Just thought I would let everyone know, A year ago today I was on Life support do to the neglegeince of a surgeon in Mexico. :think I was put in a California Hospital because Mexico did not have the facilities for the complications that went wrong.. They saved my life. I had 2 more weeks to live and they was letting me go. Thank God I did pull through only by a miracle! I have had 6 surgerys since the first Lap-band surgery. It was hell and i hope many reads what I have to say, and if any questions please feel free to contact me. I went to Mexico to have the surgery done because of financial reason. Probably like most of you, It ended up costing me over $500,000 due to stupidity. So please, do much thinking and research before making the decision. Being alive is much better, then being dead and skinny!:clap2:

Just read the thread you sent me.. I also noticed one that said he no longer practices there. Do to complications.. Well the American Embassy was in on my incident and was a BIG deal.. So that might be one of the incidents.. I also know the name of the clinic has been changed since last May.

HI, I am back .. A wanted to let everyone know I did read the threads about The Molding Clinic in Tiajuana. Wow are we so dumb. Let me tell you my x husband is from Mexico, and I have been ther several times, my x-inlaws still live there. Ihave 2 kids by my x and I would not dare take my kids there. One of the ladys said she took her kids there and everything was great! Sorry that was stupid, my in-laws tell me never take my kids to Tiajuana. And if I do, never let them out of your sight anywhere in mexico. Children get ubducted on a regular basis there, especially American. Due to poverty, they abduct them for money!! So please think twice before you go alone or decide to take your children! A parents worst fear, is for their child to be abducted! Atleast it is my worst fear!

OK now about the FACILITY. Now remember I am writing you do to my experience. Well let me put it this way short and sweet... They do not have the facility for difficulties! I am the example, and that is what that so called wonderful man Andreas said as I lay to die for 2 days before they decided to call my family and for help. HMMMM You do the math! Difficulties do happen!! I am not trying to be negative here, but I dont want everyone to get a false impression, I want you to have your own opinion, and really think about the good and the bad! As for how wonderful Audreas is.. well here is my thought on him... Sure he is wonderful, it is his facility..And your paying him alot of money, especially for Mexico!!! Remember that.. Also remember this, when I was laying there dieing due to their mistake he had the nerve to ask my boyfreind for more money!!! What?? I had paid in full! Ands supposibly everything is covered! More money! WOW what a wake up call. They did nothing for me but let me lay in a motel unconscious or rather drugged up for two days! Not knowing what really happened to me in those 2 days.. That is always in the back of my head. They didnt want me to stay at the hospital because of the other patients that were coming in. Is this making you think??

I could write more and more but I hope you are getting the point. The hospital I went to said they get a patient every week due to malpractice in Mexico, and that was just one hospital! How many hospitals are there in Cali!? They also said some are severe and some are minor but again they dont have the facility to even take care of the minor problems! Yes these do happen in the US also but atleast we try to take care of you if there is complications, not send you away and tell you sorry cant help.. THey told the doctor i had pancreatis.. A stomach virus due to surgery, knowing i had holes in my stomach, because they had sew up one already, and didnt tell anyone! What a great facility!! If anyone has more questions I could go on and on..lol but I wont bore you. Let me put it this way, the facility has now changed thier name, changed doctors and will not return any of my calls. Andreas what a Man! :nervous Cant even live up to his mistakes.. Yes he did call the hospital while i was ther, I heard by a few nurses he had ask If I had died yet? That puts a smile on my face when they told him NO! I am just thankful this happened to me and not someone else. I was healthy enough to pull through but like all the nurses and doctors said, they honestly gave up on me, kinda wrote me off! Well I guess i can say it just wasnt my time!! :clap2: God Bless everyone! And always pray for the right decision. Prayer heals ALL! And remember this the American Embassy was involved and said this happens often, alot of doctors are even practicing without a liscense , and if complications happen they do not have to list it like the doctors do in America, And one more thought that was told to me. Americans end up missing, after going to Mexico for surgery.. Never found again.. I am not trying to scare anyone or say bad things about Mexico because like I said my inlaws are from there, but who better to say these things but people from Mexico! So just keep your eyes open and your mind free! Because we as Americans are pretty nieve because we have it made, and most of us think "It won't happen to me!"

