A mother bled to death after stomach surgery in Turkey went wrong, an inquest has found.
Glamorous driving test examiner Janet Savage, 54, had travelled to the country to undergo a gastric sleeve operation, supposed to help her lose weight, the coroner was told.
She paid £2,750 for a package including flights and the medical procedure via a health tourism company, after her body mass index (BMI) reached a score of 30.7.
According to the NHS, a healthy woman’s BMI should be in between 18.5 and 24.9. Mrs Savage was in the borderline obese category.
North Wales Coroner’s Court heard Mrs Savage had been given a course of weight loss jab Ozempic at one stage but was unable to buy it privately – so turned to surgery to help her lose three stone.
She booked the trip in July last year, just 24 hours after first contacting the health tourism firm, and arranged to go out the following month.
But after travelling to Turkey to undergo the procedure at the Ozel Rich private hospital in Antalya, on August 5, things went drastically wrong.
Surgical implements were placed inside Mrs Savage and her aortic artery ruptured.
Coroner Kate Robertson said: ‘Sadly, during the procedure it appears the major artery trauma has occurred which was, according to the surgeon, repaired (but) Janet went into cardiac arrest.’
Mrs Savage died in the early hours of August 6 last year in the hospital’s intensive care unit and her body was formally identified by husband Andrew.
Ms Robertson heard evidence including a post-mortem examination held after Mrs Savage’s body was flown back to the UK.
Pathologist Muhammad Aslam, who carried out the procedure at Glan Clywd Hospital, St Asaph, found the cause of death was due to acute bleeding from the abdominal aorta.
Recording a narrative conclusion at today’s hearing in Caernarfon, the coroner said: ‘She underwent a gastric sleeve operation in Turkey on August 5, 2023. During the procedure an injury occurred, with attempts to repair. She died the following day.’
Alison Ergun, a client administrator for Warwickshire-based health tourism company, Regenesis Health Travel, said in a statement that Mrs Savage had declared in one message to her that she was a ‘little worried’ about having the operation.
She was sent a weblink to converse with other patients, for reassurance, and the booking was made.
But Ms Ergun said of the operation: ‘There was a complication and she had stopped breathing in the first few minutes of surgery.’
Ms Ergun said Mrs Savage’s family arrived in Antalya later that day.
She told how she escorted them from the airport to the hospital. Using a translator, Mrs Savage’s relatives were told there had been “serious internal bleeding” and that she had had a heart attack.
Mrs Savage died in the early hours of August 6 last year in the hospital’s intensive care unit and her body was formally identified by husband Andrew
Ms Ergun said the family “thanked” her for her efforts and she escorted them back to the airport afterwards.
Relatives of Mrs Savage, a mother-of-two from Bangor, Gwynedd, chose not to attend the inquest conclusion.
Ms Robertson translated notes from the surgeon who carried out the botched operation, Dr Ramazan Azar.
He described how there had been a 3-4mm ‘defect’ in the aorta artery when the operation began, resulting in the catastrophic bleeding.
He said that the aorta was repaired and the surgery to fit the gastric sleeve procedure itself was stopped.
Medical staff in the intensive care unit were then unable to find a pulse and Mrs Savage was pronounced dead.
Ms Robertson said that she had considered the evidence as thoroughly as she could but added: ‘As with many deaths that occur abroad, the different judicial processes mean the evidence we are provided with isn’t perhaps to the extent we would have in this country.’
The NHS advises people considering having surgery abroad to consider ‘potential risks’ due to differences in safety standards.
Its website advises: ‘It’s important to do your research if you’re thinking about having cosmetic surgery abroad.
‘It can cost less than in the UK, but you need to weigh up potential savings against the potential risks. Safety standards may not be as high.
‘No surgery is risk-free. Complications can happen after surgery in the UK or abroad.’
The coroner passed on her condolences to Mrs Savage’s family.
Mrs Savage had been employed by the Driving and Vehicles Standards Agency based in Bangor as an examiner – and had passed hundreds of drivers in her eight years as a driving test examiner.
In May last year, she had been promoted to “recruitment ambassador” as an executive officer with the Government agency.