Mother-of-one, 26, died from complications of £3,000 gastric bypass surgery she had in Turkey in desperate bid to lose weight after giving birth to her first child
- Khelisyah Ashamu, 26, from Romford, wanted to lose weight after having son
- Ms Ashamu had two surgeries in Turkey- one for the bypass and one to adjust it
- Suffered cardiac arrest after second surgery and died on February 9, 2019
- Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said the cause of the cardiac arrest suffered by Ms Ashamu remained unclear
- But she concluded that Ms Ashamu died of complications from the surgery
A mother-of-one died from complications of £3,000 gastric bypass surgery she had in Turkey, a coroner has ruled.
Khelisyah Ashamu, 26, was a Romford IT professional who died in Ekol Hospital, Izmir, on February 9 2019, East London Coroner’s court heard. The mother-of-one decided to have the surgery less than one year after giving birth to her son Cairo and he was just 11 months old when she died, the inquest heard.
Ms Ashamu had two surgeries-the first was for a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on February 2, 2019, which separates the upper part from the lower part of the stomach. The upper part is then attached to the small intestine, bypassing the lower part of the stomach, decreasing the appetite of the patient.
Her second surgery on February 3 was to make adjustments to her gastric bypass after a routine scan of her abdomen. Thirty minutes after Ms Ashamu’s second operation, she suffered a cardiac arrest, the court heard.
She was placed into a medically induced coma on February 3. Ms Ashamu was pronounced dead on February 9, after she was taken off life support.
The surgery was performed by Dr Ismail Aman, after Ms Ashamu booked the operation through Get Slim, a Turkish-based weight-loss surgery booking service which is owned by two British nationals.
The 26-year-old, who wanted to lose weight after having her son, had chosen to get surgery in Turkey as it was cheap. Patients are sometimes left waiting for weight-loss surgery for up to seven years on the NHS or have to pay £12,000 for private operations.
Khelisyah Ashamu, 26, (pictured) was a Romford IT professional who died in Ekol Hospital, Izmir, on February 9 2019
Ms Ashamu’s father Oyebanji Ashamu told the inquest in a statement that he had tried to warn her about having the procedure so soon after birth. Mr Ashamu said: ‘I was against her having the surgery. Her baby was not yet one-year-old.’
But she told her father that the weight-loss surgery was cheap and lots of people were going to Turkey to have the procedure done.
Her father said: ‘I asked her to look after her son. I was not comfortable with it at all. She told me not to worry and that all of her friends were going.
‘All of her friends came back, she was the only one who did not come back.’
Tracey Ozdemir, Get Slim co-owner, addressed the inquest, saying she set up the company after she had weight-loss surgery herself.
She told the court that Get Slim is a booking service which connects British and Irish travellers with surgeons that are willing to perform weight loss operations in Turkey.
The majority of Ms Ozdemir and her co-owner’s customers opt for gastric sleeves but Ms Ashamu chose to have a gastric bypass operation instead. Addressing the inquest, she said that a gastric bypass has a life-changing impact on the patient.
Get Slim does not require patients to share their medical records from their GPs, the inquest heard.
Ms Ozdemir said that instead those having weight-loss procedures in Turkey are required to have full medical consultations there.
She said in Turkey the surgeon goes through their full medical history with them but this relies on patients telling the truth.
The 26-year-old’s surgeon, Dr Aman, addressed the court via video link from Turkey.
Dr Aman said he had performed 4,000 bariatric surgeries in the past five years but only one in 100 of them were gastric bypasses. The doctor had advised Ms Ashamu to have a gastric sleeve operation as the surgery was quicker and safer but she refused.
Instead she asked Dr Aman for a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. When asked why Ms Ashamu wanted the bypass surgery instead of a gastric sleeve, he said: ‘She told us that she had done the research and with a bypass she will not gain weight.’
The 26-year-old (pictured) who wanted to lose weight after having her son, had chosen to get surgery in Turkey as it was cheaper
The surgery, which can lead to long-term side effects such as B12 and iron defiencies, had a mortality risk of between one to two-and-a-half in a thousand.
He said: ‘The usual complications are bleeding, pulmonary embolism, and anaesthetic complications.’
In her conclusion, coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said the cause of the cardiac arrest suffered by Ms Ashamu remained unclear. However, she concluded that she died as a result of complications arising from a surgical procedure.
In a statement after the inquest, Ms Ashamu’s parents said: ‘We never imagined when we saw Khelisyah travel to Turkey, for what we thought was a routine operation, that we would never see her alive again.
‘She was an amazing young woman, with a great career, a young son and everything to live for. Three years on, it’s still hard to accept she will never walk through the door or her son who she loved so much will not have a chance to know his wonderful mum.
‘Our grandson is a living reminder of his mum, which brings us so much comfort, but it’s devastating that he will not remember his mum because he was only 11 months old when she left and never came back. We have to tell him how much his mum loved him. She would be so proud to see how he has changed from a small baby to a fine young boy.
‘Having to go through the inquest was awful, but necessary to investigate what happened. We will continue to work with our lawyers to try and get to the truth of how our beautiful daughter died.
‘It’s hard not to think things could have been so different and we can only hope that others will think twice before booking surgical procedures abroad.’
Patients are sometimes left waiting for weight-loss surgery for up to seven years on the NHS or have to pay £12,000 for private operations. Pictured: Ms Ashamu
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