Band in the wrong position

[mwillis 0]

:help: :help: :help: :help: I had an awful experience on Monday. I thought that I was having a heart attack. I had such terrible chest pain that I went to the emergency room. They kept me over night. I had several test. They finally did an upper GI and found that my band is in the wrong place. The hospital I went to has a lapband center. One of the doctors that runs the center said that the band is in the wrong place and that is what is causing the severe pain. He doesn't think that it has slipped but put in wrong. The doctor that did my band is about two hours away. The reason I went there is because Blue Cross said that my local hospital is not an approved bariatric center and they would not approve my surgery there. I have since found out that is simply NOT TRUE.

Now I want to have it repaired locally. I simply do not want to have my doctor so far away. I have an appointment with the local doctor to beg him to repair this for me. My primary care doc has already plead my case for me.

I am back on liquids until I get this resolve. My band is sitting very low on my stomach and the food has no were to go. It has been horrible. Plus I am getting grief from everyone for not having it removed. I really just want it repaired.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I have only had my band since March 30, 2006.

[3loves 0]

Holy cow!! That is just terrible. I can't imagine what you must be going through!! You may save some people the same grief if you were to share the surgeon's name. I hope you get this resolved quickly and I too, would want it repaired. I also wonder what type of legal ramifications this situation creates. Perhaps you should consult a medical attorney.....that is of course, after you confirm the band was placed incorrectly. Maybe a third opinion would be appropriate. Good luck to you!!

[Dody 0]

If this is the result of negligence by the doctor for misplacing the band. I would take the upper GI studies (and also ask for an endoscopy) right to a malpractice attorney and sue this dr. There are to many doctors out there just really learning this trade and have done very few bands. I found this out when investigating the band in my home state of Idaho. The only two dr's. there that did the lap-banding had only done 50 lap-bands between them. I choose not to be a guinea pig for them. I came to Tennessee for my lap-banding at Vanderbilt and am so very glad I did. I don't yet have the band but did encounter a potentially life-threatening situation that needs surgery before the banding. Thank God for a wonderful hospital like Vanderbilt. I thought I had jumped through all the right hoops, but they had more of them for me, and I'm very glad they did.

I would run not walk to see the nearest attorney. You should not have gone through this. I would also find out how many lap-bands this particular dr. has done.

God Bless,

Dody

[Misfortune 0]

Yes I also agree, Maybe you should share surgeon's name. And I hope you are feeling better now. Goodluck!

[Penni60 45]

You might also want to contact Inamed to let them know this doctor needs further supervision on placing the band. They take pride in how they train their doctors. So contact them via email or phone.

Don Mills (don.mills@inamed.com)

Craig Arthur (craig.arthur@inamed.com)

Either of these gentlemen can help you.

[mwillis 0]

I went to the second doctor today. Hopefully he will be trying to fix it next week. Once I have all of my facts I will be glad to share with everyone. I would hate to say anything bad about my first doctor if he did nothing wrong. I really like him and I feel bad about switching especially if it isn't his fault. Although my second doctor has done over 1300 bands and has never seen one slip in only 9 weeks. And he is only 30 minutes from my house. I blame Blue Cross mostly because if they had given me the right info in the first place I would have had it done locally!

[Kashia 0]

Mwillis, I had my band done in Mexico. Then found a doctor here in TN that would do my fills. When I went in for my first fill and there after he would always say, "your band is so flat". I didn't know what that meant at the time but later found out its supposed to be more at an angle. It didn't think it was a problem just not what he was taught. Well since then I have had a slippage, but no one knows what from so can't say if its because of the placement or not. I am sure they would rather blame me for eating too much or fills to tight but that was not the case.

How was your put in wrong exactly?

[mwillis 0]

My band is too low on my stomach. Instead of being in the upper portion of my stomach my pouch is over 1/2 of my stomach size. Again, I really need to wait and see if it slipped or was put in incorrectly. And I pray it can be fixed!!!

[PhotoNut 7]

Wow *hugs*

This is so sad! Are you still in pain? What did they do for the pain??

Hopefully you find out what happened and get things fixed quickly. I'll be thinking about you!

[mwillis 0]

They were treating me as a heart patient. I was wearing a nitro paste and had nitro under my tongue.....instant headache.

Eventually the food passed through and I had some relief. It took almost 8 hours. I still don't understand because I eat so slow and chew it to death. They put something in my IV that helped alot. I had neck and pain in my left shoulder which are apparently symptoms of a heart attack. Scared the hell out of me! I hope I never have a repeat.

[Kashia 0]

I guess until they get in there and see where it was stitched you wont know if it just slipped or what. I would think or hope that it was a slippage and hate to think he didn't know where to put hte band. So lets just think slippage, not that that is better, but at least not the doctors fault. How come you have towait until next week for surgery? I am miserable, if I wasn't pregnant I would have had surgery right then. Good luck to you!!

[Marimaru 7]

I hope you get this resolved and get to feeling better.

I would think if it was placed wrong you would have had problems from the beginning? Or right when you could eat solid foods?

Either way, it's good you can get a doctor closer to home!

[leatha_g 4]

Sounds like slippage to me, also.. And you can find out by asking for your initial barium swallow reports that were done to verify placement immediately following your original surgery. If they were in place on the day you left the hospital, and they look different today, you've got a slipped band.. and yes, it CAN slip down on the stomach...

Sorry to hear of your troubles, but really glad you are having it taken care of!! Keep us posted!

[mwillis 0]

I am not sure why the wait. At first the er dr wanted to send me by ambulance to the other hospital. Dr #2 came down after my primary called him and said it wasn't an emergency, I just can't eat solids until it's resolved. Dr #1 obviously didn't think it was urgent because I won't see him until tomorrow (Friday), which surprised dr #2. I just hope they can replace the stupid thing.

[mwillis 0]

I have had problems from day one. I thought it was normal and maybe I ate to fast or to much. It took me forever to eat. I was starving from the time I came home from the hospital and extremelyl weak. Doctor #2 thinks it was to low from day one. All I know is I am NOT lookng forward to the liquid stage again!