I Dont Hear Much About Dr. Almanza Anymore........

[Nicolanz 1,484]

My point is getting lost here. I just want people to have the correct information. I'm only talking about the amount of surgeries a day. Every thing else is true, he works out of a well equipped clean clinic, low to high bmi, it's in a shopping center, you stay in a hotel.

 

I'm not swaying anyone's decision. I'm not saying anything bad about other surgeons. I don't have a "my surgeon is better than yours" attitude. If several people who HAVE BEEN to Almanza are saying it's not true, why claim what you are saying is fact when you've never been?

[Nicolanz 1,484]

And yea, if you have absolutely no experience with a surgeon, you should add a disclaimer.

[Jesser 295]

Here's another story from stoongal on obesityhelp....Gotta put this story out there I guess, to try & prevent more horrible outcomes. I went to Emmanuel clinic when it was not very busy. I found it to be an easy surgery for me to recover from & I am now 72 (this was last September BEFORE all the flurry of infections came out.) I trusted and believed everything my coordinator told me and I especially trusted Betancourt. I have since found out he in very much in control of everything down there, and a lot of it is coverup and lies. Yes he is charming but charm is not what you are paying for. I even argued FOR them and posted on Vertical Sleeve talk to the nth degree refuting everyone who had negative things to say about them (the whole experience) I even talked my daughter and sister to go down and have their surgeries done, that is how confident I was.

Fast forward to middle of January, I went with my family and for a few days had a very nice time. Dismayed at the size of the clinic, and I was even more dismayed that Dr Almanza was so over-booked! My sister Linda went in for her sleeve after 10 pm at night, the 6th of the day! I was worried about that as it was so overcrowded in the clinic and so little room for anyone to maneuver, but held my tongue as we expected the best outcome.

To make a long story short, my sister became very ill while there, Betancourt said it was gas pains and continued to give her pain control shots. She was in no shape to fly home on the Friday as booked, they caught the fact she had a collapsed lung and severe dehydration and she went back in for intravenous saline and oxygen, but they assumed there was no leak because of their tests.

BUT THERE WAS, a centimeter nick out of the stomach high up near the esophagus, 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..

Slowly things have improved since those first weeks passed, but she was in critical care for about 6 weeks until she could breathe on her own and not need a ventilator to help with that. The infection spread and caused all kinds of porosity in her stomach and esophagus.

To date she is still in the hospital, still being fed intravenously and with a feeding tube directly to her gut, waiting for the last hole to heal in her esophagus, they did insert a stent but haven't tested it for leaks so far. She had a large hole in her abdomen due to all the 5 ensuing body cavity flushes they had to do every other day in the beginning weeks. It is healing and she will need two further operations, a skin graft and a hernia repair on the incision site. We do expect a full recovery but only after they test her stomach out with real food, which can be weeks away yet. She has lost her job, her income of course and a good chunk of her life due to this facility's operation. Safety should be your main concern, Betancourt and Almanza's "stacke'em and rack'em" policy is not doing anyone any favors. Dr Almanza, as nice as a man he is, is now a partner and profits are what it is all about now it seems.

There have been many (20 I heard), complication tales from there since December, most were too sick to tell them themselves but are known to many of the coordinators. They all distance themselves from those, chalking it up to normal rate of complications. They have to do damage control, it is their JOB, and Betancourt controls them! Doing so many surgeries a day in my opinion is SO NOT SAFE!

Spend the extra now and go to a safe hospital down there, spend the $4000 more to save yourself from becoming another Linda, with hospital costs being what they are in the US I would think that would be more important than the up front extra now to save months of hospital and surgery bills as well as your lost income from your job.

Check out my photo albums for a picture of me visiting Linda in the hospital in Edmonton last month(March)when I was there. Sorry Linda, I had waited for you to tell your story but you can't sit up long enough to type it out on the computer and people really need to hear this!

All of this is true and I am so sorry I doubted everyone that had problems there, even John who's wife wrote of his experience was pretty sick the day we drove to the airport and ended up with infection and in the hospital. It was extremely busy the day of his surgery too. I am not saying that you won't have a good experience, but why risk it if you don't absolutely have to, is all I am saying, there are WAY too many stories like Linda's from that facility to ignore!

[JamesHRN 114]

I just have to throw this out there again it is hear say. And I hope that you do not think that complications such as these can happen to any patient using any surgeon in any hospital EVEN the so called BEST at what they do.

