Abingdon woman speaks of gastric bypass hell (From The Oxford Times)

Abingdon woman speaks of gastric bypass hell

6:20am Wednesday 18th March 2009 in

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A WOMAN who went under the knife in a desperate attempt to lose weight has warned of the possible catastrophic side effects of a gastric bypass operation which left her disabled.

Single mum Rachel Sosville says her surgery has also left her disfigured and unable to eat properly.

Ms Sosville, from Penlon Place, Abingdon, spoke out after new figures today revealed a rise in the number of people having obesity surgery, such as gastric banding and gastric bypass, on the NHS.

In 2008, 52 people applied for weight loss surgery and 13 have already requested it since the beginning of 2009. In 2007, only 29 operations were carried out by the NHS in Oxfordshire.

However, tough NHS criteria and long assessment periods mean the majority of people – like Ms Sosville – have their surgery done privately, Ms Sosville, 36, a former civilian worker for Thames Valley Police, first looked into having surgery after losing the battle to cut her weight down from 22 stone. On January 10, 2005, after using her savings, a loan from her mother and her credit card, she paid the £9,500 fee and had the bypass at a clinic in the north of England.

Gastric bypass surgery involves creating a small stomach pouch and bypassing part of the small intestine to make the patient’s digestive system shorter.

Afterwards the patient can only eat small meals and their body absorbs less food.

Ms Sosville said: “I went under thinking I would wake up with a whole new life to look forward to.

“As it was, after the op I was in high dependency for the next four weeks, drifting in an out of consciousness, with my 13-year-old daughter Leigh and my mum being told to expect the worse.”

Ms Sosville learned that her bowel contents had leaked into her intestine, poisoning her.

She was in hospital for months and when she was allowed back home, she was unable to work, forcing her to sell her home and to move into a housing association property.

She said: “In the last three years I’ve been into hospital more than 30 times and had many more operations. I now take between 40-50 tablets a day.

“Ironically, I have lost a lot of weight simply because I can’t eat normally anymore.

“At my lowest I went down to eight and half stones.

“I even have to have daily enemas because my bowel no longer works properly.

“If I could turn back the clock I never would have had this operation.”

Ms Sosville said she would like to see the NHS providing more specialist care for people with eating disorders to prevent people becoming obese and needing to look towards surgery.

She is now taking legal action against the company which performed her surgery.

Her solicitor Richard Coleman of Withy King Solicitors in Oxford, specialises in obesity issues.

He said: “Unfortunately, many people are not properly informed about the risks involved and many of the private clinics view this as cosmetic surgery, not the major operations they really are.”

An Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust spokesman said the trust would not comment on the safety of Bariatric Surgery.

dwaite@oxfordmail.co.uk