Jesser

4. Bring Purell or other hand sanitizer and request the staff use it or wash their hands. Universal precautions were out the window at this hospital. What I realized is I researched the heck out of my doctor but neglected to research the staff. No handwashing was seen. No gloves were used to draw blood or start IV's. The nurse starting our IV's had a cold but wore no mask and would turn on occasion to sneeze into her armpit. YIKES!!! -these are the healthcare professionals and I'm gonna have to remind them to wash their hands? This worries me. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It really does help a lot

I don't know what else I can do either I'm hoping that getting the sleeve will help with the hunger hormone, plus reduce the size of my stomach and greatly lower my cravings. I'm a Dr Pepper lover, so also getting the sleeve will make me do away with that as well.

Fear is definitely an anchor holding me down!! Ugh. I hate it! I'm just gonna do like you said and try to push all the fear and negativity out of my mind.

You're right. I can't help but think of the bad things that could possibly happen though... I have read a few complication stories that have really made me think long and hard about this. It's a stressful decision for sure

Yes, I am. Dr Lopez is on the same team as Dr Garcia. I will be at the Marriott and Mi hospital.

This cracked me up! Especially the part about bringing the tray of Cookies on your surgery day! That sounds like my Mom. She will probably whip into Red Lobster on my way to the airport. Lol

Really? I was having surgery with Lopez on the 11th, but I'm having to move it up a few days. It will probably be the 7th or 8th now!! I will definitely see you there I'm sure.

Who is doing your surgery?

I told them several months ago about this surgery, and the majority of the time they never say anything about it. I think that they hope I will just change my mind. I'd like to just have someone to talk about it with, share my concerns, my excitement with. Sure, on here I can do that, but I want to be able to do that with my family. It's always been that way though and I have always felt alone.... Not feeling sorry for myself, but I can only hope surgery goes well, and none of them will say "I told you so!" Lol

I contacted Ortiz's office a couple of months ago and was quoted 6500 for the sleeve. Is that what you're paying for it?

My date with Lopez was the 11th, but I'm having to reschedule for the week before. I haven't picked a day yet. I will probably see you there!!!

What doctor did you go with?

My sleeve buddy can't have her surgery in March, so now I'm on the hunt for another one anyone going to MI hospital March 10th-15th?

Is that how it is for the rest of your life? You just sip, sip, sip all day? Will we ever be able to drink in somewhat large amounts? Or is this just right after surgery?

And here's to a fabulous new year ahead! I was just thinking as I ate my Christmas dinner, stuffing myself full as I can get, that next year will not be the same. Of course having some mixed feelings about that! But I'm ready. let the countdown to March 10th begin!!!

I can't wait to actually not be hungry! Lol

Lol HUGE difference

They may be fabricating the story, or lying. All I know is that I've read a lot of these stories. Is it true or not? Who knows. But I wouldn't feel comfortable going to him. He was actually how I found out about this surgery to begin with. I heard about him from a friend (who had a good experience) so I started researching him and Jerusalem "hospital". I found out it wasn't actually a hospital, which we have already established that. I read a few of those scary stories, read about the robbery, about the noisy recovery house and poor after care they supposedly received, the number of patients per day, just on and on. I don't know if people made a lot of it up or whatever, but it was enough for me to rethink my decision and go to a different surgeon. Everyone is different with what we feel comfortable with. Yes, people can lie, but I'm listening to these people who are telling these stories! If I go down there and god forbid something terrible happens to me, I want to post about it and hope that people believe me and not call me a liar.

