Jazz Jennings' Doctors Say She Had a 'Difficult Surgical Course' with a 'Severe' Complication

Season 6 of I Am Jazz will document the teen's third gender confirmation procedure

It's been a year and a half since Jazz Jennings underwent gender confirmation surgery, and her journey isn't over yet.

In PEOPLE's exclusive sneak peek at Tuesday's season 6 premiere of I Am Jazz, the 19-year-old meets with her surgeons, Dr. Marci Bowers and Dr. Jess Ting, to discuss what went wrong with the surgery as she prepares to undergo her third — and hopefully final — procedure.

And her parents, Jeanette and Greg, are hopeful things will work out.

"I feel like we're near the end of the journey at this point," Greg says as Jeanette crosses her fingers. "And I do feel like this is going to be one where they say, 'This is what we've got to do to finish everything up, complete the process, and let Jazz go on her merry way.'"

Speaking to the cameras, Dr. Bowers admits Jazz "has had a very difficult surgical course."

"She had a very incredible first surgery — it went seemingly very well, but there were problems," she explains. "And that prompted a second surgery, which I was not a part of, unfortunately."

"Taking Jazz on as a patient for surgery, we knew it was going to be a one-of-a-kind surgery," Dr. Ting adds. "We don't have the experience of having said we've done 50 of these. I was just not expecting her to have a complication as severe as what she did have."

Jazz Jennings with her doctor
TLC

Jazz underwent the surgery in June 2018, when she was 17. That October, she revealed she had suffered a complication and needed a second procedure.

JAZZ JENNINGS
JAZZ JENNINGS/INSTAGRAM

Sitting down with Jazz and her parents, Dr. Bowers acknowledges the complications.

"This has been a real journey, hasn't it? We knew it would be tough — it turned out tougher than any of us imagined," she says. "I think in hindsight we would have never sent you home from the hospital. You know, easy to say now. When I wasn't here when you had problems and had to go back, I can't tell you how stressful that was."

Later, producers ask Jazz's parents if the doctors' "mea culpa" was important to them under the circumstances.

"You know, it's nice to hear, 'I did something,' and acknowledging that," Greg says. "On the other hand, there's the medical side and an expectation that really should have been met."

Earlier this month, Jazz showed off her scars from her latest procedure on Instagram, calling the marks her "battle wounds."

I Am Jazz season 6 premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.

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