Almost Died In Lap Band Surgery

[SageTracey 608]

That must have been so scary for you and your wife! I have no opinion on the whole lawyer thing but if I was in your shoes I would be doing two things -

1. Finding a new dr to work with. Your dr's change of story would cause me to lose confidence in him so I would need to find myself another dr.

2. You are probably already doing this, but any....be a fantastic supporter for your wife. Replicate her new lifestyle with eating and exercise. Not only will it strengthen your relationship, you will also continue to reap the benefits and lose more weight. How do I know this? Because my husband, who doesn't actually need to lose weight, is my greatest supporter. He eats and exercises with me and is getting fitter, healthier and more toned as I am losing weight.

Good luck to you both.

[Scott4680 1]

Thanx to everyone. I support my wife 100%. We do everything together that's why we were doing the Lapband together. Now days we share a meal if we eat out and plan all our meals together. It's really been great. I am now just touching 203lbs down from 253lbs about 8 months ago.

As for the lawyer thing, I really don't know. The entire thing was just bad. Right now I am doing pretty well. My scare looks awful. I still have a little pain in my stomach. There are sometimes that I am glad I don't have the band. I had mixed feelings bout it right up til surgery. I can't help but being mad over the fact that I have this scare, went through about 6 months of prep to get my insurance company to approve the entire procedure, all the pain.... Well scratch that.. I am very happy to be alive.

Happy Holidays everyone

[KCGFNP 5]

I am glad you are doing better. So scary. If you don't mind sharing, what state did you have your surgery!

[mags2u 57]

I'm glad you are ok and losing weight on your own! Congrats to your wife as well. As far as your surgery, yes we all take risks having surgery. It is surgery. Not to take away from what happened to you at all, but all of our anatomy is different. Surgeons literally are moving organs out of the way to get to our stomach. I would say since you are alive today, you had a good surgeon. It is when things go wrong (and they do) that you want a controlled surgeon who can take corrective action for the best outcome. I would say being alive is a GREAT outcome. Surgeons can be flip sometimes (I work with plenty every single day). I think to them, they forget that as patients, we don't go through this everyday. They forget that to them, they might have encountered emergencies and because it was "fixed" it was "no biggie". To them, people get blood in the hospital/surgeries all the time. It doesn't sound like you had a bad surgeon, just not a compassionate one who needs to put himself in YOUR shoes. I'm not for suing, however as a patient, you have a right to request your medical records. You have to be specific though:

Peri-operative record, operative report, anesthesia record, post-op or (PACU) record. Again, very glad you are ok!

[PAenergy 2]

Wow, the aorta is a major vessel. Sorry to hear about your complication. I'm glad you came through it and are doing well. Congrats on the weight loss and I'm glad your wife did well. mags2u is right, get all the records and consider at least talking to a lawyer.

[Kyla1226 2]

Not sure where you went with this, but hope you are doing well. If you want your questions answered about the blood, etc, get your records. You can do this a couple of ways. Go to the medical records department at the hospital where your surgery was done and sign a release for the request of your entire medical chart during the dates you were there. Ask for surgical report, history and physical, progress notes, nurses' notes, MARS, consult reports, radiology studies, labs, etc. Make sure you get it all. Be aware, they will charge you for this, per page that is copied. Call ahead and ask what they charge per page. You may have to come back and pick it up after they get everything together. OR, you can have your PCP request it all, but that takes more time. Bottom line, you have a right to your medical records and I wouldn't hesitate to get them! As to getting a lawyer, depends on what direction you want to go after you see what actually happened.

[Birdie1973 23]

PLEASE get an attorney ! I'm sure stuff like thay happens all the time! We just don't know .

[Scott4680 1]

Hello, Haven't been on here in some time. Thanx to all for the info and comments. As of today I am doing well. I have lost 59lbs. I am now 195lbs. I am after about 10 more but I have hit a wall. Hoping to get the weight moving again. My wife is doing well. She has lost 54lbs. She is scheduled for a fill on her band in a week. The doctor now does them under xRay or some sort of imaging to watch the band as it's being filled. She has somewhat hit a wall as well and can seem to eat more these days so that why he suggest the adjustment. Anyway good luck to everyone.

[irish1 4]

Thanx to everyone for the support. As for the lawyer thing' date=' My wife and I are not after anything. For some reason allot of people that hear about this they always say, Did you get a Lawyer yet? Not my thing. I don't like that the doctor started playing it down but you sign a paper stating there are risk. This was one of the risk.

BTW, My wife was Banded two weeks before me and is doing great. She had her first fill about two weeks ago.

So proud of her. She is about 35 lbs down over the last 8 months. We started this whole thing together.[/quote']

Happy for you and your wife. Sounds like things are turning around. I agree with you about the lawyer too. We all know there are risk going in

[Scott4680 1]

Happy for you and your wife. Sounds like things are turning around. I agree with you about the lawyer too. We all know there are risk going in

I say'd away from the lawyer thing. I seem to be okay and am hoping for the best.