Ok so I have been trying to read up on everything so I can make the best educated decision about having surgery. I have read that the first 30 days is when death could happen from surgery. And that 1 in every 50 people die. That seems really high. I have anxiety disorder and I fear that I will go insane the first 30 days worrying about something going wrong. I'm scared of all the complications

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I haven't heard about that kind of death ratio. but I was a little nervous because I have never had surgery before but everything worked out great!!! I hope I helped a little

If your surgeon has a death rate of 1 out of 50, you need to find a new surgeon. The normal death rate is more like 1 out of 1000, and an excellent surgeon may well have far better stats or no deaths.

The truth is that being morbidly obese is a lot more dangerous to your health and life than surgery is. By choosing weight loss surgery, you are actually reducing your risk of death in the near term by 90%. If dying is what scares you, you should be running as fast as you can to sign up for surgery.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1356432/

That death rate is extremely high. I would research further to look at more realistic statistics from reputable sources. The death rates would be higher, as with any surgery, for the extremely morbidly obese and people with significant health issues.

The sad statistic is that 100% of the WLS patients will eventually die.

@@beccaconaty87

That is crazy. It is much safer than your statistic. I would never have had optional surgery willingly that killed one out of every 50.

Edited June 21, 201610 yr by PayItForward

@beccaconaty87..... Where did you get that statistic? If it is particular to your surgeon don't let them touch you!

Holy cow! If 1 in 50 people died the surgery would not be approved although if I read that statistic I would be freaked out too, geez Louise. Ask your doctor how many people have died or had severe complications after his surgery. My doctor was an absolute tool, but no one had ever died or had major complications as a result of his surgery and so I got over the fact that I didn't like him because he was unlikely to kill me. If you look at the stats for death or complications, often the people who die are those that had major prior complications. If you go into surgery way unhealthier than the average fat person, your chances of death are higher, however these people then skew the results for everyone else.

You are highly unlikely to die as a result of this surgery. If I remember correctly, gallbladder removal has around the same risk. Your decision should be more about understanding that you are having your stomach cut out and you need to learn to live a life with respect for that. I am unlikely ever going to be able to eat an entire burger again, I don't really eat junk food at all because it makes me sick, and I can't chug Water (or booze or anything). I have also maintained at goal for well over a year with a relative degree of ease. I am fine having traded 80% of my stomach for a size 2 butt. Whether you are also willing to do that is something you need to consider, but you really don't have a 1 in 50 chance of dying, or even remotely close to that. Try focusing your decision more on the long-term and less on the immediate complications of surgery, because the former of the two is exponentially more important to be worried about than the latter.

1/50?! That's a 2% chance you'll die, which is much higher than the standard 0.01% chance I'm used to hearing. I'm very curious to know where you got that statistic as well.

As others have said, surgery is safer than obesity. Heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are all the major causes of death in this country. Having obesity exponentially raises your odds of suffering from one of these three killers. WLS is the only proven way to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off for the long-term. I may have only lost 35 pounds so far but I've never been able to get my weight this low organically and keep it off for more than a month or two. And I'm still losing steadily with much less suffering than I did in my dieting days!

In any case... these days, death during WLS is very rare. Used to be much higher when the surgery was new but techniques have improved. Talk to your doctor - he/she should reassure you!

Ok so I have been trying to read up on everything so I can make the best educated decision about having surgery. I have read that the first 30 days is when death could happen from surgery. And that 1 in every 50 people die. That seems really high. I have anxiety disorder and I fear that I will go insane the first 30 days worrying about something going wrong. I'm scared of all the complications

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That is not accurate. Gastric Sleeve Surgery and Bypass have a less than 1% mortality rate... actually less than gallbladder surgery. Talk to your surgeon about the risks of surgery.

Ok so I have been trying to read up on everything so I can make the best educated decision about having surgery. I have read that the first 30 days is when death could happen from surgery. And that 1 in every 50 people die. That seems really high. I have anxiety disorder and I fear that I will go insane the first 30 days worrying about something going wrong. I'm scared of all the complications

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Perhaps you'd better read up on everything from much more reliable sources of information.

