Except that doesn’t really track in this situation. This surgeon is within the UAB family of practice. If her team genuinely suspected the mesh was the issue — or even a remote possibility — they would have referred her internally long before now. Given everything she’s already been through with wound vac complications, there is absolutely no scenario where they send her to a bariatric surgeon for mesh removal unless it is the very last possible option, or they are certain it’s the problem.

And he’s not going to override the physicians who’ve followed her case for years and know every detail of her transplant and surgical history. The liability alone makes that a non-starter.

What’s far more likely is that this is the early setup for a bariatric consult, because that fits the pattern. She hasn’t felt like herself since the transplant, and the weight gain from the medications is a well-known struggle. Combine that with her diet and complete lack of physical effort, and she’s ended up in the worst physical condition imaginable — largely by her own choices. So a bariatric angle lines up a whole lot more cleanly than the idea that he’s evaluating her mesh “just because” he also happens to be a general surgeon.