SaintsandSailors

According to Obesityhelp.com, he has done 300 lapband surgeries and 3000 open RNY's. Here is a link to his profile there: http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/bariatric+surgeon+profile+Eric+Schlesinger+cgk.html You'll need to cut & paste. Be sure and click on "reviews".

Tom, this is wonderful news! Glad to see the surgeon paying attention (finally!). Sending prayers your way! :redface:

I'm so sorry, Tom, that this is not healing for you. You said that the doctor had to open you up to look around, so I wonder why he didn't see or repair these holes as long as he had you open? I hope he has a plan "B" to go to, as the one you are on currently doesn't appear to be working! Is there something else that can be done? You shouldn't be going through this. I'm sending many, many prayers your way.

Tom, thank you for posting an update. The last time you didn't post for weeks, you were in the hospital! I have never heard of a "fistulagram". Is that something done at the hospital? Or at the doctor's office? I sounds like you are still very ill. And, what a horrible holiday you must have had. My heart goes out to you. Are you able to work in this condition? And, I remember you were self-pay for the band, so will your insurance company pick up the costs for all this other surgery and all of these tests you have needed? I know you feel it all could have been prevented if the surgeon had taken your complaints seriously and not let it get so far gone. I also think it was horrible that his office staff told you he was out of town, when he was in town performing surgery on new patients. What happened to you is "criminal" and it is not your fault, yet you are the one who is suffering. I hope this is isn't happening to anyone else. Congratulations on the weight loss. I wish it had come off another way. You are in my prayers. Maybe the tubes will come out soon and you can at least have a sip of Water. Oh, the things we take for granted until we no longer have them!

Tom, surprised to hear that the hospital bed was more comfortable than your own bed at home! It's usually the opposite! Have you tried sleeping in a recliner chair? A lot of folks find it's easier than sleeping in a bed after surgery. I am continuing to pray for you and hope you can endure this trial and heal. How unfortunate that the doc couldn't give you an RNY, sleeve or DS as long as he had to cut you open to clean up the lapband mess. You have the big RNY type scar, but not the benefits of the surgery. If that doesn't suck, I don't know what does! You must be so relieved to hear from others who have had worse case scenarios. But, they healed and lived to tell about it and so will you! Keep posting!

Tom, glad to hear you're in better spirits! When you say that the doctor "bypassed" your stomach, do you mean he gave you an RNY gastric bypass operation? If not, when does he plan to reconnect the stomach? Or is the feeding tube going directly into your intestines?? Usually, I think it goes into the stomach, but I really am not sure. I hope your insurance covers more than $12,000 - maybe you can appeal? When you add that to the original $15,000 for the lap-band that had to come out, it is not a pretty number. :-( I am praying for you and wishing you the best holiday possible, considering the circumstances.

Wow, Tom! Sorry to hear of what's been happening to you. I guess the upside is that you'll lose weight from the feeding tube! LOL (I thought you could use a laugh.) Does the doctor have any idea where the infectious agent came from? As I said before, that type of virulent bacteria isn't just hanging around your kitchen at home. More like the type of infectious agent you'd find in a hospital setting. I'm concerned that the surgical instruments (perhaps even the lapband itself?) weren't properly sterilized before they used them on you, or maybe one of the nurses didn't change gloves after treating another patient and then infected you while changing your dressings in the hospital? I am also concerned that, because you were a self-pay patient for the WLS surgery, your insurance may balk at paying for all of these other hospitalizations, surgeries and emergency procedures which will probably amount to more than the original band costs. (I think a lot of people are wondering about that.) Someone else on here wrote that her surgeon ate a lot of the costs for the follow-up problems. Maybe yours will too? Thanks for clarifying where you are from. I don't know where that other poster got the idea that you were in Texas. Godspeed for a uneventful recovery and I hope you have a happy and healthy new year. Please keep posting - I was very concerned when you didn't post for 2 weeks and now we all know why.

TJWOOD is from Phoenix, or at least that's what it says here. Her surgeon is also in Phoenix, so I don't know why you think she is in TX. I am not from Ohio, nor am I an attorney! I just am appalled at the cavalier reaction her surgeon has shown to her serious infection!

TJ, glad to hear you are home and OK. After reading your last post, I was very worried for you and had a feeling that you were hospitalized. One didn't need to be a doctor or nurse to know that for such a degree of infection to exist so long after the initial surgery, there was a serious problem brewing and INDEED THERE WAS!! I can't help but wonder if your surgeon had taken the time to culture and properly treat the infection early on, that maybe it could have been eradicated and you could have kept the band (and not wound up with a gigantic scar and having to heal from major surgery). Many people have had uneventful recoveries and great results with the lapband, so I'm wondering why your experience went so wrong. And, of course, I'm thinking about the sterilization techniques applied to the surgical instruments and other items used in the hospital or surgical unit, because this TB strain mycobacterium had to come from somewhere and I seriously doubt that it was lurking in your home! Maybe the hospital needs to be investigated so that this doesn't happen to anyone else! Maybe there was human error where a lab tech didn't properly autoclave an instrument or something and there was residual contagion on it that got passed on to you in your surgery? While it may not have been your surgeon's fault that you got this infection, it was his responsibility to properly diagnose, identify and treat it at an early stage and that was not done! And, did you read my previous post where I found out your surgeon WAS IN TOWN (someone on OH posted that he did surgery on her on Friday 11/21/08), when his office told YOU he was not! I feel so badly for you to have had to endure all of this when you knew that something wasn't right in the first place. Don't you hate it when doctors tell you that everything will be fine and then down the line, YOU (not them) are the one who winds up hospitalized and in pain? And, then they act like it was just some random thing and couldn't have been prevented? Please take care of yourself (your wife is probably taking good care of you!) I am praying that you have a fast recovery. You have been through enough! When you are up to it, please post how you are doing. I don't know why I thought you were female, but accept my apology please and now I know you're a guy!

