[Mrs. Don-o]

If she had (per the news articles) severe obesity and severe sleep apnea, wouldn't her ability to breathe under anesthesia and IV morphine be a fairly major concern? Obesity is always a surgery complication.

And if her body told her (asleep or awake) that she as suffocating, wouldn't that result in agitation ---pitching around --- which could rip open sutures?

I think we (FReepers) should stop finding these doctors guilty of malpractice and/or negligence, until there's evidence. People do die from complications of surgery.

[SouthParkRepublican]

Anesthesia is always a major concern with obese patients but quite a bit of the focus is on post-op recovery as body fat tends to reduce the dissipation of anesthetics. It does not sound like this was the cause of the problem.

For a procedure like this, the patient would be intubated and ventilated and while this can cause inflammation of the surrounding tissues, it is also unlikely.

I'm guessing that the surgeon inadvertently nicked or failed to properly ligate either an artery or arterial branch in the tonsillar bed and that the patient bled out.

This is not meant to slam the medical personnel associated with this case (although I have to wonder about the post op follow up). I've known some talented, caring surgeons who have had minor procedural issues that went awry and not for lack of intent or skill. It's a numbers game. You do your best but sooner or later, with a large enough case load, something goes wrong.

Any way you slice it, sad outcome.