Finding into death of Mary Mulqueen

57y · Female·small bowel ischaemia; distal gastrectomy

57-year-old woman underwent distal gastrectomy and vagotomy for gastric outlet obstruction in August 2008. Coroner found she suffered an aberrant surgical reconstruction during the procedure, with abnormal bowel anatomy featuring a shortened functional segment and antiperistaltic limb. This reconstruction likely contributed to severe malnutrition and malabsorption over the following year despite multiple attempts at nutritional support. However, the immediate cause of death was acute small bowel ischaemia with sepsis in August 2009, and the specific trigger for this acute deterioration could not be determined. While the surgical reconstruction was aberrant, the coroner could not definitively establish that correcting it earlier would have prevented death.