Amazing story! I am so thankful that you've come through and are getting better. I've heard other stories like yours, over the years :grouphug:, but then I also take heart in knowing there are some excellent banding surgeons still in Mexico who do seem to genuinely care about their patients and their reputations going forward. God bless you and continue to strengthen you and allow you to use your testimony to help others.

Misfortune...I'm sorry that you had a bad experience in Mexico, but as I just wrote on another thread, my friend had her health permanently screwed-up by a surgeon in the US (in Wisconsin.) I don't think anyone should jump from that information to the idea that it's too dangerous to have the LapBand placed in Mexico OR in the US.

(And we had a major kidnapping in L.A. this week and the baby was taken to Houston. Some people might think that we shouldn't let our kids be here?)

There are uncaring physicians working out of filthy dumps all over the world...and there are caring physicians working in sanitary facilities all over the world. Don't blame the location, blame the bad guy.

I am not blaming the location or the fact that it was done in Mexico, Like I said before, I have family there also, all I am saying is please do research, and if there is that hesitation or more of a risk, and if they dont have the facility to take care of you if there is a possibility to get hurt, why go there!? I was told that they did have the facility and look what happenend they had to send me back to the U.S. because of our technology! Why do they take the risk of other peoples life if they know they are lieing! The root of all evil, (money) thats why?! Yes ther are wonderful physicians out there everywhere and they love their job and enjoy helping people but if they do love there job then they definately would not put other peoples life at stake!!!! And as for the kidnapping bit,, Yes it is everywhere but would you as a parent take the chance of a higher risk of something happening to your child if it could be prevented? I dont think so... All i am saying is look at all options , weigh them out, and if not necessary dont take unnneeded risk. And dont read this wrong also, I am definately not saying to stop living, I feel that you cant live life afraid, but dont jeopordize others in the process. Thats all Im saying! : )

Wow glad you are doing good now.....Did you call Inamed and ask about that moulding clinic before you went?

I am not blaming the location or the fact that it was done in Mexico, Like I said before, I have family there also, all I am saying is please do research, and if there is that hesitation or more of a risk, and if they dont have the facility to take care of you if there is a possibility to get hurt, why go there!? I was told that they did have the facility and look what happenend they had to send me back to the U.S. because of our technology! Why do they take the risk of other peoples life if they know they are lieing! The root of all evil, (money) thats why?! Yes ther are wonderful physicians out there everywhere and they love their job and enjoy helping people but if they do love there job then they definately would not put other peoples life at stake!!!! And as for the kidnapping bit,, Yes it is everywhere but would you as a parent take the chance of a higher risk of something happening to your child if it could be prevented? I dont think so... All i am saying is look at all options , weigh them out, and if not necessary dont take unnneeded risk. And dont read this wrong also, I am definately not saying to stop living, I feel that you cant live life afraid, but dont jeopordize others in the process. Thats all Im saying! : )

I hear you...I didn't go to Tijuana, even though both Kuri and Ortiz are more-than-qualified surgeons. The reason was not the doctors, but I had respiratory problems and I wanted to be in a hospital that was set up to deal with that and probably had a pulmonolgist standing there or with an office across the street. In Monterrey, with Rumbaut, I was in a full-service hospital, which was what I needed to feel safe.

OTOH, a lot of experienced nurses were very comfortable with Kuri's old little place, which was kind of scary for me.

WOW. I'm so glad your on the mend. I hope you can fully regain your health. Perhaps posting your experience will save someone's life !

