DEATH IN GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY RESULTS IN WRONGFUL DEATH MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWSUIT

Bruce Roberts

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The mother of a Houston woman who died after undergoing gastric bypass surgery filed a wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit against the surgeon, Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, and Houston Community Hospital.

In her wrongful death lawsuit the mother claims that the doctor and the hospital did not sufficiently warn her daughter who weighed 520 pounds that the surgery would be especially risky for women of her weight.

According to the mother her suit was prompted when she learned that another overweight woman had died from a massive heart attack two weeks after Dr. Nowzaradan had performed gastric bypass surgery on her. According to the Houston Chronicle the mother's medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit was prompted when she learned of the second woman's death.

The suit was prompted, in part, by the death of Renee Williams, the 841-pound Austin woman who died earlier this month from a massive heart attack, nearly two weeks after Nowzaradan performed gastric bypass surgery on her.

Since her daughter's death, Colleen Shepherd had "been going back and forth in terms of whether to pursue legal action, but she now has a renewed vigor," after the media coverage of Williams' death,...

Nowzaradan said he didn't know Tina Shepherd had died. He saw her at least once after the surgery, but she failed to follow up when his office repeatedly called her at home.