Dark side of weight loss surgery – up to 1 in 20 have severe complications

Weight-loss surgeries can be a lifeline for obese people who cannot fight their food cravings — but the treatments have deadly consequences when they go wrong.

It was revealed last week that Lisa Marie Presley’s death in January was the result of an injury she suffered several years earlier following bariatric surgery.

The umbrella term is used to describe procedures that shrink the stomach and reduce the calories a person needs to eat before they feel full. 

Presley died from a blockage in her small intestine caused by a build-up of scar tissue that essentially prevented her body from absorbing nutrients or digesting food.

The nature of her death was shocking to many, but it is not entirely unique. Roughly one in five weight loss surgery patients can expect to endure potentially-deadly complications.

Fatal complications from bariatric surgery are typically rare, with around one in every 1,000 people dying each year after having the operations. 

But that risk increases markedly for a patient who undergoes surgery in substandard clinics.

Markita ‘Kiki’ McIntyre of Biloxi, Mississippi, died on a Tijuana operating table in May 2021 while undergoing gastric sleeve surgery.

The 34-year-old mother of three was one of a growing number of victims of medical tourism, a phenomenon that sees Americans travel abroad for medical procedures such as weight loss and plastic surgeries where they are a fraction of the cost.

Without any insurance to cushion the financial blow, bariatric surgery can cost up to $30,000 in the US, whereas in Mexico, the price is much more doable at $5,000 to $8,000.

 Just a few years before Ms McIntyre’s ill-fated trip to Mexico, Idaho-native Justine Rodriguez had decided to undergo the same sleeve procedure also in Tijuana. 

At 387 pounds and a recent letter of rejection for coverage by her health insurance, Ms Rodriguez was desperate. Like many Americans, she went to Mexico.

While she survived, she spent weeks in hospitals and almost two years on feeding tubes, has epilepsy and suffers from seizures, is in constant pain, cannot eat most foods, and has to take more than a dozen pills a day. She also owes the University of Utah Health about a million dollars for saving her life.

She said in 2019 that the cut-rate surgery was not worth her health or the pain the experience has inflicted on her loved ones as well: ‘The problems that I have now are not worth going to Mexico to get that surgery done.’

Bariatric surgery is an all-encompassing term for weight loss surgeries that work by altering the anatomy of the digestive tract in some way, such as by removing about 80 percent of the stomach to leave a new, tube- or ‘sleeve’-shaped stomach.

The procedure, which severely limits the amount of food a person can take in before feeling full, is fittingly known as a gastric sleeve. 

Another common bariatric procedure is gastric bypass in which a surgeon creates a small pouch at the top of the patient’s stomach and attaches a section of the small intestine to it, limiting the amount of food they can eat and thus restricting calories. 

The surgeries are considered the gold standard when it comes to weight loss surgery with up to a 90 percent success rate in helping people shed unhealthy pounds – and even has been cleared for use in children as young as 14. 

But the surgeries can have tragic consequences resulting in severe pain, abscesses in the abdomen, organ damage, or malnutrition if performed shoddily or by an unaccredited doctor.

Improper technique can damage healthy blood vessels in the abdomen where the surgery is taking place, potentially causing severe bleeding. And doctors who staple incisions incorrectly can inadvertently cause leakages where the stomach was divided, leading to infection.  

Bariatric surgeries are typically successful, which in this instance means the patient has been able to shed about 50 percent of the excess weight packed on their body.

Kelly Osbourne was one of those success stories, having admitted to undergoing a gastric sleeve procedure in 2018, allowing her to shed 85 excess pounds. She is elated with the results and has said getting the surgery was ‘the best thing I have ever done.’

But when complications occur, the fallout can be deadly.

Ms McIntyre, a makeup artist, was drawn to Mexico because of the considerable discount though she still did her homework in the lead-up to signing on for the surgery to ensure that she was going to a safe clinic with qualified doctors.

What happened after Ms McIntyre arrived in Mexico is somewhat of a mystery, according to her friend Francesca Moultrie, who was initially planning on undergoing the same surgery but changed her mind in the end.

Ms Moultrie had been in regular contact with her friend, checking in often to make sure everything was going ok. Moultrie said she ‘asked her how she was doing and she said she was OK.

Ms Moultrie said: ‘I had posted something on Facebook and she laughed at it. I was going to talk to her after surgery around 2 or 3 p.m.’

At 5 pm, having not heard from her friend, Ms Moultrie got the devastating news from KiKi’s husband – she had become unresponsive during the procedure and died on the table, an extremely rare event in bariatric surgery.

It is not clear what specifically about the surgery proved fatal, but several negative events are possible.

Excessive bleeding during or after a procedure due to the surgeon improperly sealing or stapling blood vessels shut. The staple line can also leak, leading to a potentially fatal infection.

Ms Rodriguez traveled to Tijuana with her mother in 2016 to have the procedure. The follow-up care was minimal, with her surgeon advising her to reach out with any complications or questions via email. But she did not even know what complications to look out for.

About a week after the surgery and back in Idaho, Ms Rodriguez said her doctors found a massive abscess in her abdomen which required more than one surgery to fix.

Ms Rodriguez said: ‘They did another surgery to try to clear it out, but they couldn’t because it was rock-solid, like concrete.’

And these are not isolated incidents. The internet is peppered with horror stories of people undergoing the surgery in the US as well as abroad. Some have suffered malnutrition from not being able to keep food down, hair loss, weakened bones, a build up of scar tissue, and gallbladder damage.

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a gastric sleeve patient nicknamed NI saw weight fall off as intended within the first month post-op, but soon she started having trouble eating and drinking, as well as extreme nausea that left her unable to take in nutrition on her own for a week.

At the emergency department, she was hospitalized for malnutrition, deficient potassium and magnesium, and dehydration. About a week later, doctors had to remove her gallbladder. A second week-long hospitalization showed a build-up of fluid at the surgical site, but NI said she did not receive treatment for it.

She said: ‘I have been home from the hospital for a week and a few days and my body is still numb. It doesn’t affect me walking but I have night sweats on my legs only at night. I am scared and don’t know what is going on.

‘I’m scared and just feel like if I don’t get this under control I could lose my life. Tried some soup today but was only to take 4 sips of it. Before I was able to eat way more. I can’t eat at all now. Only drink.’