I have been sleeved myself since march 16th down over 20lbs and feeling like my body is back to normal so to speak.

In the last few weeks I have come to understand that its possible to go to a clinic that doesn't take proper precautions and many are having leaks and infections. One lady I heard ran up a $285,000 hospital bill in the U.S. after her lowest price sleeve turned into a night mare.

Another lady I talked to quit one clinic she worked at that had many leaks and infections.

She also told me that these same people that got mistreated DON'T speak up about it afterward.

Please if you have had a bad experience speak up! When a lot of these are coming out of the same place we should be able to collectively do something about it!

I feel so bad that there are many people going to places (with lowest VSG price) that are ramming people through without proper care (because they are doing 12 per day in the same O.R) and then ending up with leaks, infections and feeding tubes, man this is so bad!!!

Please lets do something about this to save the misery of others.

Oh Jodozza,

I see your post was yesterday. If you are down there good luck... we are all thinking about you and sending you good thoughts.

Let us know how your doing

Stacey

Edited April 17, 201016 yr by stcyt

Could be just me, but having read through (for about an hour) still does not appear to be any first hand BAD experiences, just opinions on other peoples experiences and not own accounts. I am sure that people with bad experiences have their reasons for not posting on here and am sure that they do not need a ventriliquist to air their views for them. I am sure they are all grown adults that are quite capable of accounting for their own experiences and frankly if you have not experienced problems with this practice yourself, then you have no business posting about someone elses experiences...perception is a wonderful thing and is as individual as the experience. C'mon people after 11 pages, we are still yet to hear the many first hand accounts everyone is talking about ...or did I mis read the post title "speak up THOSE with leaks and infections. Surely out of all the very spirited people on this forum, they are not ALL "afraid" of discussing their opinion for fear of being shot down or deleted. COME ON!! common sense people....AND for the record I don't work for any practice and do not even share the same country. I just have a low boredom threshold when it comes to "facts" that cannot be substantiated.

Did it take you an hour to figure out you were bored? If this was so beneath you why are you posting? You just insulted a very dear friend that has been sitting beside her sister with a severe complication and nearly lost her life. Just because Linda didn't post it herself you can't believe it. You don't know what you are talking about and you certainly don't know the whole story! But we don't want to bore you.

if it took you an hour then you must have been reading wrong.................i had one. and yes people are that afraid because you do get hate mail and such just for posting how you feel about them as a matter of there are a few people who did and it still took you an hour and you didn't see any of that and it ok that the person who works for the faculty to also be on here defending. again an hour and you didn't see ANY of that? ok

Edited April 17, 201016 yr by ryansgirl

Denial, or pretension, I don't know what it is about people who mock and ridicule truth...it's self serving and self deception at the expense of the vulnerable. Thanks Ryansgirl for reminding us that you are someone who had complications after your surgery with the aforementioned doctor. I hope more people WHEN THEY ARE ABLE, will come out and tell their story.

I haven't gone back to see if posts have been deleted soif they are missing I understand your post. But if nothing has been deleted, Nicolab did you just scan all the posts instead of actually reading them? It took me an hour to read the ones who had experienced complications. It would have taken much longer to read the entire thread in one sitting.

If you had first-hand experience at the aforementioned clinic by the same doctor and your experience was a totally different one, i.e., the place was spotless, they only performed 3 surgeries a day, the place you stayed after the surgery but before you came home was comfortable with every santitary precaution taking place including everyone wearing gloves when they checked on your wound, then you have some credibility and a reason to question the criticism we've read on this thread.

But if you haven't any first hand knowledge that disputes the criticism and you obviously didn't read all the posts, it seems that perhaps your protest is one that we should question.

Okay... I've been trying so hard not to get into this discussion, but I really feel the need to point out that the problem is not that this patient had a leak. We all know that leaks are a risk of the procedure. The issue is that the leak was not identified and treated since the house keeper did not know that the gushing that occured after she removed the tube was a huge red flag.

