Hi Folks,

I have just suffered removal of my band on 7/6/08 due to complications from gall bladder surgery that went wrong = peritonitis! I was banded on 7/18/07. The Dr. who installed my band removed the gall bladder laproscopically 0n 7/3/08, but said there was a large stone in the bile duct and that he didn't want to remove it because the hospital would not supply the instrument needed for such a procedure and made the Drs. use an ob-gyn instrument instead. He said he was calling in a "specialist" who could do it more successfully. The "specialist" succeeded in perforating an intestine while his anesthesiologist was partially collapsing a lung! Aftrerwards, I was kept in the hospital overnight, all the time having trouble breathing and having increasing abdominal pain. In the meantime, my lapband Dr. who removed the gall bladder had gone on vacation (he had already told me he was going), but left another Dr. in charge of his patients. The next morning, the "specialist" was preparing to send me home, but the Dr. substituing for my Lapband Dr.(on vacation) came into the room just in time to begin disputing with the "specialist" about sending me home because the lab reports showed that I had a very high (and esculating) white blood count, whereupon this Dr.(substituing for my lapband Dr.) asked me if he could do a CAT scan. Soon afterwards,he called from the O.R. saying he was prepping for surgery because I had a life threatening infection = peritonitis! I was taken to surgery immediately for an exploratory laparotomy, following which I spent 6 days in ICU and another 8 on a regular floor. I came out of surgery with a chest tube, a feeding tube, a drainage tube, and multible I.V.s = 3 poles worth! The Dr. said he had to remove my LapBand while he was in there. He also told my husband that he just hated to have to go behind someone else and "....straighten out their mess!" My husband asked if the mess was from the first Dr.(my lapband Dr.) or the second (the specialist), and the Dr. said, "The second."

The long and the short of it is, I no longer have a band due to no fault of my own and I am sure my insurance company will not want to spring for the cost of another one! The only good thing that came from this terrible experience is that I lost the last 25 lbs. of my goal weight!

Is this not a horror story, or what !

Ten Gal

Tengal,

WOW!!! I am so sorry you had to go thru that! I hope you get to feeling better soon. Congrats on meeting your weight loss goal.

I'm so glad that you are alive!! I'm so sorry all of that happend! I hope you feel better soon!

I would think that the "mess" the specialist left behind would be grounds for a lawsuit......thus, providing the cash to pay for a second banding if you so chose to do so.

Just a thought.