Ok all Im new to your site but need all the help i can get! I went for my first fill on friday and watched as the barium passed right by my band!! they filled me completly up and we redid the baruim...again it ran right passed it as if my band was opened.

The doc says he thinks its eroded but ive only had it one month..doc who did the surgery says its not eroded but has no clue why it did that...we are talking of doing a Endo scope this week....

Has anyone ever heard of the band being OPEN? I have pics of my xray attatched to this.

Please any input you guys have will be apreciated!!

Thanks!

christy;)

I second what Penni says. I'm no expert either, but to me it looks like there is good restriction and that the liquid is able to flow through the restriction, but again, I have no training in this. But it sounds like a second opinion could be wise. Good luck and keep us posted!

Nancy

I am with you Lisa. I don't make much out of the blobs either. LOL. Good luck CB864 and hope it all gets straightened out. Teresa

hey yall, Sorry it took so long for me to come back and reply there has been alot going on this past year...

I went and had the scopes,the upper gis and all and they all showed it was not closed around my stomach that it was in frount of my stomach closed but not closed around anything and had been rubbing up towards my lower esophogus. I got with Dr J Rodriquez and i had to go back to Mexico and he scoped again and removed it trying to tell me that i eroded in ONE MONTH..i had no erosion i saw the tape of the scope the band you can see clearly sitting on the outside of my stomach closed and pressing against my outer lining in a perfect circle. he removed it. I have no band now and no clue how i will pay for the next one but i will have it done here in usa. I think he may have attached it to fatty tissue and thought it was around my stomach, i dont know but it was definatly not around it. and the makers of the band and 2 other lapband doctors viewed the tape and said the same thing that they saw no erosion and that it apreared to have been closed but not around my stomach.

I have NOTHING agains Dr ROD he has done tons of procedures with no issues this aparently was a fluke but it just happened to be me it happened to =0(

My mom had him do hers back in 2003 and she hasnt had any issues.

I would SOOO do this again but have no funds to do it so im dieting the hard way and HOPE for a mirical lottery winning to get the band or insurance to finnally step up and realize they should pay! LOL

good luck!!!

Christy

397/389/185

OH and as for the films,,,you can see the band to the side as the liquid flows right past it. when i did the upper GI it was alot clearer and you could see the band alot clearer and watch as the barium flowed right around it.:think

thanks again

I'm sorry, are you saying that your doctor is claiming you eroded all the way through when in fact he never put it around your stomach in the first place?? Holy cr*p. How can you have nothing against this doctor? I'd be as mad as I could be and demanding a new band (if I trusted him enough) be placed at no cost. That's utterly appalling.

Seriously, is there no recourse for you? You completely wasted thousands of dollars and had two utterly useless operations. You know what would happen in the States. Is there anything you can do?

Big hugs to you for retaining a sense of composure. You're a strong and dignified person. :hug:

I fully agree with Alex. It's time we stopped making excuses for such things and defending doctors when they screw up. They may be wonderful people, but as surgeons they have a responsibility to perform each surgery with care and skill. This was not a fluke. This was gross negligence and I wouldn't think twice about approaching any surgeon who screwed up so badly and demanding they make it right.

Grrr.. I keep coming back to this and adding more. Two other lapband surgeons and the makers of the band all confirmed that the band wasn't even around your stomach. Then you go back to the surgeon who put it in and he just takes it out and says, "Oops you eroded in one month!"??? What.. did the band erode completely through your stomach on one side only, going through the stomach wall, then out the other side, leaving the band completely on the outside?? In one month?? Doesn't this sound like a surgeon who didn't want to admit such a huge F'up!?

Do not let this guy take your money, you hopes, your future and push you out the door saying this is a fluke. Stand up for yourself and dont worry about hurting his feelings or the confrontation. Trust me, you have a huge community of bandsters here who know how to make waves. If this guy doesn't do right by you, he knows he will be talked about around the world!

Ok.. I think I'm finished.. but I'm still not calm.

