Down to 4

B A looser · July 30, 2007

There Seems To Be Many Good Surgeons In Tijuana Just Like I Mentioned To You Guys On My Last Post, The Only Thing Is That I Have A 2 Week Vacation Coming Towards The End Of Next Month And I Want To Take Advantage Of That Time To Recuperate From The Surgery So Now I'm Getting Nervous Since I Know I Have To Make My Decision Within A Couple Of Weeks,it Is Very Hard To Decide Since My Life And My Future Will Be In That Surgeons Hands. So I'm Down To 4 Surgeons ,francisco Gonzalez ,valencia ,ariel Ortiz , And Daniel Huacuz.any Info Will Be Greatly Appreciated I Think You All Know What I'm Going Through And It's Nice To Know I'm Not Alone In This Search ...so Talk To You Soon.

mistyone · July 31, 2007

Hi B A looser! I can tell you why I made the choice I did, but the bottom line is that you have to feel comfortable with your choice.

I chose Dr. Valencia mainly because of his affiliation with UCLA as a professor of bariatric surgery there. I also wanted to have surgery in a hospital. I feel that those of us that are morbidly obese should be in a place that can handle any emergency that might arise. When I asked some of these doctors how they handle emergencies, I felt they didn't give me good answers. I wanted to know that there was an ICU and pulmonary and cardiac doctors in the hospital just in case.

You should interview all the doctors on your list. If you can't visit them, then call their offices and ask to speak to them on the phone. Ask about their facilities. Do they have to transport you to a hospital in case of an emergency? What do they have on site in case of an emergency and what DON'T they have.

Good luck to you!

beachgirl · July 31, 2007

You didn't mention Dr. Zapata who started these in 1985 with Dr. Sanchez. That's who I went with and they've done more than any surgeon and proctored many US surgeons and do surgery out of a huge hospital in Monterrey and not a clinic. Santa Agracias, same hospital our US President would go to if needed medical while in Mexico. It was a fabulous wonderful experience. Myself, Funny and another girl went together last July and I've lost 80 pounds so far and 40 more to go. My price was 7500.00 for absolutely everything. Transportation, food, lodging, preop, postop, free fills for life, everything. You ought to check into him.

PM me if you have any questions.

ø Lap Band Mexico ø

They are great.

B A looser · August 2, 2007

You didn't mention Dr. Zapata who started these in 1985 with Dr. Sanchez. That's who I went with and they've done more than any surgeon and proctored many US surgeons and do surgery out of a huge hospital in Monterrey and not a clinic. Santa Agracias, same hospital our US President would go to if needed medical while in Mexico. It was a fabulous wonderful experience. Myself, Funny and another girl went together last July and I've lost 80 pounds so far and 40 more to go. My price was 7500.00 for absolutely everything. Transportation, food, lodging, preop, postop, free fills for life, everything. You ought to check into him.
PM me if you have any questions.

ø Lap Band Mexico ø

They are great.

I'm sorry I didn't mention your doctor beachgirl but he just didn't pop up in my research. I could not find anything to support your claims. You claim he began doing lapbands in 1985, did you know the modern lap band's development began in a joint project in 1991 by doctors Mitiku Belachew and M. Legrand in Belguim, sponsored by Inamed? After two years of design, development work and testing of various prototypes and variations of the surgical technique in an animal lab, a video of the laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding in an animal model was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS) in June 1993. Yet your doctor had "started these" in 1985? It is also helpful to know that your surgeon finished his residency in general surgery in march of 1992 at Bernardo Sepulveda Metropolitan Hospital, so he was quite a busy body, inventing lap bands before Belachew and before even finishing medical school! (he finished med school in 1988). The first human laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding procedure was performed on September 1, 1993, in Huy, Belgium. In July 1994, the LAP-BAND® System became available on the market outside the U.S. (info taken from Inamed web site, to read more about the history of the lap band, go here: LAP-BAND® - ALB History ) I'm doing a little research, I followed your advice when you asked me to check into him. After all I'm the one they will be operating on.

TracyinKS · August 3, 2007

Isn't Sanchez the one who was murdered? I have heard of both Zapata and Sanchez... a forum search on the names would yeild a lot of responses, as the Mexico option comes up a lot. I think Beach Girl was just trying to be helpful with some other options.