A 44-year-old woman in Antigua and Barbuda has filed a lawsuit claiming she suffered years of pain and lost income after a hiatal hernia operation she says was negligently performed.
Ananthsa McDonald, of Powell’s Estate, submitted the claim to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court on 26 November. She alleges that a Nissen fundoplication carried out in June 2020 left her with severe complications that later required corrective surgery in Germany.
Court documents state that McDonald began experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath in May 2020 and was advised to undergo the procedure. But she says her condition worsened after the operation, reporting difficulty swallowing, weight loss, chest and back pain, and extreme fatigue. Although told she would recover within six weeks, she claims her symptoms intensified.
McDonald alleges she repeatedly returned to the surgeon but was given inadequate care and was instead encouraged to seek psychiatric evaluation. Her symptoms, she says, forced her to resign from multiple jobs, including at the Ministry of Health, La Bussola Restaurant and Royalton Antigua.
In late 2021, a different physician diagnosed a tight esophageal junction and advised urgent corrective treatment. McDonald travelled to Munich in January 2022, where a six-hour laparoscopic procedure was performed. A German surgical report cited extreme narrowing at the stomach entrance, a significantly dilated esophagus, and warned the condition could have progressed to a “point of no return” without intervention.
Her lawsuit claims the original surgery created an excessively tight gastro-esophageal junction and that requests for her medical records were refused, delaying her ability to seek further care.
McDonald has since returned to full-time work as a lecturer, though she reports some lingering symptoms.
She is seeking damages for pain and suffering, loss of earnings, breach of contract and breach of statutory duty. Special damages include medical fees, travel and accommodation costs for the German surgery, and lost income between 2020 and 2022.
The surgeon named in the suit declined to comment. No defence had been filed at the time the documents were released.
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