The wife of a 27-year-old man who died from gastric bypass surgery complications is suing his surgeon for his wrongful death, alleging the doctor failed to address internal bleeding caused by his stomach staples leaking.

The wrongful death lawsuit alleges that Brian Evenden underwent gastric bypass surgery on Nov. 17, 2011 at the Surgical Institute of South Dakota. Two days later, Evenden had to undergo emergency surgery after suffering internal bleeding that caused him to throw up copious amounts of blood.

Evenden ultimately died from his gastric bypass surgery complications. It is alleged in the gastric bypass wrongful death lawsuit that the man bled to death. A lawyer representing Evenden’s wife, Danaise, claims more than a liter of blood was found in his abdomen after he died.

The performing surgeon on the case has been named as a defendant in the gastric bypass wrongful death lawsuit along with the hospital where the procedure occurred.

According to the lawsuit, Evenden was admitted to ICU one day after his gastric bypass surgery when he began vomiting large amounts of blood. According to lawyers representing the surgical center, another doctor performed an upper endoscopy to inspect his stomach and discovered oozing blood in multiple places along the stomach staple line. That doctor used clips and a chemical to stop the bleeding.

Mrs. Evenden’s lawyer, however, argues the internal stomach staple bleeding had not stopped, and that the doctor who performed the initial gastric bypass surgery failed to address Evenden’s worsening condition before leaving for the day.

Overview of Stomach Staple Problems

Gastric bypass surgery is one of the most commonly performed surgeries for weight loss in the United States, with over 177,000 procedures performed per year. While largely considered safe, some patients have reported severe complications caused by stomach staple leaks.

Every year, the FDA receives between 8,000 to 9,000 injury reports involving stomach staple complications. While it was not specified if Evenden’s surgical staples came undone during the surgery, internal bleeding and internal organ injuries have been mentioned in adverse effect reports. Over 112 deaths have been linked to defective stomach staplers.

Stomach staple manufacturer Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., which controls the majority market share of stomach staplers, has been named in multiple product liability lawsuits claiming the company sold defective medical devices.

In May 2013, Ethicon Endo-Surgery issued a worldwide voluntary Class II recall of its ECHELON 60mm Black Reload (ECR60T) staples after it was discovered they could break during the firing sequence, causing the stapler to misfire or stay locked onto tissue, creating an incomplete staple line.