A patient died after surgery with Dr. Elias Ortiz at A-Lighter-me. They won't tell me what happened except to say it was a couple hours after surgery. The woman went with a friend...

On 4/25/2015 at 2:08 PM, Skinnyninny said:

I'm going through A Lighter Me and Mi Doctors Hospital. Everyone seems very nice and they have good reviews. My surgery is next Saturday.

20 hours ago, Sandy Johnson said:

I also respectfully disagree. I invite you to name even 2 surgeons that have performed at least 2000 surgeries and have been performing surgeries for at least 4 years that are free of deaths and complications.

My god, I can name 4 doctors at our facility alone. Sandy, has there been a recent patient death at ALM? You haven't answered that question yet, unless I missed it.

14 minutes ago, Sandy Johnson said:

I can name at least 3 of your surgeons (former surgeons) that previously worked with ALM. We decided after a short period of time and background investigations that some were not a good fit for our company.

What are you talking about? None of the surgeons from the facility where I had my surgery done can work anywhere but at a military treatment facility in the US. My point was that there are MANY MANY WL surgeons who do a high volume of surgeries with no mortality on their record.

Is it possible for you to answer the question about a recent patient death at ALM? An unqualified "NO" would do, but all this prevarication clearly points to "YES". It looks shady as hell.

On 4/20/2017 at 3:52 PM, Alex Brecher said:

Here are two surgeons in Tijuana:

Dr. Jalil Illan Fraijo has performed over 8500 surgeries without a patient death.

Dr. Lisa Marie Pompa has also performed thousands of procedures without a patient death.

BAM.... drops the mic and walks away..... good job Alex.

and so now we wait for Sandy to skirt over that...

On 4/21/2017 at 0:12 PM, ShelterDog64 said:

My god, I can name 4 doctors at our facility alone. Sandy, has there been a recent patient death at ALM? You haven't answered that question yet, unless I missed it.

she NEVER... answers the question....

On 4/21/2017 at 0:44 PM, Sandy Johnson said:

I can name at least 3 of your surgeons (former surgeons) that previously worked with ALM. We decided after a short period of time and background investigations that some were not a good fit for our company.

shouldn't you have checked their back grounds BEFORE hiring them? That's what most companies do... JS

Don't really have a dog in this fight but since I really hate lack of reading comprehension and juvenile dog-piling, notice the bold and underlined, as well as italicized part of the sentence:

"name even 2 surgeons that have performed at least 2000 surgeries and have been performing surgeries for at least 4 years that are free of deaths and complications."

Yeah, so name 1 surgeon that meets that criteria. Or continue with the stupid attacks, w/e floats your boat.

Edited April 25, 20179 yr by Soonerjoseph

I'm really surprised that it's not many more deaths than this! We are all obese-to grossly morbid obese and out of the thousands 2 deaths? The odds are still great so switching docs won't guaranteed your survival rate you may switch doctors and be the first death for that doctor. The bottom line is we are unhealthy and unhealthy people most likely to experience complications in any surgery. Pre Operation 5/9

I chose ALM for my gastric bypass revision. I originally lost 150 lbs., but gained back approximately 60 pounds after 5 years. After extensive research, I decided to have my revision performed by ALM. Without a doubt, this was the worst decision of my life. After forking out over $6,000 cash one of the first things I was informed of when I got to Tajuana was that there was no guarantee that I would lose any weight. They don’t bother informing you of this prior to payment. Although I have lost about 45 lbs. since the surgery my life has been a living hell. After I awoke from surgery I was told that an additional 2 feet of malabsorption were added. The additional 2 feet of malabsorption causes me to have AT LEAST 5 loose stools a day. I must plan any outings outside of my home to make sure there will be a toilet nearby. If there is not a toilet readily available I risk the chance of incontinence. The urge comes within a matter of minutes. The odor of the stools is unbearable. I was lucky enough to work at home after the surgery, but unfortunately, I was laid-off. I start a new job as a home health nurse tomorrow. I have no idea what type of embarrassment I will face. When I contacted, Dr. Ortiz, about this problem he simply stated, “take Imodium” an over the counter anti-diarrheal. This does not help at all.

If anybody is considering a revision I would seriously reconsider going to ALM. I now have no social life and have become a hermit.

23 hours ago, stacey03 said:

I chose ALM for my gastric bypass revision. I originally lost 150 lbs., but gained back approximately 60 pounds after 5 years. After extensive research, I decided to have my revision performed by ALM. Without a doubt, this was the worst decision of my life. After forking out over $6,000 cash one of the first things I was informed of when I got to Tajuana was that there was no guarantee that I would lose any weight. They don’t bother informing you of this prior to payment. Although I have lost about 45 lbs. since the surgery my life has been a living hell. After I awoke from surgery I was told that an additional 2 feet of malabsorption were added. The additional 2 feet of malabsorption causes me to have AT LEAST 5 loose stools a day. I must plan any outings outside of my home to make sure there will be a toilet nearby. If there is not a toilet readily available I risk the chance of incontinence. The urge comes within a matter of minutes. The odor of the stools is unbearable. I was lucky enough to work at home after the surgery, but unfortunately, I was laid-off. I start a new job as a home health nurse tomorrow. I have no idea what type of embarrassment I will face. When I contacted, Dr. Ortiz, about this problem he simply stated, “take Imodium” an over the counter anti-diarrheal. This does not help at all.

If anybody is considering a revision I would seriously reconsider going to ALM. I now have no social life and have become a hermit.

Ill preempt this by stating I have no interest in ever having surgery in Mexico.

But I dont think any bariatric surgeon "guarentees" weight loss. Nothing is guaranteed about anything, its a tool not a magic bullet.

As to them adding two feet of malabsorption, I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. Any chance you heard or understood something incorrectly ?

Ill preempt this by stating I have no interest in ever having surgery in Mexico.
But I dont think any bariatric surgeon "guarentees" weight loss. Nothing is guaranteed about anything, its a tool not a magic bullet.
As to them adding two feet of malabsorption, I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. Any chance you heard or understood something incorrectly ?

Mexico is a leader in weight loss surgery, just do your research and pick the best, not the cheapest. At the time I had my lap band (going on 10 years ago) Mexico was way ahead of the US as far as number of procedures performed. Not sure if that's still true. I felt totally confident in my choice. My only words of caution would be if you're a person who is super needy in the medical dept and go to or call your Dr for every little thing, then Mexico is not for you. There will be no follow up care so you have to be savvy enough to figure things out on your own. Your surgeon will give you guidelines to follow of course, and you can always email them, but that's about it for f/u. I'm heading back down there in 9 days for a bypass, with no hesitation. My surgeon is Armando Joya.

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

On 4/27/2015 at 8:02 PM, SuninVirgo said:

A patient died after surgery with Dr. Elias Ortiz at A-Lighter-me. They won't tell me what happened except to say it was a couple hours after surgery. The woman went with a friend...

Thats awful, but considering their clientele is unhealthy, its not surprising. For me, the risk was worth it. I was slowly killing myself anyhow.