I had sleeve a week ago. My surgery lasted 3-4 hours instead of 1-2. My surgeon says I had some adhesions, but there were no problems. However, my family knew there were problems within an hour of seeing me. Long story short, I wretched all evening and the entire next day. The first time I vomited a bit of pink fluid, followed by thick green, followed by dried blood. I also had severe sweats,a rattle in my chest, blue lips, low grade fever, chills, severe pain in spite of morphine and phenegren. I have never felt pain this intense. I progressively got worse by the hour, but my surgeon did not want to move me to a bigger hospital(to save me money he said). Finally, after 30 hours of getting worse, my family insisted I be moved. At that point, I had all the above mentioned symptoms with low blood pressure, a heart rate between 134-140, and would look jaundice off/on. Still, my surgeon did not want to move me. My family figured out the nurses had let my IV inflitrate and I had not been getting fluids for a few hours on top of everything else. My surgeon finally transfered me to a large hospital were they immediately started running Vancymycin(a strong antibiotic) through me bag after bag for 48 hours. I also got fluids. I perked up once the antibiotics got in me, but even after I perked up a bit, when my kidneys would move, I was peeing coffee grounds as if my kidneys had been close to shutting down. I was diagnosed with a left side pneumonia, which I still have now at home. At first they claimed it was community acquired, later changed to hsopital acquired. I don't believe either is the case. The whole ordeal was horrific! I had one of the most respected surgeons in the southeast, and I couldn't have felt saferwith him. However, we now know something went very wrong. The surgeon will not say. He now admits I must have aspirated, BUT he says I was fine when he left me. The hospital won't say anything either. I went to a local internist to get a full check up only to be run out of his office. YES, IT SEEMS I MUST BE EITHER CRAZY OR LOOKING FOR MONEY IF I WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH,AM SCARED ABOUT MY HEALTH, ETC. No one in this state will cross this surgeon. No other bariatric surgeon will look at me either(they all claim they don't see other surgeon's patients no matter what). I just want to know the truth about what happened to me. I paid 20,000 cash for something that almost killed me. I think I should at least know the truth for health reasons. I'm at home weezing, vomiting with phenegren, and not doing well. If anyone out there can advise me or maybe you yourself are a bariatric surgeon willing to help me(with full cash payment of course), please contact me. I need someone unbiased to help me. Also is there anyone with complications like these out there? Thanks.....

I wonder if you could go to a doc out of your area and just ask for the tests you want without giing the whole story. I'm sure youd hae to pay out of pocket... but at least youd know. Once you had results in hand you could spill the beans. A little shadey I know, but sometimes you have to go in the back door. Just an idea.... I really hope your better soon. I cant imagine being sick on top of trying to heal from VSG. Hang in there!!! Keep us posted

Just wondering how you are feeling...hope you are better.

I have found that attempting to "blast" a previous doctor in front of a new one will often get you nothing but silence. They shy away from these issues with their colleagues. Been there, done that.

However, most doctors will treat anyone for the medical issues they are currently dealing with. Be sure that you are approaching any prospective doctor from the standpoint of needing help with your current condition and symptoms, not from the standpoint of what the previous doctor might have done wrong. Leave that issue to a lawyer. It might even be good to not even mention your previous doctor's name (unless asked) so that there's no pressure on the new doc to make a judgement call.

Have you contacted a doctor that specializes in respiratory issues? There's no reason that kind of doctor should have any feelings about a bariatric surgeon and they should be more than willing to treat your condition. Don't continue to seek out bariatric surgeons. Take care of the respiratory issues and then get a GI followup so you can be sure there are no leaks as someone else has suggested. Any GI doc can do a leak test just as they do the upper GIs for our preop appointments. Let them know about your surgery of course so that they can be aware of your postop issues.

I also sent you a Private Message. If you can give me some more info, I may be able to give you some advice, especially about specific hospitals.