Horrified at Australian surgeon

[leftover_eidoes 0]

Would like to just start off by saying I love my surgeons office.

Right with that out of the way, I was talking to a friend of mine whose mum has a lap band too. And she was talking about another lady who is stick thin after the surgery and looking unhealthy, she went on to say that this lady had been banded by the other surgeon that services my area. He basically does the surgery sends you on your way and is only interested in getting good results so he can onsell your success.

Anyway she told me that this lady had a starting BMI of 33! Yes 33! No obesity related diseases just wanted a quick fix god her problem. I was horrified! Apparently this surgeon just makes up a condition, lies to the health insurance and all for his own benefit! It was just a cosmetic surgery not the life saving life changing surgery we know it to be.

I was just wondering, is this common? I live in Australia where the band isn't hugely popular but most ppl know someone who has it. Is it more common in the states, that ppl can easily get this surgery just to fill the pockets of the greedy doctors who don't care about your health.

[Marine mom 3]

At 33 she was in the obese range. It wouldn't be covered by my insurance, though, even with comorbities.

Plus it sounds as though you are getting this story pretty far out. Things change between people, as the old game of gossip always showed so well.

Maybe he is a terrible person, or maybe not. There are shady characters in every field.

[acidic 0]

It seems a lot of he said she said business going on here... I would probably get the facts straight first but of course, there are always shady characters in any business!

[LeighaMason 19]

My Dr banded me at 34 BMI, not because he was greedy but because I had been using diet pills for years to keep my BMI so low, who knows how much damage I did to my heart with them? Obesity is obesity, you don't have to wait for a lump in your breast to be a certain size before you treat it, why would you have to wait for your obesity to be a certain size before you treat that?

[leftover_eidoes 0]

I'm sorry if I offended people but as I see it, the lap band is a last resort for people who are killing themselves with their weight who have those primative earges to eat as much as they can for the period of starvation that never happens. Not a convenience. There are other surgeries or mechanisms out there for weightloss for those who do not have a bmi of 35 or above that's why the restrictions where put on it. And sure it could be a grape vine thing but I have heard alot pf negative stuff about this dr. From my own personal gp who referrred me to my surgeon and from bandsters done by him.

I'm not going to back down from my opinion here. I love my band alot but if I was smaller and didn't have 150 lbs to loose, I wouldn't have got it just because it was a quick fix. I feel this is an abuse of the system and will lead to heavy restrictions and negative media.

I feel and so do the medical engineers designing this technology that only those with a bmi of 40 or above or 35 and have a obesity related disease that can be measured not guessed should have this surgery. It's like having a sore knee or a broken knee and getting a knee replacement.

[leftover_eidoes 0]

My Dr banded me at 34 BMI, not because he was greedy but because I had been using diet pills for years to keep my BMI so low, who knows how much damage I did to my heart with them? Obesity is obesity, you don't have to wait for a lump in your breast to be a certain size before you treat it, why would you have to wait for your obesity to be a certain size before you treat that?

A lump in the breast is a bit of an extreme comparison. you cannot exercise or change eating habits in order to get rid of it, it needs to be treated with surgery no matter what the size. A person with a smaller bmi could and should look at other altrnatives, there is the gastric ballon, or prescription apetite or weightloss aids.

If you were taking diet pills to loose weight and that was damaging your heart you can still do that with the band.

[Marine mom 3]

A lump in the breast is a bit of an extreme comparison. you cannot exercise or change eating habits in order to get rid of it, it needs to be treated with surgery no matter what the size. A person with a smaller bmi could and should look at other altrnatives, there is the gastric ballon, or prescription apetite or weightloss aids.

If you were taking diet pills to loose weight and that was damaging your heart you can still do that with the band.

There is some evidence that people with a BMI of 30 to 35 who have diabetes should also be considered candidates for Lap-Band surgery. This sentiment is echoed in a new consensus statement from the first International Diabetes Surgery Summit which appears in the January 2010 edition of Annals of Surgery.

Medical procedures are always open for changes.

As far as waiting until someone is 150 lbs overweight to do the surgery can be stupid. Could you lose and keep the weight off back when you only had 75 lbs. to lose? Guess not. People need to make the personal choices best for their lives.

And doctor gossip is just that. It can be true, sabotage, jealousy, etc.

eta: And how does the friend of a friend of a friend know that the person had no co's? Maybe they were personal.

Leiaha good for you for getting off of the meds. I would do anything instead of diet pills, and in my case, that was lapband. You had been carrying that weight for almost as long as the OP has been alive...perspective.

