A 43-year-old woman died on Tuesday after having done adjustable gastric-band surgery at Hadassah Medical Center at Mount Scopus two weeks ago, Maariv reported.
The cause of death given was complications following the medical procedure.
The hospital reported that they are offering the family aid during this difficult time and that hundreds of such operations are carried out every year with “one of the lowest rates of complications in the country.”
In such operations, a lap band is placed around the upper stomach which constricts it. This leads patients to consume less food and reduce their weight in a slow, two-year process.
The surgery is usually performed as a last resort for people who suffer from extreme obesity.
In 2014, health portal Camoni reported that 10,000 bariatric operations are carried out in Israel every year, including surgery such as gastric-band surgery, gastric sleeve and gastric bypass. The average fatality rate in Western countries for bariatric surgery is 2.5 per 1,000 cases, or a quarter of a percent.Natan Rothstein and Rachel Wolf contributed to this story.