And as far as your films are concerned, can somebody please get out a pointer and show me what the heck you see? All I see are blobs and some bones.

Here you go

Nice job on the pic, Susan. When I first saw this picture when the thread was started I thought, wait, can that be the band over there on the right? How is that possible? I can't believe I was right. And I'm totally with you on being enraged, but I knew others would come and express it too so I reined myself in.

Christy, really, don't stand for this! It's abusive and in all other ways intolerable. Please go back and demand that the doctor make it right, however you would define that. Holy cow!!

Just curious: What did your mother say?

It's difficult to tell from your images what exactly is going on.

Keep in mind that since many physicians in the US (including myself) have little or no experience with the Swedish Band that you had placed in Mexico.

At first glance, looking at your pictures, I thought that the "Band" looked a bit off to the side, as if the stomach itself was not banded, but at the same time, it certainly does appear to show restriction to the barium flow.

Do you have pictures from your endoscopy?

Hey Dr. Hekier.. thanks for joining this thread. I'm sure you can undersand our concern over this, and for our friend.

To me, it appears as if the restriction is from the band pushing against the esophogus, doesn't it to you as well?

Dr. Hekier, my thanks too for your insight. I'm curious, can you comment on the likelihood of this sort of thing happening in the U.S.? What are the post-placement tests run in your practice? Have you ever heard of this happening in the U.S. with the Inamed band?

To me, it appears as if the restriction is from the band pushing against the esophogus, doesn't it to you as well?

That is possible, but very difficult to tell with static images. The upper GI is taken as a "movie" and the sequence would be helpful to see.

I'm curious, can you comment on the likelihood of this sort of thing happening in the U.S.?

What are the post-placement tests run in your practice?

Have you ever heard of this happening in the U.S. with the Inamed band?

1) Supposing this is a misplaced band, WHICH IS ONLY A SUPPOSITION, I don't think it's a Mexico vs. US issue at all.

2) We currently perform upper GI swallows postoperatively before the patient goes home. However, we may change this practice. We have never had an instance where that upper GI test changed our management of the patient. Additionally, a few months ago a paper was published in the "Journal of the American College of Surgeons" from a group that performed over 1000 Lap Bands. They stopped doing upper GI swallows after their first 100 patients because the swallow didn't change any course of management.

3) Again, I don't think this is a Mexico vs. US, or Swedish vs. Inamed issue.

That is possible, but very difficult to tell with static images. The upper GI is taken as a "movie" and the sequence would be helpful to see.

Gotcha.. well, maybe when she sees these posts again she'll have more to add. I hope you check back and give your thoughts on this matter if she does have other pictures which might give us more of an idea of what happened here. I just feel so bad for her losing her band and her money.. along with all the hopes that I know she had in her success with her band.

Thanks, Dr. Hekier

We currently perform upper GI swallows postoperatively before the patient goes home. However, we may change this practice. We have never had an instance where that upper GI test changed our management of the patient. Additionally, a few months ago a paper was published in the "Journal of the American College of Surgeons" from a group that performed over 1000 Lap Bands. They stopped doing upper GI swallows after their first 100 patients because the swallow didn't change any course of management.

Dr. Hekier, the hospital told me they needed to do a barium swallow post-op to make sure nothing was leaking out of my stomach when I swallowed. I was absolutely parched and wanting something to drink, and they wouldn't let me drink anything until after the barium swallow. Was that over-cautious (which I'm fine with) or anything you've ever heard of?

I'm not the good doctor, but this was the same thing I experienced. They told me they wanted to be certain there were no problems before they allowed me to drink. I was only allowed to wipe out my mouth with a small sponge on a stick (much like a sucker) that I dipped in Water.

After I drank the nasty tasting barium, they gave me a small sip of water to wash the taste out of my mouth. It took everything I had in me to spit that water out and not swallow it! *chuckles*

I was so thirsty! But I knew the IV was keeping me hydrated and I didn't mind them being cautious.