Brit said 'everything hurt' after Turkey surgery – one month later she was dead

A British woman who travelled to Turkey for weight loss surgery died from complications after the operation was botched and she suffered four organ perforations, an inquest has heard.

Hayley Butler, 40, had flown out to Izmir, Turkey, for a gastric sleeve operation with a friend, who underwent the same procedure, on September 23. A sleeve gastrectomy is a surgical weight-loss procedure that involves removing about 80 per cent of the stomach. An inquest into her death, held at Norwich Coroners Court, was told Miss Butler had the surgery the day after she arrived in the country and flew home 48 hours later. The dog groomer from Norwich, Norfolk, suffered from four separate organ perforations and went into septic shock.

READ MORE: British woman, 40, dies from 'complications' after gastric sleeve surgery in Turkey

The infection caused irreversible damage to her organs and she died on October 24. She had told medics after the operation, at Ozel Gozde Hospital, that "everything hurt". However, she was reassured this was normal and despite her discomfort she was discharged and given a form saying she was "fit to fly".

Returning to Norwich, she fell increasingly unwell and was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital before a transfer to a specialist unit in Luton. Tanveer Adil, a bariatric consultant who treated her at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, told the inquest that complications from surgeries carried out in Turkey were a "matter of significant concern".

Mr Adil added: "I have personally operated on more than 40 of these cases in the past five years alone." A gastric sleeve operation in Turkey can typically cost between £2,300 and £4,500, compared with up to £11,000 for a private procedure in the UK.

Miss Butler underwent the operation on September 23. After her return to the UK, she began to suffer from nausea and projectile vomiting. She was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on October 10 before being transferred to the specialist bariatric unit in Luton, where it was found she was in septic shock.

It was later discovered that during the operation in Turkey, she had suffered four separate perforations, including in her colon and esophagus. She underwent further surgery at Luton to treat her sepsis, which was judged to be a success.

However, the damage to her organs was too great and she died on October 24. Mr Adil said that as a result of the botched gastric sleeve operation, three litres of faecal fluid had leaked into her abdomen, resulting in the infection.

He said: "It is my opinion that the cause of her death was not what happened in Luton, but what happened in Turkey, where there was a lack of safety netting for what was a complicated procedure." Gillian Moore, Miss Butler's mother, told the inquest: "She had tried to get help in this country but just did not get anywhere.

"She was frustrated with waiting and had spoken to friends who had it in this country and said it was the best thing they'd done, but it was just so expensive. She had waited so long that she just went and did it." Mrs Moore said her daughter's friend, who had the same operation, had also started experiencing complications.

Yvonne Blake, area coroner for Norfolk, gave a narrative conclusion describing the chronology of Miss Butler's deterioration. Mrs Blake said: "Clearly, the operation was not done properly. For her to have suffered four perforations, anyone can take a common-sense view of that."

Meanwhile, Mrs Moore raised separate frustrations about communication with the hospital while her daughter was being treated in Luton. She described not feeling kept well enough informed of her deterioration, and the family being left alone without explanation when she eventually died.

She said: "It is going to haunt me forever that we were just left to work out what was going on. It was the most heartbreaking experience anybody could go through."

Mrs Blake added: "It was astonishing you were left with her to die." The medical cause of her death was confirmed as refractory multiple organ failure due to sepsis, with complications from the surgery listed as a contributory factor.