Edited April 26, 2010 by MissyMS

[BobKat 0]

Hello, Just wanted to let you know that I just meet the criteria at 37 BMI and was feeling a little guilty. But after sometime and thought knew that this would be my only hope from getting an even higher BMI. I just want the energy and not only that I want to at least get in pictures with my family. I do have some issues I do have an arthric back I have had to take shots for it. So this would have only gotten worse.

Katht

[BetsyB 9]

I wish to God I'd had it done at a BMI of 33---all the time (and weight gain despite perpetual ---correct, supervised---dieting) didn't change the fact that I require a level of intake so low that it was impossible to maintain, long-term, without the band.

My doctor jokingly called me "only a little morbidly obese" when I had my first consult.

But I view obesity kind of like pregnancy---you are, or you aren't.

Why should people spend years working their way into ill health before intervention? Wouldn't you have preferred to have YOUR surgical intervention before you became 150 pounds overweight?

It defies logic. The idea is to PREVENT the health problems associated with obesity!

I feel and so do the medical engineers designing this technology that only those with a bmi of 40 or above or 35 and have a obesity related disease that can be measured not guessed should have this surgery.

Ah, well this is where your thinking goes a bit astray. The 35-40 BMI isn't driven by doctors (or "medical engineers") who think it's best to wait. It's driven by insurers who don't want to pay for surgery.

Edited April 26, 2010 by BetsyB

[LeighaMason 19]

A lump in the breast is a bit of an extreme comparison. (No its not, see statistics below) you cannot exercise or change eating habits in order to get rid of it, it needs to be treated with surgery no matter what the size. A person with a smaller bmi could and should look at other altrnatives, there is the gastric ballon, or prescription apetite or weightloss aids. (How would you feel if someone with 250 to lose thought you should look at other alternatives or maybe they would think that someone so young should be able to lose it with diet and exercise. Everyone fights this battle on thier own, and nobody knows what others go through.)

If you were taking diet pills to loose weight and that was damaging your heart you can still do that with the band. (I don't need to now because the band helps with my hunger.)

Wikipedia

Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.[8] [19] [20] Large-scale American and European studies have found that mortality risk is lowest at a BMI of 22.5–25 kg/m2[21] in non-smokers and at 24–27 kg/m2 in current smokers, with risk increasing along with changes in either direction.[22] [23] A BMI above 32 has been associated with a doubled mortality rate among women over a 16-year period.[24] In the United States obesity is estimated to cause an excess 111,909 to 365,000 death per year,[2] [20] while 1 million (7.7%) of deaths in the European Union are attributed to excess weight.[25] [26] On average, obesity reduces life expectancy by six to seven years:[2] [27] a BMI of 30–35 reduces life expectancy by two to four years,[21] while severe obesity (BMI > 40) reduces life expectancy by 10 years.[21]

[leftover_eidoes 0]

Ok I think I need to clarrify something:

I dont think ANYONE should wait untill they are 150lbs overweight before they have this surgery and I definatly know that I couldnt loose even half of this weight by myself.

I meant this post to be more of a complaint towards doctors doing this surgery to people who havent seriously tried dieting and who look at this as a quick fix. Doctors that Band every individual who walks through their door whether it is the best operation for them or not.

I do believe however, that the Gastric Band is a fantastic tool for obese individuals to loose weight and keep it off.

I agree with the above that Diabetics with lower BMI's should get this surgery as it is harder for them, and more important for them to loose weight.

I know that this could be alot of gossip. But this is coming from a close friend of mine, whose mother has a lap-band and who is close to this other lady who has the band and had a low BMI starting weight.

What I meant about the " love my band alot but if I was smaller and didn't have 150 lbs to loose, I wouldn't have got it just because it was a quick fix" statement was that if I, personally had a lower BMI, of below the 35 mark, I would have done it by myself. But I have never been that low in my teenage life being 100kilos at the age of 13. So I guess I cannot say this with true Honesty. This surgery For me, was the last resort of dieting and exercise attempts for the entirety of my teenage and adult life. I wish I had got it done much sooner and at a lower weight, but I wouldnt have got it done if I had started at a lower BMI. I feel that if you have over 30kilos (66lbs) to loose, than this surgery MAY be an option.

Of coarse I am not part of the medical industry, nor the insurance industry. And I do not know this person intimately, so I do not know what her history with diet and exercise have been.