Let's face it; you can walk out your door today and get hit by a bus, car, etc. If death is what you are afraid of, then I suggest you get this surgery rather than be obese, unhealthy, and facing complications that will shorten your life span. I'm also one who suffers from anxiety and it is normal to be nervous before your surgery, but (and I don't know what your beliefs are) I have my God that I pray to and pretty much whatever His will is for me, then that is that. I woke up from surgery and was very happy it was over. I never heard 30 days after is when death could occur from surgery, and trust me I read everything I could either google or get my hands on prior to surgery, and I questioned every healthcare professional I met with.

Ok so I have been trying to read up on everything so I can make the best educated decision about having surgery. I have read that the first 30 days is when death could happen from surgery. And that 1 in every 50 people die. That seems really high. I have anxiety disorder and I fear that I will go insane the first 30 days worrying about something going wrong. I'm scared of all the complications

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I have never heard the 1 in 50 ratio. Where did you get that?

My surgeon has had over 4000 successful surgeries and only 2 deaths (I think -- I might be misremembering and it is only 1). The one I remember him telling us about was because the man would not get up and walk after surgery. When he went home his family wouldn't let him get up and walk so he had a blood clot.

According to my surgeon, the two biggest risks are pneumonia and blood clots. My surgeon had very specifically addressed those risk with medication (like blood thinners), tools (spirometer use, leg compression thingies, etc.), and instructions (walking, etc.).

Yes, there is risk of death from any surgery. For me, the risk of dying from obesity was much, much higher.

The best thing you can do is follow your surgeon's instructions to the letter. Everything he asks you to do is to make sure you go into the surgery as healthy as possible and to have the most successful outcome.

Found this with a quick Google search:

Studies Weigh in on Safety and Effectiveness of Newer Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Procedure

Published June 2012

Download PDF Document

SAN DIEGO, CA – JUNE 20, 2012 – Studies from Stanford University, Cleveland Clinic Florida and the Naval Medical Center in San Diego show laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, an increasingly popular surgical procedure where the stomach is reduced by 85 percent, is as safe as or safer than laparoscopic gastric bypass or gastric banding. The studies* were presented here at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS).

In one study, Stanford University researchers analyzed safety data from nearly 270,000 metabolic and bariatric surgeries performed between 2007 and 2010. Nearly 16,000 of the procedures were sleeve gastrectomies, which had a 30-day serious complication rate of less than one percent (0.96%), compared to a rate of 1.25 percent for gastric bypass and one-quarter of one percent (0.25%) for gastric banding.

The 30-day mortality rate for sleeve gastrectomy was 0.08 percent, while the rate for gastric bypass was 0.14 percent and 0.03 percent for gastric banding. These mortality and complication rates are lower than those typically associated with gallbladder or hip replacement surgery.

Gastric bypass resulted in the most average weight loss after one year. The average body mass index (BMI) after this procedure dropped by about 40 percent (47.7 to 31.2). Sleeve gastrectomy patients experienced about a 30 percent drop (47.5 to 34.1), while gastric band patients had a 20 percent reduction (45.1 to 37.5).

“In terms of risk and benefit, sleeve gastrectomy sits nicely between gastric bypass and adjustable gastric band,” said lead study author John Morton, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Bariatric Surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics at Stanford University"

@@beccaconaty87, your anxiety level is a greater danger to you than is bariatric surgery and I'm not even speaking of mortality.

If you want to obsess over statistics, here, in all seriousness, is a good one: If 32 people are in a room, two will have the same birthday -- month and day. Test it next time you're in a crowded room.

Edited June 21, 201610 yr by WLSResources/ClothingExch

@@beccaconaty87, your anxiety level is a greater danger to you than is bariatric surgery and I'm not even speaking of mortality.

If you want to obsess over statistics, here, in all seriousness, is a good one: If 32 people in a room, two will have the same birthday -- month and day. Test it next time you're in a crowded room.

A room full of people aren't needed, only 3:

I could have read a site that wasn't very reliable. But thank u all for putting everything into perspective and giving me some reliable information.

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