Weight loss surgeon Reza Adib lied to a patient who ultimately died after surgery that he was treating her for “life-threatening obesity”, when it was actually for reflux, an inquest has found.

A coronial inquest into the death of one of Adib’s patients has heavily questioned the reliability and credibility of his evidence.

It found Rosemarie Campbell’s death was preventable, had he reviewed her condition in person before discharging her.

Adib is the partner of former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. He is on bail facing unrelated charges, including three counts of rape.

Campbell died aged 62, days after being sent home after having gastric bypass surgery performed by Adib on February 24, 2022.

Evidence given by Adib to an inquest into her death was found to be heavily questionable, and his practices of record-keeping labelled at times poor or non-existent.

“I accept Counsel Assisting’s submissions that I should have concern about both the credibility and reliability of Dr Adib’s evidence and his records,” the report by the Queensland Coroner’s court released on Tuesday stated.

“His evidence needs to be approached with caution.”

A letter written by Adib overstated Campbell’s obesity in order to support her accessing superannuation to pay for the surgery, the inquest found. It accepted that Adib knew the letter’s contents were false when he signed it.

“There is very little within the one-page letter that was in fact true,” the coroner said.

Adib later admitted the woman’s obesity being a “life-threatening condition” – as stated in the letter – was not true. In fact, the surgery was to treat reflux.

He said the false statements resulted from having used a letter template intended to tick the necessary boxes for the Australian Taxation Office to allow early access to superannuation for health reasons.

“It was an egregious breach of his responsibilities as a medical practitioner to have signed such a letter,” the coroner said.

“It reflects very poorly on his credit generally and re-enforces the unreliability of his contemporaneous records.”

Following the surgery, Adib should have paid more concern to how much Campbell was vomiting, which hinted at a serious complication, before discharging her, the inquest also found.

Had Adib reviewed Campbell as he should have, her complications would have been identified and rectified and she would have survived the surgery, the coroner found.

“On what he was told and not told, he should have both asked more questions and then come to review Ms Campbell in person,” the coroner said.

Adib remains on bail after being charged in May with multiple sex offences in May over an alleged attack on a woman in her 30s at his Burleigh Heads residence on March 30.

He formed a relationship with Palaszczuk in 2021.

-AAP