Sorry to hear that you had such a poor experience at Moulding. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with your charecterization of Dr. Huacuz as being a less than stellar surgeon.I was banded by Dr. Huacuz on May 18th in Tijuana. I have nothing but the highest regard for this man and his team, and that says a lot coming from me. You see, I am an attorney who for the last 15 years has been defending butcher doctors in the United States. I didnt go to Mexico for the "financial" benefit of the cheaper cost. I was self pay and could have written a check for the procedure in the USA as well as in Mexico. I went there for the experience that the Mexican doctors have over the US doctors..who do you think proctored the US doctors once the FDA gave the approval.Given my background I was VERY VERY thorough in checking into the reputations of these doctors..both thru references, Inamed, other doctors,etc..a process that took me well over 7 months.I can tell you that the ONLY issue regarding Dr. Huacuz was related to a women,last July, that was not given nausea medication by Andres Bantacourt, and as ordered by Dr. Huacuz, which led to problems.....this was something completely out of the control of this doctor. I find it interesting that after a surgeon who allegedly nearly cost you your life, you couldnt exactly remember his name. In 15 years of doing medical malpractice I have yet to see any patient who has been harmed by a doctor that could not rattle his name right off the tip of their tongue......and a year post op--you just now find this site..Sorry..smells too fishy..I have seen too many threads and posts on here by people that simply want to scare people from this or that surgeon or from going to Mexico to get the procedure done. Remember people...do your homework..research..research...research....DO NOT PUT YOUR HEALTH IN THE VALIDITY OF THESE POSTINGS....you are responsible for your health and the decisions you make regarding it. With that said, I can, without reservation,recommend Dr. Huacuz and his team..and I can provide you at least a dozen other people who I personally know have used him and have the same feeling........USE YOUR BRAINS PEOPLE......:angry

Well let me tell you.. First your sarcasm is not appropriate! If you are trying to say I am making this up.. Please let me send you the BILL! And as for the name, I did not want to butcher it.. I wanted to give the correct info. before posting it.. I am very sorry you do not feel this is the truth and I am happy for you that you had a good experience but...dont take words out of my mouth and accuse me or anyone else of a lie! Especially to someone who almost lost their life do to a stupid mistake of someone else. Yes I know accidents happen, but if you make a mistake live up to it!!! And they do not even have enough nerve to call or atleast return my calls to let me know exactly what went down.. So until you experience what I have or what someone else has then my response to you is " God Bless you and keep your false opinion of me to yourself!

Have a good day:D ! JBOY P.s. By the way, not remembering is not the issue! Not wanting to remember is!

To everyone out there who is reading these postings, I am not trying to alter your decision on any Dr. And yes I am sure Dr.Haucuz has had many wonderful surgerys. Including JBoy. But not all are wonderful.. I am not here to take business away from any Doctor. I am here to possibly help someone of not making the same mistake I made. Yes when something good or wonderful happens to you, like most, we are all so willing to share that with everyone, but when something happens bad we seem to sit back and keep our mouth shut, until it happens to someone else. And then we will say "wow that happened to me also." I did wait along time to finally share my experience, and I hope I didnt jeapordize anyones life in that time frame. I am now sharing and I hope it does help someone down the road. So whatever way you take my postings is your own decision, and I am sorry if I offended anyone. Keep in mind the possibilities.

Also by putting these postings up, I have nothing personally to gain except for sleep at night. I did not try to get a attorney and go after anyone for this mistake. All I ask for was a reason of what happened and why? And just maybe a lil ol apology would have been nice.. And noone would respond to me, so in my eyes if you have nothing to hide or you feel you did nothing wrong, then why not give a answer. Why avoid the question, or just pretend it never happened? If I was a wonderful physician and I thought a patient of mine was dieing I would be concerned. I wouldnt avoid them!? And I sure wouldnt ask for more money!

Yes there are wonderful doctors out there, matter a fact I had one that saved my life,: ) and I would never say they are all bad or even saying Haucuz is bad . I am just saying someone made a mistake, a huge one and I pray he has learned by it, and maybe more will learn without making the mistake twice! The next person might not be as lucky.

