Sorry to be so blunt about this question but after reading about people dying following other types of WLS, I'm now wondering how many people have died as a direct result of lapband surgery. My surgery is coming up soon and I'm starting to have doubts about the risks involved.

Is there any data from other countries besides the US?

melknight, I am sorry he went through such a difficult time and I hope he is feeling better soon.

This was discussed at my pre-op seminar. I was told that the death rate was less than 1% and that the majority of those deaths were directly related to the toll that morbid obsesity had taken on the body. Some of the remaining ones were cause by either surgical error or poor after care. The band itself has yet to cause any direct deaths.

So, be sure to do your homework. Research and find a qualified surgeon and good hospital. Make sure that your surgeon does the proper pre-op tests to try and make sure that you are healthy enough for surgery. And learn what you need to do to take care of yourself pre-op and post-op. Do not ignore the rules and do not ignore symptoms to possible problems.

Edited December 22, 200817 yr by Jodi_620

Yes people have died from having lapband surgery. The number is more than 1% but it's not an extremely dangerous procedure.

You need to compare and contrast the risk to benefit ratio of getting the band versus using diet/exercise versus carrying your current weight. After you have done all that, then you can decide if the risk is worth it. But it is still a surgery and one should understand that there is a risk of death and morbidity.

I think it would be the same worrying about ANY sort of surgery where you have risks and anesthetic etc. Doubts crept into my mind a few days before I had my band done wondering what I was going to put myself through and I even wrote letters to my family and made videos for them just in case anything went wrong...but here I am 10 months later and 56lbs lighter and I wouldnt change it for anything-I would do it again in an instant. I think there are more risks of death from being obese than through lap band surgery.Good luck aand positive thinking.:smile:

Yes people have died from having lapband surgery. The number is more than 1% but it's not an extremely dangerous procedure.

Where did you get information that the mortality rate is higher? I double checked my books and paperwork, checked the Lab Band website and did a Google search and everything says less than 1% (average .5%). I was told both by my surgeon and people here that the surgical risks are less than everyday operations such as gallbladder removal.

Yes, people die from the surgery, but it really is less than 1%. All major surgery have risks associated to them.

Those risks are dependent upon so many factors. Your health, the doctor, the hospital, and so on.

There was a death I read about on this forum. An OBGYN doctor who had the procedure and died before Thanksgiving day.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/well-respected-ob-gyn-dies-banding-complications-82714/

My surgeon says that the odds of death during lap band surgery or as a result of lap band surgery are 1 in 2,000.

The coroner’s report revealed the mysterious death of a seemingly healthy 38-year-old woman.

Dr. L. Parks died of streptococcal sepsis, or blood poisoning, due to a “massive” intra-abdominal infection, said Bob Dempsey, coroner for San Miguel County in Colorado.

“The infection was due to complications of gastric banding,” he said. “She had the surgery three weeks before she died, during he first week of November.”

Found this and I thought I would post it to this older thread.

I had to have a band replacement in early September due to a bad slip that occurred when I was in the hospital giving birth to my daughter in June.

I am still here to talk about it. However, I did get critically ill and had to spend one week in the hospital. My potassium had dropped to 2.5 (critically low enough to begin having heart issues with a definite risk of death if I had not been healthy before I had gotten so ill) and I had to stay in the hospital for several days before I was well enough for a surgeon to even consider touching me to begin to correct the problem.

Of course there are risks of any surgery and they are extremely small with the lapband. However, statistics seem to fly out the window when you happen to be the one with the rare, serious issue.

Lap Band Forum - Lap Band Surgery > Dr. Leslie Parks dies from Lab Band Surgery Nov. 24, 2008

Does anyone know if someone with heart problems can have the band? Just wondering.....

My understanding is that the actual number of deaths due to Lap Band SURGERY is pretty low. My guess is that the Urband Legends of people dying during the surgery is 10 times the number of people that actually do.

I think it is important to remember that sometimes things happen in surgery or any medical procedure really that nobody expects. We don't stop having these procedures because of the fear. Woman die, even in America, in childbirth but it's so rare that it's news when it happens. My mother had both hips replaced (she was 70 the first time and 78 the second); yet Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski's son died at 43 from hip replacement surgery.

If your doctor thinks you are healthy enough to undergo surgery that's the important thing. You can't worry about arbitrary comments from people who don't understand the surgery or may have an agenda against you or the surgery.