Here's another story from stoongal on obesityhelp....Gotta put this story out there I guess, to try & prevent more horrible outcomes. I went to Emmanuel clinic when it was not very busy. I found it to be an easy surgery for me to recover from & I am now 72 (this was last September BEFORE all the flurry of infections came out.) I trusted and believed everything my coordinator told me and I especially trusted Betancourt. I have since found out he in very much in control of everything down there, and a lot of it is coverup and lies. Yes he is charming but charm is not what you are paying for. I even argued FOR them and posted on Vertical Sleeve talk to the nth degree refuting everyone who had negative things to say about them (the whole experience) I even talked my daughter and sister to go down and have their surgeries done, that is how confident I was. Fast forward to middle of January, I went with my family and for a few days had a very nice time. Dismayed at the size of the clinic, and I was even more dismayed that Dr Almanza was so over-booked! My sister Linda went in for her sleeve after 10 pm at night, the 6th of the day! I was worried about that as it was so overcrowded in the clinic and so little room for anyone to maneuver, but held my tongue as we expected the best outcome. To make a long story short, my sister became very ill while there, Betancourt said it was gas pains and continued to give her pain control shots. She was in no shape to fly home on the Friday as booked, they caught the fact she had a collapsed lung and severe dehydration and she went back in for intravenous saline and oxygen, but they assumed there was no leak because of their tests. BUT THERE WAS, a centimeter nick out of the stomach high up near the esophagus, and when the housekeeper took out the drain, fluids gushed out of Linda's body. the housekeeper just cleaned it up and said nothing, so we assumed things were OK, no leaks. She was in rough shape when I flew home with her on Saturday. She had to go to the hospital in Edmonton shortly after she got home as she went into septic shock, had a collapsed lung again, severe dehydration and kidney failure because of it. They operated on her for four hours, and ended up with flushing out her body cavity - over a liter of pus!. She was near death and was for well over a week! We were devastated to say the least.. Slowly things have improved since those first weeks passed, but she was in critical care for about 6 weeks until she could breathe on her own and not need a ventilator to help with that. The infection spread and caused all kinds of porosity in her stomach and esophagus. To date she is still in the hospital, still being fed intravenously and with a feeding tube directly to her gut, waiting for the last hole to heal in her esophagus, they did insert a stent but haven't tested it for leaks so far. She had a large hole in her abdomen due to all the 5 ensuing body cavity flushes they had to do every other day in the beginning weeks. It is healing and she will need two further operations, a skin graft and a hernia repair on the incision site. We do expect a full recovery but only after they test her stomach out with real food, which can be weeks away yet. She has lost her job, her income of course and a good chunk of her life due to this facility's operation. Safety should be your main concern, Betancourt and Almanza's "stacke'em and rack'em" policy is not doing anyone any favors. Dr Almanza, as nice as a man he is, is now a partner and profits are what it is all about now it seems. There have been many (20 I heard), complication tales from there since December, most were too sick to tell them themselves but are known to many of the coordinators. They all distance themselves from those, chalking it up to normal rate of complications. They have to do damage control, it is their JOB, and Betancourt controls them! Doing so many surgeries a day in my opinion is SO NOT SAFE! Spend the extra now and go to a safe hospital down there, spend the $4000 more to save yourself from becoming another Linda, with hospital costs being what they are in the US I would think that would be more important than the up front extra now to save months of hospital and surgery bills as well as your lost income from your job. Check out my photo albums for a picture of me visiting Linda in the hospital in Edmonton last month(March)when I was there. Sorry Linda, I had waited for you to tell your story but you can't sit up long enough to type it out on the computer and people really need to hear this! All of this is true and I am so sorry I doubted everyone that had problems there, even John who's wife wrote of his experience was pretty sick the day we drove to the airport and ended up with infection and in the hospital. It was extremely busy the day of his surgery too. I am not saying that you won't have a good experience, but why risk it if you don't absolutely have to, is all I am saying, there are WAY too many stories like Linda's from that facility to ignore!

How am I saying lies about him when these are statements clearly made by others on this site? Lol

I didn't get it from the Internet. I got the info from former Almanza patients. One in particular told me that he did well with his surgery but he can no longer recommend Dr. Almanza to anyone due to things that have happened there. But anyway, good luck on your journey. Whether you go there or somewhere else, I wish you the best.

I am very gullible lol but those are actual facts that I stated. If you don't believe me ask some of his older patients.

I have all the business in the world posting my opinion on Dr. Almanza. True, I have not been to him, and I state that in my comments. I have read many negative things about him on several different sites. Like I said before, many have been happy with him. Pick the surgeon you feel comfortable with. I did not feel comfortable going to a surgeon that does that many surgeries in a day, not in a hospital, sends you to a recovery house that was robbed (even though I believe now you actually go to a hotel to recover) plus the negative reviews I've read on him. I'm sorry, but that was more than enough to make me not want to go to him. He may be a wonderful surgeon, but I'm a worry wart and I'm going with a surgeon I feel at ease with.

And just like sobiato stated, he does like 12 surgeries a day!! That's just crazy. I'm like her, this just seems to be a money hungry doctor. You could go to another doctor within the same price range as him and have your surgery done in a hospital. Many people have gone to him, they have had successful surgeries, but I've read a few who have not. The stories are on obesity help.com.