Almost Died with the Lap-Band!

[BayougirlMrsS 3,933]

I get defensive when people come here and insult or disrespect my friends. The people that do nothing but try and help other and then people like this woman.

If you want to sympathize with her... Go ahead.

Writing a review is NOT fruitless.... Tons and tons of people everyday look to the internet for guidance and read reviews on doctors and make decisions on weather or not to go to that person. She her self said that she researched him and everything was Rosy... Her not writing something was the same as saying..... go ahead.. do it to someone else.

[MiniMi 1,468]

Here's a thought: doctors come out of retirement all the time. Or they go work for kaiser

I think no matter what you should write your exact review about him on the medical review sites. It can't hurt and it may even help someone.

Sounds like, to me, that he got forced into retirement from his mistake with you. What a terrible way to go.

Glad your still among the living. (ur title sucked by the way but it got me interested)

[PrettyThick1 1,860]

My story starts in July of 2010. I received my Lap-Band on the 23rd. My surgery was performed by Gerald Kirshenbaum in Denver, Colorado. He said it went well after the surgery but mentioned that my liver was lacerated during retraction and he had to repair a hiatal hernia. He felt that the laceration was no big deal because it stopped bleeding before he ended.

Fast forward 8 weeks and 20 pounds less. I started having stomach cramps, vomiting and body aches. Dr. K's office felt I was having after effects of having food stuck. It lasted five days before I couldn't take the cramps and went to the ER. After blood work and CT scan I was sent home with no diagnosis except for a slightly elevated white blood count. My Lap-Band looked to be in place.

The next week I continued to feel horrible. Went back to Dr.K and he prescribed antibiotics for elevated white blood count. After four days I went to my general practitioner because I figured I must have that damn swine flu. He gave me a shot for the pain and said I should feel better in about four hours. After five hours I felt so much worse that I ended up in the ER again. They did new blood work and my d-Dimer was elevated so they did an ultrasound looking for a bloodclot. None was found. They sent me home around midnight with no answers.

The next day my symptoms worsened. I had a fever of 104.3 and was retching violently. I lost consciousness for a period of time and when I awoke my lips were blue. This resulted in another trip to a different emergency room. When I got there my BP was 80/50 and in severe pain. They quickly diagnosed me with Septicemia (also known as Sepsis). After taking a new CT scan they decided I had air or Fluid around my liver. The ER doctor started an Internal Jugular central venous line and started aggressively treating me with multiple antibiotics. My life was on the line.

I live in Colorado Springs. I was transported by Flight for Life to a hospital in Denver where my lapband surgeon was located. When I arrived they wanted to go in laparoscopically to explore my liver situation and check my lapband but my blood pressure was so low that I was unstable. They put me in ICU for a blood transfusion and platelet expansion to hopefully stabilize me. My kidneys were starting to fail.

The next morning they wheeled me down to the OR but my blood pressure was too low to use laparoscope so they had to cut me open from chest to naval. I was so full of infection that it was pressing on my organs and that was what was causing my pain. He found the infection under my liver cleaned it up and placed a drain. While in there he also removed my lapband.

I was put into a medically induced coma for two days with my family receiving a 50/50 chance of survival. When my organs started rebounding they brought me out while still having a respirator placed to help me breathe. After my body proving to them it could breathe on its own, they removed the respirator. I spent the next 10 days in ICU and CCU recovering my health.

I was sent home with a picc line for six weeks of IV antibiotics to be given up to four times a day. After a few weeks I was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs resulting in having one tapped for the extraction of Fluid.< /p>

What a mess this all was! I can't explain what I went though physically, emotionally and financially.

I'm not telling you this story to scare you or make you change your mind. But I just want you to know that not everybody's outcome is a success. When they tell you there are risks..you should believe them!

Thank goodness you were able to recover, but your posts headline is misleading. It wasn't the lap band that caused your near-death experience, but the lacerated liver caused by your surgeon. Please note that there are many people that search this site for useful information regarding this procedure and subject lines such as this are not only misleading but cause for alarm.

Again, I'm glad you recovered but your incident had nothing to do with the lapband.

[PrettyThick1 1,860]

So i went on line and looked up your dr. and yes you were correct. Plenty of reviews saying what a wonderful dr. he is/was. All the way to recently in 2013. What i didn't see was a review from you telling "your story". It seems to me that at some point in the past 5 years you could have taken time to do so. And WARN others not to use this doctor. But instead you come here and rant about and imply how the Lapband almost killed you. No matter how you think your "wording" of the title of your post did not indicate as such.... IT DID and that was your intent. To tell your story, get your "im sorries" and try and stop others from have LB surgery because if it weren't you would have be compelled to write a review, sue the doctor, and come here 5 years ago and rant. If you were that concerned with others safety and health... why wait 5 years?

Your right not all LB surgery are successful... but there are tons of successes to every NON success. NOT all surgeries period are successful ... that's why we all sign the papers saying we understand the risks involved in going under the knife.

BAM! Thanks for your research and this post. Bravo!