Brooke Tiddy’s family has remembered the ‘energetic and enthusiastic soul’ who was ‘deeply motivated to improve her health’ after her death following a weight loss procedure
A young woman who died just hours after undergoing a surgical weight loss procedure said five haunting words to her dad before passing, an inquest has heard.
Brooke Tiddy was recommended bariatric surgery by her doctor in 2018 after her doctor told her she was “super super obese”, and was booked in for the procedure at St George Private Hospital in Sydney, Australia, on September 19. The 32-year-old died two days later, with her family remembering the “energetic and enthusiastic soul” as the inquest at the Coroner’s Court of New South Wales opened.
The inquest heard the baker had been “deeply motivated to improve her health” and was “nervous but excited” when she learned she would receive the surgery. It comes after a man, 30, puts shoulder pain down to gym aches, then doctors ask where he’d like to die.
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But the statement from her family added “she would never have a chance to complete” her journey. Brooke’s family said the passionate baker’s life was cut short by a failure to investigate her underlying health issues before the surgery, leaving her loved ones’ trust in the health system “shattered”.
“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.”
An autopsy found Brooke had lived with an “extremely rare” skeletal condition named sponastrime dysplasia, which her surgeon, Dr Vytauras Kuzinkovas, had not encountered previously. The surgeon admitted that he did not do any research about the condition until after Brooke’s death.
Among the effects of the condition is a narrowing of the airways, which was found to have been what killed her. The autopsy discovered her airways had narrowed to the diameter of a drinking straw.
The narrowing was believed to have occurred before her surgery. Her distraught loved ones said in their statement to the inquest that they hoped the inquest would prevent similar deaths in the future.
Dr Kuzinkovas claimed Brooke downplayed her asthma and ddi not reveal she had croup or narrow airways during an initial consultation. He admitted an in-depth assessment of her medical history would have most likely revealed the risk factors, however, he hadn’t thought it was needed at the time.
The inquest heard that intensive care staff caring for Brooke had not been informed about her condition or its significance, the inquest was told. ICU doctor Michael O’Leary said that, had he been aware of the link between her condition and narrowed airways, he would have called in a specialist.
He told the inquest the experience was the worst “I’ve had in my career”, saying: “This has been the worst experience I’ve had in my career. I felt very alone that night.
“The only thing looking back on it I would do differently would be to get someone else to give me a hand.” But the doctor said he was not sure a straightforward assessment would have prevented her death, as medics needed access to her full medical history.