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Marcella (Marci) Mary Domec
1963-2005
Marci was 42 years old, and a cancer survivor. This
photo was taken at a Mary Kay Cosmetics party in January 2005, 9 months
before her death. The following
memorial is written by her best friend, Dana of TX:
My best friend died September 26, 2005 after having
DS surgery in
Germany. She had surgery on Thursday and between Thursday and the
following Monday there were numerous red flags that she had a leak,
yet the surgeon did not take her back to surgery until Monday
morning. She died of septic shock Monday evening.
She and I were both previous Lap Band patients, but both had to have
the band removed because of complications. After that hellish
experience (vomiting every day for almost 2 years) neither of us
wanted to have any kind of weight loss surgery. But after
researching DS exhaustively, we both decided that was our only hope
to be able to lose the amount of weight we would have to lose to
regain some of our health and mobility. We went to several DS
support group meetings here in Houston and met others who had had
the surgery and completely regained their health and we were amazed
and inspired by their success. Her insurance wouldn't cover any
kind of weight loss surgery, so she put her car up for collateral
and borrowed the $11,000 to go out of the country. She elected to
go to Germany because the surgeon there told her he kept his
patients in the hospital for a minimum of 6 days, and her mother is
from Germany originally and speaks German, so she knew if there were
any language barriers, she would have her mom to translate.
I felt that I did as much research as I possibly could, and I NEVER
expected her to die from septic shock. The hospital she went to did
not even have the proper equipment (so they said; I never even
thought about asking to see if they did; it did not occur to Marci
or me) to treat organ failure, and after the surgery to repair the
leak on Monday when her organs were failing, the surgeon told her
mother they would have to transfer her to another hospital because
they couldn't treat organ failure.
I guess I just want to say that even though I did what I thought was
as much research as I could, and so did my friend, she still died.
Her death devastated me, and I have decided against having any kind
of weight loss surgery; I cannot even consider it now.
I don't know how I am going to lose the weight I need to lose; it
seems hopeless for me to be able to do it. I have not been able
to "diet" for a long, long time. I was never someone who went on
diet after diet anyway. I truly believe that I am addicted to
overeating and I don't know what to do to overcome it. I feel like
I will die fat.
I just wanted to tell Marci's story. She was only 42, and she was
an ovarian cancer survivor for 8 years. I always thought a cancer
recurrence is probably what she would die from. It seemed like such
cruel irony that she died doing something to try and regain her
health. She had so many things she wanted to do that she was unable
to because of her weight.
I miss her terribly and feel so broken hearted over her death.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak freely on this site. I know
there are many people who have had WLS and are very healthy and
happy now. I don't knock anyone for having surgery; it just didn't
work out for Marci or me.Dana B of TX
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