Latest news with #bariatric surgery
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Patient's heartbreaking final words before death
"I want to go home." These were the last words spoken to a father by a young woman who died within hours of complications arising from elective weight loss surgery. Brooke Tiddy was admitted to St George Private Hospital in Sydney on September 19, 2018 for bariatric surgery recommended by her doctor, who assessed her as "super super obese". But her hopes for a new lease on life were dashed when the 32-year-old died two days later. An inquest into her death seeks to assess the effectiveness of the hospital's processes and prevent similar deaths. On Monday, her parents and two sisters remembered the mental health support worker as "an energetic and enthusiastic soul who would do anything for anyone". Ms Tiddy had been "deeply motivated to improve her health" and was "nervous but excited" when she embarked on the journey "she would never have a chance to complete". Her family said the passionate baker's life was cut tragically short by a failure to investigate her underlying health issues before her surgery. "This oversight cost Brooke her life and shattered her family's and friends' trust in the health system," they said in a statement. "We hope (this inquest) will lead to measures that ensure such preventable tragedies never happen again". The inquest was told Ms Tiddy lived with an "extremely rare" condition known as sponastrime dysplasia, which affects the muscles and skeletal system. Her surgeon Dr Vytauras Kuzinkovas said he hadn't previously heard of the condition and didn't do any research about it until after Ms Tiddy's death. One of the associated features is a narrowing of the airways which was ultimately found to be Ms Tiddy's cause of death, the inquest was told. An autopsy found her airways had severely narrowed to the approximate diameter of a drinking straw, which almost certainly occurred before the surgery. Dr Kuzinkovas said Ms Tiddy downplayed her asthma and depression and didn't reveal she had croup or narrow airways during an initial consultation. An in-depth assessment of her medical history would have likely revealed such risk factors, he said, but he hadn't thought it was needed at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, Dr Kuzinkovas accepted Ms Tiddy was a high-risk patient whom he would have referred to specialists before surgery. Intensive care unit staff looking after Ms Tiddy were not informed about her sponastrime dysplasia and its significance, the inquest was told. If he had been aware of the link between her condition and narrowed airways, ICU doctor Michael O'Leary said he would have called in a specialist. "This has been the worst experience I've had in my career. I felt very alone that night," he said. "The only thing looking back on it I would do differently would be to get someone else to give me a hand." Dr O'Leary said he wasn't sure whether a pre-operative assessment would have prevented MsTiddy's death because what they really needed was to access her full medical history. "In a sense we were set up to fail in this case because there was all of this information that was kept from us," he said. The inquest continues on Tuesday.
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurse, 26, Lost 270 Pounds After Making These 3 Lifestyle Changes
When his doctor prescribed the first blood pressure medication, Kevin Goode knew his weight probably contributed to it. He was 465 pounds, but he thought his high blood pressure wasn't 'too serious.' Still, it remained high, and his doctor prescribed him a second drug to try to lower it. Soon after, he learned he had sleep apnea and his A1C was 'shooting upward.' If it didn't lower, Goode would need to add insulin to his growing list of prescriptions. Then his doctor gave him a warning. 'My doctor told me that I wouldn't live past 40 with this trend,' Goode, 28, a nurse at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, tells 'That's the moment that everything changed.' At the time, he was 26 and visited a bariatric surgeon for a consultation. The doctor advised Goode that he needed to lose weight before he qualified for surgery. He immediately headed to the gym and sat on a bench to lift some dumbbells. Soon, he started eating a moderate-fat, low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet. '(The doctor) wanted me to lose 20 pounds because that would show that I was dedicated enough for surgery,' Goode explains. 'I ended up losing 80 pounds.' In December 2023, he underwent surgery. As he recovered for six weeks, he was anxious to get back to his exercise routine. 'I was very much like, 'How soon can I get back to the gym?'' he says. 'I was sitting around doing nothing, and I'm not liking it.' Six weeks later, he was cleared to return to his regular exercise routine. Over time, he shed more weight, reaching 176 pounds. 'My goal from the beginning of this whole journey back in February of 2023 was, bluntly, to win back my life. It was never about the weight, never about the bodybuilding, never about looking good,' he says. 'It was very much about (how) I was told that I wouldn't live past 40, and that didn't sit right with me, and I wanted to get rid of all the diagnoses.' This year, Goode took his love of weight training to the next level and is working toward becoming a certified personal trainer. One of the trainers in the gym approached Goode and suggested he consider participating in a bodybuilding competition. 'He was like 'Have you ever thought about doing a show?' and I was like, 'No, I just love it here and I come for the health aspect,'' Goode recalls. 'That's when I looked into the transformation competition.' A transformation competition generally focuses on people who have lost weight. Goode will compete in October in Chicago. As part of his preparation, he has focused more on lifting and less on cardiovascular exercise. 'Instead of doing 45 minutes of strength training and 30 of cardio, it's more like an hour strength training and maybe 15 minutes cardio,' he says. This caused him to gain some weight, and he's now at 210 pounds, but it's 'more muscle.' His diet has changed, too, and he focuses on counting macronutrients. He still eats a lot of protein, but with lower-fat foods and now incorporates complex carbohydrates into his diet. Losing fat while gaining muscle has changed his outlook on calories and how important they are for energy, he says. Since losing weight and transforming his body with lifting, Goode feels he's become 'more emotionally intelligent.' 'I share a lot more about myself,' he says. 'I'm 20 times more confident than I have ever been in my life.' Ahead, Goode shares what worked for him when it came to transforming his body. 'Nutrition Is Going To Be Your Biggest Thing' Eating fewer calories than he burned, what's known as a calorie deficit, helped Goode shed the weight. 'Nutrition is going to be your biggest thing,' he says. 'The biggest advice as far as actually losing weight is just (being in) a calorie deficit.' 'Fall in Love with the Small Wins' Focusing too much on the scale can feel overwhelming. People might think they look great, but the scale shows their weight increased slightly. Instead of focusing on the numbers, Goode urges people to 'fall in love with the small wins.' Goode keeps a running list of his in his notes app. 'I don't have to pick up my foot to tie my shoe. I can just bend over,' he says. 'I always made a joke that laptops are not laptops. There's no way that is sitting on my lap. But now I'm like I got all this room.' But his 'biggest non-scale victory' has been the difference he's noticed at work. 'Being able to move around (the hospital) room a lot easier, being able to play with the kids without getting out of breath,' he says. 'I enjoy it so much more now because I'm not getting (to) the end of the 12-hour shifts completely, like, dead.' Find Support While Goode taught himself how to work out, he hasn't been entirely alone in his process. 'I had the community support from the gym. My mom has been a huge supporter. All the nurses at work, they've been fantastic,' he says. 'I can't go without mentioning my amazing girlfriend. She's just been super supportive.' This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
