Has anyone ever actually died from a leak?

Great questions to ask your surgeon. I know there have been a few people who have had leaks on this site with serious ramifications. You might want to post under complications to get more responses.

I am not at all trying to scare anyone, I was told by my physician that they lost one patient to a leak, one out of more than 2100 since the bariactric center has been open. Not sure if it were a sleeve or bypass patient. She was 29 years old and had 5 children. She went home, had a undetected small leak , but apparently didn't return to the hospital until it was to late. They were able to fix the leak, but she never recovered.

This is the reason they tell you if you suspect something is not right, call and question the nurse etc.

I haven't read of any deaths from a leak per se, but I've read about other complications that led to extensive recoveries. One of the questions you should ask is "if there is a leak, what are your repair/treatment plans?" I had a leak, didn't die, but had horrific anesthesia complications that landed me with a grave prognosis, in ICU for several days, and an extensive recovery. My leak was not the normal "pinhole" leak, and was found on my final leak test right before discharge. My leak was directly related to the damage the band had done to my stomach. It was repaired immediately, but I did have other complications.

There is a couple of patients on obesityhelp that have had extensive recoveries with other complications due to leaks not being found early, or went undetected and symptoms were brushed off. There is one patient that has been dealing with a leak for around 4 months, and is still battling the infections/abscesses.

The short answer to your question is yes.

The chance of a leak is higher if you are revising from a band.