• Financial advisor's £12,000 op left him unable to swallow solid food
• 'I'm not the happy-chappy man I used to me. I feel down all the time'
  

At 24 stone, Tim Daily was so overweight he was battling mini-strokes, diabetes and a heart condition. The 47-year-old’s obesity problem was serious enough that he was offered a gastric bypass operation on the NHS.

But although the surgery helped him lose half his body weight over the next four months, he says the results have left him in a ‘living hell’. He experiences agonising pain whenever he swallows solid food, has been treated in hospital for malnutrition and is now fed through a tube linked directly to his stomach.

Mr Daily, a financial adviser, said: ‘I would rather be 24 stone again than live like this. ‘It is a living hell. I’m not the happy-chappy guy I used to be. I feel down all the time. I’m ill and desperate.

Tim Daily was keen to lose weight after he ballooned to 24 stone (left) but said complications following surgery have made his life a 'living hell'

‘I was promised when I had the operation I would still be able to eat afterwards. ‘How would you like it if you could never eat food again?’ He is suing the NHS for a six-figure sum, claiming that he was not warned about possible complications from the £12,000 surgery.

He says he has been left with the choice of never eating solids again or a one in four chance of death if he has experimental corrective surgery.

‘I could die if I have the corrective operation. I’m only 47 and I can’t put myself at risk because I have a wife, two daughters and two grandchildren,’ he added. Mr Daily, who is 5ft 11in, had the gastric bypass operation in October 2008 when his body mass index stood at nearly 47 – morbidly obese. Anything above 30 is considered obese. The operation realigned his digestive tract and reduced the size of his stomach with staples to prevent him eating too much or too often. But last July, a tube was fitted into his stomach after his weight halved and he was diagnosed with malnutrition because he was not eating enough. Now nutrients are pumped straight into his stomach from a backpack worn during the day and a machine beside his bed at night. He weighs 11st 7lb and has a BMI of 22.5 but is still losing weight and is too tired to work. Before the operation he worked a 45-hour week, earning £100,000 a year. Now he averages less than three hours’ work a day and his wife Jenny, 46, is his full-time carer. Doctors believe that the pain he suffers from eating solid food is a result of nerve damage caused by complications following the operation. On the rare occasions he does have solid food he needs to take oral morphine. In a typical month Mr Daily, of Newport Pagnell, in Buckinghamshire, drinks nearly a gallon of the painkiller. He has instructed solicitors Kester Cunningham John to sue for loss of quality of life, loss of earnings and the pain he is suffering. A spokesman said: ‘We are currently assessing the case and waiting for further medical evidence from the hospital trust.’

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Charing Cross Hospital in West London, yesterday said it had not received any legal paperwork but insisted possible side-effects were explained to Mr Daily.

‘With every gastric bypass operation there is a five per cent risk of health complications.

‘Before undergoing any form of surgery we explain the risks and potential complications to every patient, and ask for their consent.’

Weight-loss surgery on the NHS has increased ten-fold since 2000. In the 12 months to June last year, 4,619 people had operations.

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