I do want to say though.... that I appreciate everyones input. Some people are faced with the choice of finding a less expensive surgeon or continuing to live with obesity. That is very real. I also believe that those that are concerned about this clinic are well inteded in their concern for others. I see no villains in the discussion.

Edited April 17, 201016 yr by stcyt

Okay... I've been trying so hard not to get into this discussion, but I really feel the need to point out that the problem is not that this patient had a leak. We all know that leaks are a risk of the procedure. The issue is that the leak was not identified and treated since the house keeper did not know that the gushing that occured after she removed the tube was a huge red flag.

I do want to say though.... that I appreciate everyones input. Some people are faced with the choice of finding a less expensive surgeon or continuing to live with obesity. That is very real. I also believe that those that are concerned about this clinic are well inteded in their concern for others. I see no villians in the discussion.

I totally agree with you!

stcyt, do you mind me asking how tall you are? I read your weight goals at the bottom of your post and noticed you have 130 as a goal. I've been trying to figure out what is reasonable for my height. My dietician said 130 to 135 but I'm thinking that may be too high a goal. I'm only 5'2" Ugh, maybe she's considering my age and cutting me some slack.

I'm 5'7''. The last time I wore a size 8 I was 130lbs. I think a healthy BMI is between 19 and 24. 25 to 29 is overweight and the obese categories start at 30. For me to weight 130 puts me at a BMI of 20. I'd be okay If I could just get in the normal range.

I looked up BMI for 5'2'' and it looks like your range 104 - 131. Your doc probably cares most about getting you into the healthy zone. If you want to go less than that while staying healty you have the whole range to play with.

Probably the size of your frame and you're muscle mass factor in somehow.

Stacey

Thanks Stacey!

The last time I wore a Petite size 8 I weighed about 118. And looks like that's within the range you mentioned for a person my height. I have a smallish frame - not big boned. But my muscle mass is lacking, I'm sure. Really have to work on that. I just noticed that I weigh about what you do now and I'm 5 inches shorter than you. So that sure tells me something. Are you a revision from the band?

You're getting sleeved 7 days before me. I'm getting excited and you must really be feeling that way too. Is your doctor stateside or south of the border? Mine's local.

Good luck with your surgery! I hope you'll feel like checking in after a couple of days so we can know how you're doing. I'm excited for you.

Its south of the border for me!!!!

I am sooooo excited. I have a friend that had a gastric bypass and I was telling her that I was worried about the plane trip there. I can't eat the day of the surgery but I'm flying on that day so I have to travel empty.

She just laughed.... she aid its so different "out here", She said she never ever worries about things like that and that she is amazed at how little she really needs to get by. I can't wait.

No, Im not a revision. I'm just sick of gaining and loosing the same 75lbs. I'm on my way up after loosing 70. I just don't want to do it again. I think the sleeve will help me get where I want to be and STAY there this time.

It seems to be a great tool for loosing as well as maintaining.

Stacey

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..

I still can't get out of my mind that the "housekeeper" removed the drain. I don't care how loosely you use the term housekeeper (to possibly include nurse assistant, aide, etc.), that is a procedure that should be monitored or checked soon after by a doctor. So, as Stacey pointed out, how negligent is it that an untrained person removed the drain, and no immediate follow up was done by a doctor or RN to verify that everything looked good immediately after the drain was removed.

If I read stoongal's post correctly, this also means Linda went home without a final assessment of her condition despite the fact that she had already been back to the clinic once with post-op complications. That says it all to me. These issues CANNOT be blamed on "accecptable" rates of complications.

The LEAST this place could do is to train the "housekeeper" to report red incision sites and fluids coming from the incision sites to the medical team immediately. Surely they didn't train the housekeeper to intentionally ignore these things so people could get on to the airport as quickly as possible... :closedeyes:

It isn't long now Stacy! I'm very happy for you and I agree that the sleeve sounds like the right solution for losing the weight and keeping it off!!

It isn't long now Stacy! I'm very happy for you and I agree that the sleeve sounds like the right solution for losing the weight and keeping it off!!

I know.... right.... we're almost there:wink1: