Being held hostage in Sydney's Lindt cafe was a terrifying ordeal for Louisa Hope, but it had an unexpected positive outcome, she told a medical conference in Sydney.
The 53-year-old told medical experts when a doctor treating her after the siege ended told her they couldn't remove some shrapnel from her belly, she joked it was a shame they "couldn't have done a bit of lipo while they were down there".
"She chastised me," Ms Hope told the Hospital Week conference on Thursday.
"She said to me, 'Louisa, your fat saved your life.'
The comment helped put her previous body image insecurities into perspective.
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"The very thing I may have loathed about myself and spent so many years and so much money trying to change is the very thing that saved my life."
Ms Hope described the aftermath of the ordeal she and the other hostages endured when gunman Man Haron Monis held them hostage in December 2014.
After spending three months recovering at Prince of Wales Hospital, she decided to create a fund for the nurses.
So far, $110,000 has been raised by the Louisa Hope fund, which has helped pay for medical equipment and training for nurses.
"For me that was saying thank you to the nurses who looked after me," Ms Hope said.
