KIM BLAKE'S DEATH SPARKS WEIGHT-LOSS OPERATION WARNING

Published: 10 March, 2011
EXCLUSIVE by JOSIE HINTON

THE grieving parents of a woman who died following a gastric bypass operation have warned against the dangers of undergoing surgery to lose weight.

An inquest was told Kim Blake, 33, was severely malnourished when she died less than a year after having part of her stomach surgically removed to combat weight-related health problems.

The mother-of-one, who weighed 20 stone and was registered blind, opted to go ahead with the risky surgery under the NHS in the hope it could ease the chronic back pain which had left her a wheelchair user.

She hoped it would lead to a “fresh start” after a stressful year which saw her hauled into court by Camden Council accused of starting fires at her flat in Grafton Road, Kentish Town, in order to be rehoused.

The arson attacks, which took place a year earlier, had forced her and her daughter to move to a secret location while police investigated, leaving her fearful and depressed. She always denied she was responsible and was subsequently cleared of all charges by a crown court jury.

The inquest at Poplar Coroner’s Court was told that, after having the operation at Whittington Hospital in Highgate in January last year, Ms Blake was unable to eat properly and would experience regular bouts of vomiting and stomach pain.

Her weight dropped to just 10 stone within 10 months and, despite two further operations to rectify the problem, she collapsed suddenly and died in December last year.

Speaking after Thursday’s hearing, Ms Blake’s father Jim described her as “skin and bone” in the weeks before her death and warned others to think twice before going under the knife.

He said: “Kim was a larger-than-life character but she was plagued by illness for most of her life.

“She thought the operation would make things easier for herself and her daughter but now we've lost our daughter and our seven-year-old granddaughter has lost her mother. Kim put her name down to have this done after being advised to lose weight but it seems to me the doctors don’t know enough about the complications of this surgery. 

“As far as I’m concerned they use people like guinea pigs and it has been at my daughter’s expense.”

The inquest heard the initial operation passed without any complications, but Ms Blake returned to hospital when she could not keep any food down.

Dugal Heath, the bariatric surgeon who carried out the operation, told the inquest: “It was quite clear there was something not right from the beginning in that she was vomiting and having pain. But I really don’t have a satisfactory answer as to why she wasn’t able to take in nutrition. There was no mechanical obstruction.”

He added that only 4 per cent of gastric bypass patients will develop malnutrition.

Surgeons at the Whittington performed a second operation to try to correct the problem but Ms Blake began rapidly losing weight and transferred her care to University College Hospital (UCH) in Bloomsbury last March.

Marco Adamo, the hospital’s lead bariatric surgeon, suspected an obstruction in the bowel and performed a third operation to remove it, but could find no blockage. By November last year, he was becoming increasingly concerned about Ms Blake’s rapid deterioration and began planning to reverse the bypass. 

Mr Adamo told the inquest: “There was nothing technically wrong with the procedure but the patient just didn’t seem to tolerate it. We were left with only one option: to reverse the procedure. Sadly, she passed away while we were making plans to reverse the bypass.”

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “Kim Blake died from interrelated acute-on-chronic surgical and medical complications of bar­iatric surgery for obesity.”