Well I went in for my surgery on Nov. 8th 2011 at 6:30m. I had done everything right according to my doctor. I took the two week liquid diet very seriously. I was 7 months into this whole thing between doctor visits, physiological visit, tons of work ups, blood, sonograms, stress test, nutritionist, you name it.

I kissed my wife and was taken back to pre-op. I started the whole program at 253 lbs. Day of surgery I was about 218 lbs. I woke up in post-op in ALLOT of pain with nurses trying to tell me that there was a major complication and the band was NOT put in. They also told me that I would be spending the night in the hospital.

I had an I.V. in my left hand still. I also now had a I.V. in my neck with 3 lines coming off of that. And I now had 29 staples in my stomach.

Here is what I was told happened.

I was told by the surgeon, he began cutting with the camera/ instrument on the incision the in in the middle of you stomach area. He watched as it passes through several areas of tissue. He was expecting for it to pass through this last part of tissue which then he enters the abdominal area but he did not see that last layer. He stopped cutting. Discussed with others in the OR. They felt he still had not cut far enough so he should continue. After continuing he was informed that my pressures were dropping. They cut another 1" incision under my left breast to place a camera to try and see what was happening. When that didn't work he cut me from just under the center of my breast bone to my bellybutton. He had hit my aorta which leads to my femoral artery in my legs. They stopped the bleeding and ended up having to give me two units of blood (unmatched. I am O Pos) and made the rest up with saline. I was told by the nurses that I had lost more than two units. When I woke up in Post-Op my blood pressure was 70/42 and my pulse was 102. The surgeon came to my wife to explain what had happened. They also had her sign a waver for me to receive the unmatched blood.

I also for some reason woke up a little early and was somewhat awake when they pulled the tube out of my throat. Scary!

They let me go home later the next day. I was home for 3 weeks. had my staples removed. Am now back to work but still shore and healing. I am now down to 204 lbs. 49 lbs gone. Doing it myself. Lost allot after the surgery too. Just couldn't eat.

While I was in the surgeons office having my staples removed he seemed like he was talking the entire episode down. Like it wasn't a big deal. He even told me that I didn't loose all that much blood and that they didn't have to give me any?? I didn't question the story change. Just wanted to get out of there.

He came to my wife in the hospital and said they HAD to give me blood and had here sign the waver. I was told by nurses that they gave me blood. He also told me in the hospital how scary it was for him. ow it's no biggie??

The stay in the hospital was really bad too. Hardly any help from the nurse on duty that night. Hardly any pain meds because they said it was making my heart rate drop and my pressure was low as it is.

The whole thing was just a mess and scary.

Allot people I work with thinks that I should hire a layer. I really don't know about that. The surgeon says he has done 3000 of these and I am the first. He told me that he nicked the side of the aorta. He said if he had hit it in the middle I wouldn't be here today.

Always a plus side I guess.

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.