All I was meaning to discuss with this topic is the disgust I have with doctors who do this surgery to anyone who walks through their door, regardless of whether it is the best option for them, just for the profit. and then fill them up to an uncomfortable amount so they loose weight very very quickly so that they can onsell their success to others.

I'm sorry if your offended, but thats my opinion and I'm allowed to voice it. If you do not agree with it, then thats ok.

[TeganRheana 1]

I believe we are extremely lucky to have the high standards and quality surgeons that we have here in Australia.

As far as the woman only having a BMI of 33 - if she had to go what I went through to get her band put in (GP appointments, dietitian appointments, pre and post op appointments with the surgeon etc) and they still felt as though it would benefit her, then I think it's great she had it done. It's not as if the surgeon forced her to become so skinny - she (the patient) has every right to say when or when not to have more fill put in their body, so that cannot be blamed on her surgeon.

Also, I'm pretty sure there are guidelines for people with medical conditions. If someone with a lower BMI of the standard 35-40 has serious medical conditions eg. high blood pressure, they are in the "bracket" to get banded.

[Jachut 487]

Sorry, but you're getting the wrong end of the stick and you're probably getting it second hand and magnified a whole lot.

There'd be no NEED for this surgeon to make up a comorbidity and lie about it. No need at all. Because obesity surgery is allowed in Australia from a BMI of 30. I think you'll find most surgeons would apply judicious caution at the lower end of the scale and perhaps screen patients carefully, but obese is obese is obese and WHY wait till patients have serious illnesses. It'll keep our health system much healthier if we're not paying for avoidable disease treatment in the longer term.

And anyway, what is WRONG with LAP-BAND® surgery as a cosmetic procedure? Its fairly noninvasive and safe. Yes, its life changing. But I'd suggest having bags of silicone put in your chest is fairly serious surgery and tummy tucks and such are much more extensive surgery that have much greater risks of complications and infection. At least where the desired outcome of LAP-BAND® surgery is purely cosmetic, it does also have the side effect of preventing obesity and related diseases from following!

I wouldnt assume this doctor is greedy at all, I think you're taking a very biased view of this, and are very discriminatory towards people who are less advanced int their obesity! And just how the heck would you know what such patients have and havent tried to lose weight anyway? I can assure you, by the time I reached a BMI of 30 at about 30, I had over 18 years of dieting and torturing myself over my weight behind me. I dieted myself fat to a large degree. When are we going to get this through our heads? Dieting doesnt work. We've all failed at it, yet we're all still stupid enough to make statements about others being morally weak because it hasnt worked for them either.

I also think you're making a huge leap into assuming this doctor also follows unsafe fill protocol.

Edited April 27, 2010 by Jachut

[Jachut 487]

I'm sorry if I offended people but as I see it, the LAP-BAND® is a last resort for people who are killing themselves with their weight who have those primative earges to eat as much as they can for the period of starvation that never happens. Not a convenience. There are other surgeries or mechanisms out there for weightloss for those who do not have a bmi of 35 or above that's why the restrictions where put on it. And sure it could be a grape vine thing but I have heard alot pf negative stuff about this dr. From my own personal gp who referrred me to my surgeon and from bandsters done by him.

I'm not going to back down from my opinion here. I love my band alot but if I was smaller and didn't have 150 lbs to loose, I wouldn't have got it just because it was a quick fix. I feel this is an abuse of the system and will lead to heavy restrictions and negative media.

I feel and so do the medical engineers designing this technology that only those with a bmi of 40 or above or 35 and have a obesity related disease that can be measured not guessed should have this surgery. It's like having a sore knee or a broken knee and getting a knee replacement.

Sorry, I've got more to say. These threads make me mad. They're so shortsighted, although I realise everyone is entitled to an opinion and you're not necessarily meaning to be offensive by expressing yours. But actually, what other surgeries are there for people with a BMI below 35?

And also, I attend Prof. Paul O'brien's clinic. He's one of Australia's lapband pioneers, he's a worldwide authority. And his practice bands from a BMI of 30.....

Also, if its so easy to lose weight simply by changing your eating habits and exercising when your BMI is below 35, why didnt YOU do that?

Edited April 27, 2010 by Jachut

[Marine mom 3]

:thumbup:Well said. Coming along, judging and hating on people is not cool in my book. i battle weight for years. It took 8 years to convince the docs that i had thyroid issues. I dieted, but have a need to keep my calories far lower than the norm to lose and maintain. If I had done this years ago, it would have been life changing.