This surgery for some is very necessary, and for some it is for mental purposes. So whatever the reason remember looks are only skin deep it is whats inside that matters. We have made a world for ourselves believing that everyone should look and feel a certain way. Well God made us all different, And He will always think "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!"

So until you beleive that, no matter what you do to yourself in any alteration it will do you no good until you Beleive! So with that thought in your head, make the right decisions. The one that is best for you!

..

jboy--not challenging your veracity, just curious. With all your research, what made Huacuz your first choice in Tijuana?

I know that Kuri has been doing this forever, that Inamed has sent numerous cases to him for repair and that the only reason he doesn't proctor is that Mrs. Kuri doesn't like to be left alone while he goes out of town. And, although Ortiz is not my first choice as a person I'd like to hang with, there is no question about his ability to do the surgery.

Anyway, I've been on these boards for about four years and Huacuz is one of "the lesser gods" so to speak in the Tijuana area, in terms of fame and all. I'm curious about what made that facility/doctor rise to the top in your book, especially since you have done more recent research.

Both Kuri andOrtiz are EXCELLENT EXCELLENT surgeons. As a matter of fact,Ortiz had been my firstchoice but due to a three week trial I was involved in, defending another US doctor for malpractice, I lost a window to have it done. when my next opportunity arose Ortiz was booked solid..he is VERY much in demand...Surprisingly, when I asked Ortiz about Huacuz he had very favorable things to say about him..I did my research..talked to many of his patients as well as two of the bariatric surgeons here in Las Vegas..Nothing but positive comments...While I certainly feel for the poor soul who had an alleged bad outcome I still find it hard to believe he has not had any contact with Huacuz..Before I went into surgery my wife was given his personal cell phone number that we can reach him at anytime on..A dear friend of mine who was banded by him last July also got his private cell phone number..We dont have any problems getting ahold of him....Again, I stand by what I say.......use your brains when you read these posts and consider the source...

Yeah...I've had the same cell phone response from Rumbaut. He once answered my call and the background sounded weird. I asked. He was on a stage in Chicago, making a presentation to other ASBS dudes. I said, "I can call back later." He said, "No! It's not my turn to talk to the audience! Go ahead."

I did my research and I "needed" a big city, full-service hospital for my psychic comfort...in addition to the best experience I could buy...so I went to Monterrey. (It was almost four years ago.)

But yes, research!!

Well, I disagree with this particular viewpoint on Mexican surgeries.

There is no need to turn this into a "I think this, you think that" discussion but I have no problem clearly stating my opinion (based on very extensive research) of the situation involved.

A person who is self-pay for whom money is no object? Than sorry, I'll step out and say I'm glad your decision worked out for you.

And it's been, what? 10 days? (By the way - I know how mentioning how long or short a time someone has been banded seems to really bother some members but it's very relevant in this poignant example.)

Well, the good thing is that most gross surgical errors are evident LONG before 10 days. If something goes wrong with a serious medical mishap from the actual surgery, it usually is clear in the first few days (or hours) after the original surgery.

On the other hand, LapBand complications seem to appear a bit later in the game than that.

But length of time banded aside, there is absolutely no way I would inform any friend/relative/acquaintance of mine who had no financial concerns - to go to Tijuana (or TJ as it's called).

Yes this site is full of successful TJ patients :clap2: - I'm happy for them. But there are just a few more exceptions to the rule for my taste. And having had experience as being the exception to the rule, I don't recommend it. It's not sour grapes making me talk about how difficult complications can be - it's the voice of experience. Trust me when I say I realize that bad things can happen right here in the 'States. I didn't have a surgeon error, or other medical mistakes happen to me - yet I suffered mightily.

I did survive. I attribute that to the fact that I was minutes away from my LapBand surgeon (got there in 20 minutes), and minutes away from a Trauma Center in an internationally famous medical facility. I some of the world's best surgeons at my disposal (now whether they all agreed on what was wrong with me was a different story:rolleyes ) and I didn't (in theory) lack for trained quality medical care or facilities.

