PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Roger Williams Hospital in Rhode Island has suspended all-stomach stapling operations following a patient's death.

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NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that this latest incident comes on the heels of the death of a Lawrence, Mass., woman at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Robert Messa, 27, was overweight and had health issues, including diabetes. But, according to family and friends, he felt comfortable undergoing the procedure, partly because he worked at the hospital.

"First of all, I would like to take the opportunity to offer my sincere condolences to the family and I'd like to say, as of today, we're suspending the procedure at Roger Williams Medical Center," said Dr. Paul Liu, chief of surgery.

Two days after Messa's death, the hospital is not sure why he died 30 minutes into a gastric bypass procedure.

"Our preliminary findings say there have been no deviations from our standard protocols. What that means is that the patient did adhere to the guidelines that were propagated by American Gastric Surgery Society and that the evaluation preoperatively did occur and that there did not, at this stage, appear to be any mechanical failures that we can point to," said Liu.

The procedure was being reviewed by the hospital after Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital recently attributed the death of a 38-year-old woman to a faulty staple gun during the procedure.

Messa's father said the nursing assistant wanted to lose weight for health reasons.

"He was overweight and he wanted to get his diabetes under control. And him being in the medical profession, he thought this was the only way. And he was very confident and was more or less looking forward to it," said Robert Messa.

A family spokeswoman said they are getting conflicting information.

"It is very hard to understand when you lose your only child. He was so thrilled to have the surgery. He worked at this hospital. He loved this hospital. I don't know what else to tell you. We don't know what he died of," said Kathy Lynch.

The hospital said they have performed the procedure for three years and have had three deaths. Liu said that number is in line with the national average of .5 to 1 percent mortality rate for the surgery.