Woman with "concrete” organs after botched weight loss op has new stomach built

A woman whose organs were "turned into concrete” after a weight loss operation will eat for the first time in three years after surgeons built her a new stomach.

Pinky Jolley, 46, travelled to Turkey for gastric sleeve surgery in November 2022 after tipping the scales at 17st 11lbs.

UK doctors said the diabetic, who was a dress size 24, should slim down when she piled on the pounds after medical complications left her in a wheelchair.

Pinky raised £2,100 via GoFundMe for accommodation, flights and the surgery and after booking the procedure, flew out two months later.

After arriving at the clinic in Istanbul, she became concerned medics “could barely speak English” - but went ahead with the surgery to have 85 per cent of her stomach removed.

When she came round from the two-hour operation, she felt very poorly and suffered intense stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration.

Four days after the procedure, Pinky returned to her home in the Wirral, Merseyside, where her GP recommended an immediate visit to the hospital.

Doctors carried out a CT scan which revealed a serious leak had led to an infection which left a ball of "concretised pus" inside her.

Pinky was forced to under emergency life-saving surgery last January which involved three medics “jet-washing” the inside of her stomach.

She recovered but was only able to feed via a tube down her nose and throat and was told by doctors she would almost certainly never eat solid food again.

Despite the set back, surgeons at Solihull Hospital this week performed a pioneering operation to effectively build her a new stomach.

Pinky is now planning to celebrate her new lease of life by tucking into her favourite dish of garlic mushrooms and cheese.

Pinky, who runs an online dog adoption service and is married to Paul, 44, said: "I know that it won’t correct everything and it won’t be a cure, but I will be able to eat again.

“I will be able to go out with friends, to have a life.

"I feel misled and upset that something that was meant to help has caused me so much suffering.

"I lost four stone in four weeks because my stomach was so tiny.

"I wanted to lose eight stone within two years.

"I've had to have a feeding tube to help but everything is so painful.

“They totally botched the operation and left my insides so infected they were all hard
and like concrete the doctors said.

“It's been a horrible ordeal I just want to be well again.

“Looking back it was so cheap that I really should have thought twice but I just got so swept up.”

Pinky, who now weighs 11.5st and is a dress size 18, hopes to return home in the next few weeks.

Lead surgeon Professor Rishi Singhal released her colon, liver and spleen which were stuck and out of position.

He and his team performed a by-pass operation by creating a small pouch from the top end of her stomach and attaching it to her small bowel.

Prof Singhal said dissecting her stomach was "like cutting through concrete".

He added: “This is normally routine surgery but because of the state of her insides, on a scale of one to 10, this is an 11.

"Surgeons elsewhere in the NHS have declined to do it.

“We have to try to avoid the septic mass - if we cut into it, then she could become septic very quickly and die."