A staff member at one of my sister high schools had had a Lap-band for awhile, but chose to keep it secret. Shortly after her retirement party, she collapsed, and within a few days, was dead. It seems that her Band had eroded, and she had a massive infection. There was nothing that the doctors could do. Every time I see one of those "Get Thin!" billboards along the freeway, I want to tear them down. Many people seemingly do fine with the Band, but the thing is still a ticking time bomb.

I could not agree more! When I was researching all of my options, I thought "why would anyone do this?!" some countries have done away with the band completely. From my research, it was risky, had a low success rate and had a lot of complications. Scary.

I just don't see how anything foreign to your body can be beneficial to your body. So very sad.

some people do great with the band - you have to be vigilant in your own personal care. I wonder how many warning signs this person may have ignored. Everyone does it - you ignore a pain here, a feeling there - when you have something like this done, you absolutely CANNOT ignore the little signs.

This is so sad. I feel really sorry that this happened to that poor woman, right after she retired too. I wanted to get the band when I came in for my consultation but they convinced me that it would not be a good choice. Even the lady right next to me as I was waiting for surgery was getting a revision to a sleeve from a band. She was extremely obese so the band had done nothing for her.

My 25 year old daughter has had one for two years. Surgery was done at UC San Francisco and she has done wonderfully. I am very nervous for her future health however...she made her own choice. I just pray for no future complications.

Unfortunaly there are tons of us out there that had the band and had to have a revision surgery down the road due to complications from the band. I am so sorry to hear about this woman, this breaks my heart. I am so grateful that I had that horrible thing removed from my body.

Stories like this helped me realize the band was not for me. My doctor feels like I should get the lap band instead of the sleeve or to get a vertical banded gastroplasty which is pretty much stomach staple. I am going to stand my ground and tell my doctor I want the sleeve!

Terribly sad. I also get upset with all the aggressive marketing on the lap band. It's poison, folks - plain and simple.

I know you didn't ask for advice... but... I will give it anyway... find a surgeon who really believes that the sleeve is the right surgery for you!

The first surgeon I saw felt i would fail with the sleeve since I had regained all my losses with the band. He wanted me to do the gastric bypass and I thought about that for a long time but for whatever reason, I could just never wrap my head around the risks and he messing with my intestines. I guess we all have our "thing" and for me, changing the intestines was just something I couldn't visualize doing to myself. It was dumb luck that I encountered someone who told me to reconsider the sleeve and to meet with a surgeon that she loved and whose patients are having great successes... and the rest... well ..history as I am now sleeved by a great surgeon!

Stories like this helped me realize the band was not for me. My doctor feels like I should get the lap band instead of the sleeve or to get a vertical banded gastroplasty which is pretty much stomach staple. I am going to stand my ground and tell my doctor I want the sleeve!

The problem I have is that under my insurance I can pretty much only go to one surgeon. So I just have to tell him my position and hopefully he agrees.

The problem I have is that under my insurance I can pretty much only go to one surgeon.

Are you sure? With all or most insurances you can travel and it would be covered.