These options are NOT available to 99% of the patients who have surgery in TJ.

{NOTE: A rare exception is a friend who lives in San Diego and was going to self pay in Tijuana . Now she was just across the border from TJ and would have been in better shape than the average American who goes across for "tourist surgery" (yes, that's what I call it). Even then I found her a comparable surgeon on this end who was more insurance-friendly and more willing to fight. We got her approved and her American surgeon/American hospital surgery was paid by her insurance, at 85% and she is VERY grateful. }

Not one TJ facility is internationally recognized as a level one trauma center. Many TJ patients find difficulty getting treatment on the off-chance they need higher-level medical care back home. I don't espouse being thousands of miles from your surgical team if you can afford it - whether you get your surgeon here or abroad, closer is better if you have the choice of medically-equal facilities and surgeons.

And to be honest, in my opinion Ortiz and Kuri are decent surgeons but they aren't on the level of a Dr Roberto Rumbaut in Monterrey. Plus, nothing about the TJ experience (especially the old shack of a clinic that Kuri USED to practice in) rivals Monterrey's facilities or surgeons. When the US President travels to Mexico, Monterrey's San Jose hospital is the designated Presidential emergency medical facility. Enough said - that is considered to be a world class medical hospital.

So I don't think going to Mexico (or going anywhere far from home) is a great idea. But if 'money is no object' and Mexico is (for some reason) your intended destination, I would only point someone toward Dr. Rumbaut. His experience, his ability and his facility are above par in every way. He's the only Mexican surgeon I can recommend in good conscience, plus he has the most association with US surgeons and facilities. Gzr-Sue's anecdote about him being in Chicago at a bariatric surgery conference is very typical - he answered his cell phone, he was presenting to other surgeons, and he addressed her questions. Not every US patient who goes to Mexico is going to have such experiences, but by far, I've heard more positive Rumbaut stories than from any other Mexican surgeon. (NOTE: And I do not work for, get commission from, or am in ANY way associated with Dr Rumbaut, nor is he my surgeon. But he rocks! )

There's my .02.

Happy Band (and Life) Journeys To All...

Sorry to hear that you had such a poor experience at Moulding. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with your charecterization of Dr. Huacuz as being a less than stellar surgeon.I was banded by Dr. Huacuz on May 18th in Tijuana. I have nothing but the highest regard for this man and his team, and that says a lot coming from me. You see, I am an attorney who for the last 15 years has been defending butcher doctors in the United States. I didnt go to Mexico for the "financial" benefit of the cheaper cost. I was self pay and could have written a check for the procedure in the USA as well as in Mexico. I went there for the experience that the Mexican doctors have over the US doctors..who do you think proctored the US doctors once the FDA gave the approval.Given my background I was VERY VERY thorough in checking into the reputations of these doctors..both thru references, Inamed, other doctors,etc..a process that took me well over 7 months.I can tell you that the ONLY issue regarding Dr. Huacuz was related to a women,last July, that was not given nausea medication by Andres Bantacourt, and as ordered by Dr. Huacuz, which led to problems.....this was something completely out of the control of this doctor. I find it interesting that after a surgeon who allegedly nearly cost you your life, you couldnt exactly remember his name. In 15 years of doing medical malpractice I have yet to see any patient who has been harmed by a doctor that could not rattle his name right off the tip of their tongue......and a year post op--you just now find this site..Sorry..smells too fishy..I have seen too many threads and posts on here by people that simply want to scare people from this or that surgeon or from going to Mexico to get the procedure done. Remember people...do your homework..research..research...research....DO NOT PUT YOUR HEALTH IN THE VALIDITY OF THESE POSTINGS....you are responsible for your health and the decisions you make regarding it. With that said, I can, without reservation,recommend Dr. Huacuz and his team..and I can provide you at least a dozen other people who I personally know have used him and have the same feeling........USE YOUR BRAINS PEOPLE......:angry