I hate to ask this.....but

Has an active posting member of this forum ever gone in for surgery and become a mortality statistic?

In all of my research of this surgery I can't help but run into articles about mortality rates and the dangers and there are plenty of nay sayers around, both on the internet and in my personal life.

One woman that my fiance works with claims that she knew personally 2 people that have died from this surgery, one during the surgery and one after. I find that kind of hard to believe although anything is possible.

My fiance continues to support my decision but she says she can't help but be freaked out now.

Bigsilly,

I don't know anyone personally that has died from any of these surgeries.  I will say this my doctor said the only ones that do die (in her care) are the ones that don't do as she says when they get home.  They sit down and don't walk and end up with blood clots.  I would say that the other ones that might pass away from this is the ones that go in with MAJOR health issues that cause them to pass but not the surgery itself.  It's as safe as having open heart surgery is now.. I was so scared too but its like 1 in ever 10,000 and that's the ones that don't do as they are told.. I personally know 4 people that have gone through this surgery and they are all alive and well and losing or lost all their weight..

Put your life in your doctors hands but listen to him/her well and you will be just fine.. It will be the best choice you have ever made in your whole life...

Angela




 

I worked with a very dear man who died after WL surgery.  He had many health problems prior to the surgery and had tried for years to get approved.After the surgery, he had so many problems and they got the best of him.  It was very sad.  When i decided to to have WLS and let the people at work know what i was doing, they all brought him up and questioned my decision.  I waivered on whether to do it or not. i talked to many people and my NUT was the voice of reason.  She told me that she did not know what my religious beliefs were, but that when it was my time to go, be it on the operating table or walking down the street, it was my time.  I don't know why, but that clicked for me and I went thru with the surgery.  There are days of regret, but I would not have picked a different path.  Good luck to you in your decision.

RIP Julius.

I've read thousands of articles on folks that died from heart disease, stroke, liver disease, heart attack, kidney failure. More of those folks die than that very small percentage of gastric bypass patients. Check the mortality records for the specific doctor or hospital. Don't use generic data to make a life/health decision for you. I point blank asked my doctor how many patients had he lost and how many had complications. He didn't even blink and he gave me a straight answer as any good doctor should.

Surgery is scary, risky and life changing, but so is walking around like a bomb that's about to explode. That's how I saw myself. It was only a matter of time before I would have "gone off" and had a stroke or heart attack. Having this surgery saved my life.

I'm sure in your research you must have come across many more articles about the successes of this type of surgery. If not, you must be looking in the wrong place. Check the dates of the articles too. The mortality rates have changed significantly in the last 8 years.

Find a really good doctor that has board certification in bariatric surgery and a hospital that is a center of excellence for bariatric surgery. Check their statisics - you'll see the difference. Stay away from the strip mall "surgery-in-an-hour" type places. They have a lower success rate.

Good luck to you.

Any surgery is dangerous but you are going to go through so many test you can be fairly confident that you will be ok. I think the people that pass away from this are the ones that are truly on their last attempt to get healthy. People that are so far gone that they have no other options available. However, I did tie up my loose ends, wrote a will and a letter to my wife for her to find in case I didn't make it through. The surgery was very uneventful and had no complications. I truly believe that if you follow what your doctor recommends you will be fine. The industry has a lot of experience dealing with this procedure. Good luck on your journey.

Also try not to get scared from some of the post you read about complications because the majority of people have no problems but do not post it because they don't need additional advise.

Bill

There are mortality rates from any surgery. There is also plenty of mortality data from obesity too.  You can have complication from any type of surgery, not just wt loss surgery.  The vast majority of issues post op are from patient non-compliance with the protocol of post op life. The surgery works on your abdomen, not your head. Unless you are willing to make lifestyle changes, no wt loss surgery will be very successful.  Many people claim to know people who have died from wt loss surgeries, but it's often difficult to veryify the validy of these claims.  Choose a surgeon wisely, one that is a general surgeon and who has plenty of experience.  That will lessen your anxiety.  I had plenty of anxiety the two days prior to my surgery over 5 years ago.  I was tired of the yoyo dieting issue, and kept gaining wt over the years.  Don't freak out--get educated, and stop listening to heresay or claims of issues post op.  I attend 3 support meetings a month.  99% of those post ops who talk at these meetings have no regrets about their surgery.  The 1% may voice initial regret during the time they are adapting to post op life.  But ask this 1% in another 2 months, and they are happy about their decision about surgery.  Go to some support groups, listen to post op expereinces, and ASK QUESTIONS.  Health issues from long term obestity may have lingering health issues after surgery on some post ops too, and their mortality cannot be blamed on surgery alone. DAVE

Many people who have WLS do it as a last result.  Their health is compromised.  They have a greater chance of complications and death then those with less issues prior to surgery.

Everyone who has had WLS is going to die at some point.  It doesn't mean they died from due to the surgery.  People are going to have illness and ailments after the surgery.  It does not mean the surgery caused it.

No surgery is without risks.  Doing your research and due diligence on your doctor and his staff and the hospital you will be using would serve you much better than researching general mortality rates from WLS.  What is your surgeon's personal mortality rate from WLS?  What are his complication rates?  What is the incidence of mortality from  WLS at the hospital?  These are the facts and figures that will most impact your outcome as well as your own compliance after surgery.
My surgeon and his staff had a 0% mortality rate and a less than 2% complication rate with over 2500 surgeries between 3 doctors.  I had no qualms about their ability to get me through safely. Though I did, like most of us, have those random thoughts that anything could happen, so I made sure all my paperwork work was in order.

And the biggest question of all, is how long will you live and what quality of life will you have if you don't have the surgery?  I can tell you with all of my comorbidities my lifespan would have been much shorter than it is today and my quality of life would have only continued to decline.  I haven't felt this good in 30 years.  I am off all meds and I can do things without a struggle. A huge change since 6 months ago.

Good luck.

I was worried too about this.  I was considered a light weight for this surgery and I battled why I was taking this risk when I have two young kids at home.  Talk to your surgeon, ask the questions, and you will know what YOUR risk is.  The stats are including older people, as well as those with lots of health issues, and people on the heavier end of being approved (and a mix of all three combined).  For me, my risk was very little....Even heavy I was walking 2-3 miles a day, no health issues, I was on no medication, and had no complications from my obesity.  The stats don't show mortality rates for someone like me so I had to discuss this with my surgeon and I think you will feel better once you discuss it with yours.

I personally know 3 people that died who had WLS.  Out of the 10 I know total that had it (personally, not including my OH friends), that seems staggering.

HOWEVER:
The first  had the surgery 20 years ago, and he was so sick with co-morbidities, he would've died anyway.
The second died from an overdose of sleeping pills--she had MANY emotional issues and the massive weight loss and plastic surgeries changed her life faster than she could mentally keep up.
The third died a year later from blood clots.  He had a clotting disorder anyway, and the filters didn't catch one.

None of these stopped me from proceeding to do what was best for me.  I was a healthy fat girl and breezed through the surgery/recovery.

Kim