tomlinda77

I had the Vanguard Lap Band placed in August of 2006, I lost about 50# Pre-Op and had my surgery with Dr. Ronnie Kieth in Norman Ok. The Dr. and I were pleased that surgery went so well and were surprised I was up walking the halls almost Immediately after returning to my room. There were no complications at first, but before quite reaching my sweet spot, post operative I had to reschedule an appointment and gained 2 pounds by next appointment. Dr. Kieth's P.A. was very rude and chewed me out in front of my wife and five year old son. She told me she was not going to give me an injection this trip, after I traveled 200 miles. She told me if I came back and saw their diet specialist (whom I had Emailed weekly with my diet log) and lost weight, she would give me another fill. When Dr. Ronnie Kieth came in, he was nice at first and told her they would go ahead and give me a 1/2 cc fill that day. I nicely ask Dr. Kieth after she left the room if someone else could do my fills. He became very angry and said she would be the only Person! to give me my fills. I felt their behavior was inappropriate and it caused me to lose trust in them and I decided I would find someone else to do my fills. At the time I could find no one else who would do fills when another surgeon had placed the device. After a while my personal physician persuaded a friend who does mini gastric bypass surgery to do my fills. At first he the did the fills with no problems and after 6 cc's I began loosing weight' so he asked me to come back when I stopped loosing. After hitting 300# I stopped loosing, so I went back to find his insurance said he could no longer do fills. I was back where I was, not having any one to do fills, but at least I was holding my own with a 115# total loss with diabetes gone, sleep apnea gone and some restriction in my band. I was at the least much better off. One day last year there was no more restriction, and I found another Lap band Dr. who would do fills, but when he drew Fluid out, it was cloudy and after injecting more fluid there was no feeling of restriction. I knew something was wrong, so I had an upper GI swallow test done and it confirmed my fears. I had die injected with Fluoroscope and it showed leaking from the port or tube but the port and band appeared to be still in proper placement. It was inconclusive whether it was leaking from the port or the tube. I was told medicare would only pay for one weight loss surgery and would not pay for a repair. The Dr. Suggested By-Pass surgery but it would be out of pocket $18-19 Grand. I feel Vanguard should pay for repair of the defective system. I would appreciate any comments or advice. tomlinda77@sbcglobal.net

Vanguard is the manufacturer or name of the lap band used on me. I was told most medical devices have a 10 year warranty by a pharmacy after the malfunction. I do not know if this is true but different device reliability and warranties is something I would at least talk to my Dr. about before having surgery. Just because overweight people are desperate for help doesn't mean we should except inferior equipment, or not expect it to be replaced when it fails in a short time. Class action law suites happen all the time because of medical equipment premature failure. .