Family sues feds for $15M after complications from bariatric bypass surgery kill 550 lb. cab driver

Warren Jupiter, a father of three from Chelsea, underwent bariatric bypass surgery at the Manhattan VA hospital in April 2003 after health problems linked to obesity put his life at risk.

"He was looking forward to being thin," his widow, Barbara Jupiter, testified last week in Brooklyn Federal Court.

But the Army vet - who had driven cabs and worked as a food manager at Mabel Dean Bacon High School - developed a gastric leak that went undetected for months.

The deadly complication remained hidden because doctors claimed Jupiter was too fat to fit inside a CAT scan machine.

By the time the leak was found, Jupiter's body was riddled with infection. His body was covered with massive bed sores, and he died a painful death two years later in a VA nursing home in the Bronx, court records show.

He was 54 and his weight had plummeted to 190 pounds.

(...) The doctor who performed the original bypass surgery admitted Jupiter had grown very ill - too sick to undergo the operation that might have fixed the leak.

"Was it the plan to fatten him up for surgery?" asked Steven North, the family's malpractice lawyer.

"Our plan was, to use your term, fatten him up, improve his nutritional status and get him in the best shape possible to operate on him," Dr. Thomas Gouge said.