To the Emergency room

JoanieW · June 22, 2011

Lena, thanks for sharing your story. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. Did they redo the plication or leave your stomach as it was before the surgery?

Hello everyone,

I came to this site because the OCC forum has deleted all of my posts. All I want is to inform people who consider plication to know what I went through and possible risks.

Let me tell you what happen to me with plication. I had it done in on Oct 2010 in Tijuana Mexico with Dr. Ortiz at the Obesity Control Center (OCC). 7 months later I had only lost 20 pounds. So, I called the OCC around mid May and told them about my lack of weight loss.

They told me that I would have to go back to OCC and redo the plication because I had what they call a loose plication.

At this time I told them that I have been having a lot of acid reflux and heartburn and that I could not make any arrangements to go until I get it under control. So, I started to take Prilosec and Zantac but they did nothing to help my condition.

Now I went to see my Dr. and he gave me prescription meds. Still, nothing worked, so he gave me stronger ones with no results.

Then in late May it was so bad that I couldn’t eat or drink Water without vomiting it up. Because of my condition I lost an additional 10 pounds in just 4 days. I made an emergency visit to my Dr. and due to my extreme dehydration and being so weak he sent me to the Emergency Room. Now all hell broke loose!

After so many test and a bariatric Dr. to review them, he determined that it was the result of my plication gone wrong. I had a herniated stomach that caused food to stay in the esophagus. This was starting a condition called mega-esophagus that would be irreversible if gone untreated immediately. My stomach had turned into itself causing blockage and wasn’t allowing food to go down. To me it looked like a volcano exploding. The bariatric Dr. told me the cause was that the plication stiches did not hold. 30 minutes after the news I was in the operation room to remove the rest of the plication stiches to correct the problem or it was going to kill me. Later after over 3 hours in the O.R and recovered, I saw a 7 inch cut in my stomach with staples along with 4 more 1 to 1and a half inch incisions for laparoscopic surgery.

All I want is to tell the ordeal I went through, so that people know that there are complications with this procedure. I don’t know why the OCC doesn’t let me post my info to inform people of this. Now, I wondering how many people have had complications with the plication tied to inform others but their posts have been deleted..

If I had known this was a potential complication I would have chosen the sleeve.

Makes me wonder what other complications Dr.’s haven’t told patients about

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND I AM NOT TRYING TO DISCOURAGE ANYONE FROM HAVING SURGERY JUST INFORM YOU OF POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS

TEXAS DIVA · June 23, 2011

VERY SORRY TO HEAR OF THIS LENA. I AM 3 MONTHS POST OP PLICATION AND DOING FINE PHYSICALLY. VERY DISTURBING TO THINK THAT ALL COULD BE WELL AND THEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS.. IM PRAYING FOR YOUR RECOVERY.. VERY SORRY TO HEAR OF THIS.. HANG IN THERE.

barbi2000 · June 29, 2011

Lena8900

Thank you for sharing your story. I was supposed to have the gastric sleeve but 2 yrs ago I had surgery to correct my hiatal hernia and gerd problem (nissan fundoplication) so I only had two choices which were gastric bypass or the plication and I opted for the plication mostly because it was reversible and not as complicated as the gastric bypass. I really hope you are doing better and although I am worried about what happened I thank you for sharing the symptoms so I am aware of this complication. Have you been sucessful at weight loss after this incident?

eurogirl40 · June 29, 2011

Lena8900

Thank you for sharing your story. I was supposed to have the gastric sleeve but 2 yrs ago I had surgery to correct my hiatal hernia and gerd problem (nissan fundoplication) so I only had two choices which were gastric bypass or the plication and I opted for the plication mostly because it was reversible and not as complicated as the gastric bypass. I really hope you are doing better and although I am worried about what happened I thank you for sharing the symptoms so I am aware of this complication. Have you been sucessful at weight loss after this incident?

Well I had my plication removed only 4 weeks ago,so far I have not gain any weight.But who knows in the future.I'm trying my best not to eat as much.But it's hard

I had my plication for 7 months.If had done more research on it, I would had the sleve done and not the plication.The plication is to new and people are not happy with the weigt loss.