Bride-to-be dies from complications after undergoing gastric bypass surgery to look thinner on her wedding day

Bride-to-be dies from complications after undergoing gastric bypass surgery to look thinner on her wedding day

A bride-to-be died from complications of gastric bypass surgery which she underwent because she wanted to look thinner before choosing her wedding dress for the big day. Being frequently mocked over her figure and feeling uncomfortable with her body, Jana Moreels decided to go for the procedure.

She was once forced to get off a funfair ride because the safety belt would not fit around her waistline, leaving the 25-year-old scarred for life, Mirror reports. Jana went home after the gastric bypass operation but suffered from back pain during her birthday party. Within weeks, she went into a coma as doctors tried everything to save her life.

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She was set to choose her wedding dress for her upcoming wedding to her fiance after having the surgery on October 17. Two days after the operation, she was allowed to leave the hospital. However, she felt severe discomfort during the party two weeks later.

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Devastated parents Christelle and Laurent said: "It was during that night that she began to have back pain. We thought she just had taken it a bit too far with drinking. She took a Dafalgan (paracetamol)."



 

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Although Jana went to see a doctor after the pain persisted, subsequent tests that were carried out did not detect any problem with her system. Jana was rushed to the hospital on November 8 after the growing pain reached a point when it became unbearable. It was found after several new tests that Jana was suffering from a pulmonary embolism and pulmonary infarction — a condition in which a section of lung tissue dies due to vascular obstruction.

Her health deteriorated quickly despite doctors' best efforts and she went into a coma due to liver failure. While she was immediately put under the knife for a transplant, the new liver rejected her body, forcing doctors to start from scratch.

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Christelle, Jana's mother, said: "Four days later the doctors also noticed a leak to the attachment of the gastric bypass which inflamed her abdominal cavity. Jana underwent a heavy surgery. On 23rd November Jana got for the second time a new liver. Her body was however so weakened that she did not survive the surgery. At 2 am at night, we drove in all haste to the hospital. We were unable to say our final goodbyes."

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It was a hard moment for her heartbroken parents as the day she died was supposed to be the day Jana would choose her wedding dress. Christelle continued: "On 29th June she would marry. Everything was already arranged. She only needed to choose her dress. Yet instead of choosing her wedding dress, we stood that day at her deathbed."

Laurent, her father, said it was imperative that Jana's story reached as many people as possible as a cautionary tale before opting for a cosmetic surgery for which there is no medical requirement. "It does not make sense to look for a culprit, we will never know what really happened and Jana will not come back. But we want people to think twice or even three times before they have surgery. Accept yourself the way you are and do not let society influence you," he said.

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