9 days post op. Blood Clots. 10K in hospital bills

slcmommy4 · February 29, 2008

First I will give everyone a heads up on what has been happening, I had my lap band surgery the 21st of February. I admitted myself into the ER 6 days after the surgery because of a slight pain in my chest but more for extreme nausea I was having. It turned out I had several blood clots in my lungs. I've been in the hospital for 3 days now and was just told that my insurance will not cover this because it's complications from the surgery. Anyway I have to inject myself every day with blood thinners for six months and have to go into my doctor several times a week. This is going to cost me about $1000/mth. I'm guessing based on other hospitalization bills we've recieved in the past that this will cost anywhere from 7K to about 12K. Don't ask me how we are going to do it. We are both students and have 4 young children. And I had to take out a loan to get the surgery. Not only that I have to pay for the blood thinning treatments as soon as I leave the hospital. Honestly I think I'm just in shock right now. I have no idea how we will pay for this. What I've learned is that blood clots are apparently very common under any kind of surgery, and once you have them there is no way of getting around it, you have to take blood thinner for atleast 6 mths or you could just drop dead one day. So I would encourage anyone thinking about getting the surgery is to have a back up as far as finances go, just incase. I didn't get the leg compressions with this surgery but I did have them with another much more invasive surgery 2 years ago, and I can't help but wonder if I had them this time if it would have made a difference. All they gave me for this surgery were leggings, that kept falling down by the way. So anyway I guess I just want to say don't take the surgery lightly because, I did, I honestly did not think anything would happen, I had to learn the hard way. If you have the surgery atleast make sure that your doctor does give you the leg compressions I know it made a difference with my first surgery. Anyway, good luck to all those considering this.

shortgal · March 1, 2008

Have you asked a lawyer for their opinion? Did the hospital give you any blood thinners before surgery? Mine Did and one after the surgery. did a nurse come and make you get up and walk around? you already said you didn't get the compression leg things.

That could be considered the "Standard of care" and if you didn;t get the standard of care you might have a lawsuit.

i'm not a fan of suing hospitals, Dr's etc. but these precautions should have been taken.

Perhaps you can convince the hospital to not charge you by getting an attorney.

I was self pay and know how hard this would have been for me. I'm sorry you had this complication.