I don't "have it in" for anyone and don't consider my comments "nasty". They are just my opinion and it's a free country the last time I looked! If this were happening to me, it is what I would do. TJWOOD can do whatever she wants. it's her decision. NOT MINE AND NOT YOURS!! A. I was just answering someone else's question as to who this woman's doc was, because she said she wanted to avoid going to him! Why don't you get on her case? I am not even the one who mentioned that this doc had paid posters. That was someone else as well! I never knew there was such a thing as paid posters! And, you think I AM one of them? Well, for a "paid poster", I'm not doing my job very well. Only (now) 3 (THREE) posts on here and maybe 8-10 on ObesityHelp over a 6-8 month period? B. I do not "push" Simpson. I don't even know Simpson, or any of these docs for that matter. I only know what I have read from what others have posted, and maybe they are ALL paid posters! I have no idea - truly! Someone was asking about LB doctors in AZ, so I repeated what I had read. I also mentioned Debarros because I read that he has a lapband himself and has been through the experience. And, because you brought it up, I just read my old comments on the AZ board from MONTHS ago (I hadn't been on there in MONTHS before checking in recently) and I also mentioned in ONE post ONLY that I read that a Doctor in Mexico called Aceves was supposed to be good. C. This woman should not have had to go to her primary physician to test for infection, after all that time with the infection growing in her body - her surgeon should have taken blood, urine, or whatever was necessary when she showed the first signs, instead of just scraping out the wound and letting her go home to a dangerously high fever. The PCP knew what to do! Why didn't her surgeon? What if she had waited a week or so to see her surgeon and not gone to her PCP? And if her surgeon did give her antibiotics (it appeared as though he was just treating the wound, not the systemic infection), why didn't they work? Perhaps she needed ones which were specific to her particular breed of infection which he didn't bother to test for. P.S. I am not the only one on here who is concerned that this poor woman's surgeon has "dropped the ball" with her care. Perhaps I am the only one who mentioned that he should be reported for it. Maybe that was hasty, but this is the type of thing people can die from and should be taken seriously, as others too have said. Just because someone has an M.D. after his/her name doesn't mean they never make mistakes. If someone is not doing their job properly, they should be called on the carpet for it, no matter if they are a "doctor"! In fact, even more so BECAUSE they are a doctor and have sick people depending on them to make the proper decisions and do the proper tests! Plus, if you read what TJWOOD actually wrote, she said that the doctor's office said that he would not be BACK IN TOWN until Tuesday, so if he was performing surgery on Friday, he was OBVIOUSLY in town. I'll tell you what I do hate and that's doctors thinking they are above everyone else and lying to patients! That also goes for doctors not informing patients about all the weight loss options that are available to them; they like to just inform patients about the specific surgeries that they perform. Like it or not, medicine is a business just like everything else and everyone is trying to make a buck. I guess that explains the need for "paid posters". And, if you think they know what they are doing in the ER, you are sadly mistaken. The ER sends people home all the time after misdiagnosing them only to have the patient come back dangerously ill. BTW, her last message said she had 103+ fever. I'm more concerned about why she isn't posting, than worrying about what her surgeon did or didn't do at this point! She may VERY sick! It is not "outrageous" (as you say) to report a doctor for not responding appropriately to infection - another surgeon in AZ got reprimanded and cited by the medical board for it and got dropped from his hospital, leaving the patients he had in his pipeline in the lurch - that was about 6 months ago. And, a few other prominent surgeons in AZ have also been cited. Many more than once. You can read for yourself on the medical board, if you are so interested. Maybe you work for the doctor who did this to her? Maybe you're one of those "paid posters" that BubbleButt was talking about!! Sure sounds like it! Let's see how many others of you are going to jump onto this board and attack this post! I guess BubbleButt was RIGHT!

PAID POSTERS!!? Too bad the AZ OH boards aren't reading about what he's doing to this poor woman. They should know about this. This person should report him to the medical board. I am wondering why didn't he didn't give her antibiotics in the first place for that size of an infection? Ignoring internal infection is very serious - people can die from infection! In fact, TJWOOD hasn't posted lately and the last message said she had 103+ fever!! Interesting that his office told TJ that the doctor wouldn't be in the office until Tuesday. I just looked at the AZ OH board for fun and someone whose profile name is "Lizzie" just posted on her profile today that he performed revision surgery on her LAST Friday, Nov. 21st! So, apparently, he WAS in town! But, I guess he was only available for new patients! $$$$ TJ, please give us an update! I'm concerned! Even more so because your doctor's office lied to you! This is awful beyond words!

I'm just a lurker here and have also been following TJWOOD's experiences. I think I read that her doctor is Dr. Schlesinger and the clinic is called Arizona Weight Loss Solutions (something like that). I've read on Obesity Help that the best lap band surgeon in all of Arizona is supposed to be Dr. Simpson, who only does lap bands and has the most experience with them and another good one is Dr. Debarros, who reportedly has a lap band himself. Hope this helps.