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.<br /><br />Pinky Jolley, 46, travelled to Turkey for gastric sleeve surgery in November 2022 after tipping the scales at 17st 11lbs.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Pinky raised £2,100 via GoFundMe for accommodation, flights and the surgery and after booking the procedure, flew out two months later.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />When she came round from the two-hour operation, she felt very poorly and suffered intense stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration.<br /><br />Four days after the procedure, Pinky returned to her home in the Wirral, Merseyside, where her GP recommended an immediate visit to the hospital.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Pinky was forced to under emergency life-saving surgery last January which involved three medics “jet-washing” the inside of her stomach.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Despite the set back, surgeons at Solihull Hospital this week performed a pioneering operation to effectively build her a new stomach.<br /><br />Pinky is now planning to celebrate her new lease of life by tucking into her favourite dish of garlic mushrooms and cheese.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />“I will be able to go out with friends, to have a life.<br /><br />"I feel misled and upset that something that was meant to help has caused me so much suffering.<br /><br />"I lost four stone in four weeks because my stomach was so tiny.<br /><br />"I wanted to lose eight stone within two years.<br /><br />"I've had to have a feeding tube to help but everything is so painful.<br /><br />“They totally botched the operation and left my insides so infected they were all hard <br />and like concrete the doctors said.<br /><br />“It's been a horrible ordeal I just want to be well again.<br /><br />“Looking back it was so cheap that I really should have thought twice but I just got so swept up.”<br /><br />Pinky, who now weighs 11.5st and is a dress size 18, hopes to return home in the next few weeks.<br /><br />Lead surgeon Professor Rishi Singhal released her colon, liver and spleen which were stuck and out of position.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Prof Singhal said dissecting her stomach was "like cutting through concrete".<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"Surgeons elsewhere in the NHS have declined to do it. <br /><br />“We have to try to avoid the septic mass - if we cut into it, then she could become septic very quickly and die."