 

I also heard than when I was there that there were so many patients that the DR had to do surgeries without sleep for 7 days there were so many patients that everyone had to share the beds 3-4 patients in each bed but at least they were all cozy in the beds

 

I wonder if this is true it must be I heard it and I know that people don't lie or fabricate stories and I absolutely know that people DO NOT spread RUMORS or stories they hear. So I guess it is a FACT

[Nicolanz 1,484]

That's horrific but even in that post there were 6 patients. I think this is a risk you take when you have a surgery in a different country. They do their thing then send you off back to your country. She even said not to risk having surgery in MX. Are you going to advocate for only having surgery in the US?

[JamesHRN 114]

I have to say that as a US. Nurse that at least where I had surgery in Mexico that the same IV Fluids and meds were used same as in the US I could actually read they same labels as we have here in the US

Believe me I was on top of everything and ask lots of questions when procedures were done with me

 

And it was the Registered Nurse who took out my drain not the housekeeper. Several of the nurses that helped me had worked in the US in California

[Jesser 295]

They may be fabricating the story, or lying. All I know is that I've read a lot of these stories. Is it true or not? Who knows. But I wouldn't feel comfortable going to him. He was actually how I found out about this surgery to begin with. I heard about him from a friend (who had a good experience) so I started researching him and Jerusalem "hospital". I found out it wasn't actually a hospital, which we have already established that. I read a few of those scary stories, read about the robbery, about the noisy recovery house and poor after care they supposedly received, the number of patients per day, just on and on. I don't know if people made a lot of it up or whatever, but it was enough for me to rethink my decision and go to a different surgeon. Everyone is different with what we feel comfortable with. Yes, people can lie, but I'm listening to these people who are telling these stories! If I go down there and god forbid something terrible happens to me, I want to post about it and hope that people believe me and not call me a liar.

[AmandaRaeLeo 2,145]

And yea' date=' if you have absolutely no experience with a surgeon, you should add a disclaimer.[/quote']

I was being facetious.

Amanda Rae

[AmandaRaeLeo 2,145]

As I said before- I'm still alive and well :-) actually another 4-5 lbs lighter than before :-)

The dr does not own or run the clinic- he is the surgeon only. He's a great man' date=' and I felt completely safe and well taken care if there with him and his team.

Any questions- just pm me. I get them all the time.

254- 4 days before surgery-

250 day of surgery May 15, 2012

Today, 144.

[/quote']

Congrats on your weight loss! I'm hoping to achieve an awesome success like that. Maybe not quite that low. I'm 5'9 and idk how I'd look in the 140's! I'm just wanting to be below 200lbs!

Amanda Rae

[NurseGrace 509]

There's so much false information attained from hearsay about Almanza on here. Almanza only has 8 hospital beds. Unless you physically saw a patient sleeping on the floor, it isn't fair to say he does 10-12 a day. You don't go to the hotel until the second day.

 

I dont really agree - I am a person who suffered with a sub par surgeon and sub par care years ago because people were too nice to say what they really thought. Now, years later and with WLS being much more popular the truth about the man who did me is out there on the internet because of sites like these and people stating how they really feel about things and I think its a good thing - if you had this doctor and you liked him thats equally awesome, but don't fault people stating why they have switched.

[Nicolanz 1,484]

 

I dont really agree - I am a person who suffered with a sub par surgeon and sub par care years ago because people were too nice to say what they really thought. Now' date=' years later and with WLS being much more popular the truth about the man who did me is out there on the internet because of sites like these and people stating how they really feel about things and I think its a good thing - if you had this doctor and you liked him thats equally awesome, but don't fault people stating why they have switched.[/quote']

 

I don't think you read what I wrote. What are you disagreeing with?

[AmandaRaeLeo 2,145]

I don't think you read what I wrote. What are you disagreeing with?

I try not to speak for others but <----- disclaimer alert -----> I understood it to mean that although sharing the experiences others have shared may be hearsay and inadmissible in a court of law... On a site like this, it's relevant.

Amanda Rae

[Nicolanz 1,484]

That's not a reply to what I said though. I physically saw 8 hospital beds. That's it.

[O.T.R. sleever 3,386]

you stay in a hotel.

 

I'm curious, when did he stop using the recovery house?

 

[AussieLady 521]

I am really glad I didn't find this site until after I had my surgery. This reminds me of when you are pregnant there are always people who tell you horror stories and it is usually those who have not had a baby. My surgeon told me all the things that can go wrong during and after this surgery, infection, leaks, death but I trusted him enough to go ahead. Are these stories justification for not going ahead with the surgery or are you trying to talk yourselves out of it Forget the horror tales and find a surgeon you trust, but be prepared because even the best surgeons have patients who experience complications and sometimes even die. You don't get a guarantee with surgery.