from Bangor, Gwynedd, experienced damage to a major artery during the operation, which led to her suffering a cardiac arrest. Despite the best efforts of the emergency medical teams at the Antalya hospital, she passed away in the intensive care unit on 6 August, 2023. The Caernarfon hearing concluded with a narrative verdict, determining that her death resulted from severe blood loss sustained during gastric sleeve surgery. The inquest heard that Mrs Savage had contacted Regenesis Health Travel, a health tourism company, in early July 2023, and within a day, she had arranged to undergo surgery in Turkey the following month. She informed the health tourism provider that she had previously been using the medication Ozempic for weight loss but could no longer obtain it, expressing worry about rapid weight gain. She stated her goal was to lose three stone (19kg) and communicated to Regenesis Health Travel that her body mass index (BMI) was 30.7. The NHS defines this index as a measure of healthy weight relative to height, and a BMI of 30.7 would have placed Mrs Savage at the initial point of the obese category, which spans from 30 to 39.9. Alison Ergun, a client service officer employed by Regenesis, testified that she received a call on the day the surgery took place. In a statement, she reported: “There was a complication and she had stopped breathing in the first few minutes of surgery.” Kate Robertson, the senior coroner for North West Wales, indicated that translated medical notes from the surgeon, Dr Ramazan Azar, detailed a 3-4mm “defect” in the aorta artery at the commencement of the operation, which resulted in bleeding. He further stated that the surgical team repaired the aorta, and the gastric sleeve procedure was aborted because of these complications. Nevertheless, medical personnel in the intensive care unit subsequently could not detect a pulse, and Mrs Savage was declared deceased in the early morning hours. The coroner mentioned that she requested a post-mortem examination upon Mrs Savage’s body being returned to Wales, which was conducted at Glan Clwyd Hospital. Pathologist Muhammad Aslam concluded that the cause of death was acute bleeding from the abdominal aorta, despite it having been repaired. The coroner extended her sympathies to Mrs Savage’s family.