Hi all,

I just feel I need to warn everyone about one of the horrible
complications of band placement.
I had my mid-band placed in Jan of 04. Surgery went well, I did
everything right and started to lose weight...lots. Went from 276
to 190 in a year, with only two fills. Changed my life.
I started to have significant left upper back pain in December. Was
wrongly diagnosed with kidney infection, in Jan. They went by my
WBC which was 39000, way way above normal. They didn't know where
the infection was and just assumed it was kidney based. Started the
antibiotics and thought finally the pain will go away. Had planned
a two day trip to Vegas with my sister. Arrived at the hotel and
1/2 hour later started to feel bad with intense left upper back
pain. Then I felt something just 'let go' inside with drop to your
knees pain. I was taken by ambulance to the Valley hospital, they
did tests after a 3 hr wait and told me I had bi-lateral pnuemonia.
I told them I must also have something else to cause this kind of
pain and my then stomach started to bloat, I looked 6 months
pregant. They just would not listen to me. Finally 6 hours later
they got my H&H back and realized I was very low on blood and
bleeding somewhere. A CT showed my spleen leaking and enlarged. I
was finally admitted to ICU. Couldn't walk and having a hard time
breathing. A surgeon came in and said he didn't want to take my
spleen out unless absolutely needed. I had blood drawn every two
hours for three days waiting for him to make a decision. The ICU
was understaffed and the nursing staff significantly lacking. (I'm
a flight nurse and worked ICU for years) This was the scariest
place I have ever seen. A side note: Please avoid this hospital at
all cost!! It almost cost me my life.
Finally after 3 days I said to my mom who had flown in, we have to
get out of here and go home to AZ. She said I couldn't walk and
what if something happened on the plane. We spoke to the surgeon
and he very flippantly that he didn't have time to do the surgery
and wanted to wait and make sure the spleen wouldn't stop leaking on
it's own. I looked 9 months pregnant by this time and my oxygen
level wouldn't go above 85 even on 6 liters of oxygen. My H&H was
dangerously low. He left in a huff and ordered the staff not to
give me the results of my every two hour lab tests. We left the
next morning, no one would help us and my mother wheeled me out on
an office chair. I was so weak from not eating for 3 days and had
stopped urinating two days before.(not good). Somehow we made it to
the airport in Tucson and my husband brought us home. To this day I
don't know how we made it.
I was admitted into the ICU immediately upon getting home. I had a
battery of tests that showed the port from my band had moved and
perferated my spleen. My spleen was actively and heavily bleeding
into my abdominal cavity. I had emergency surgery, cut open all the
way down my chest and stomach. My surgeon said after the surgery
that my spleen was pulp. When she removed the band from my stomach
she found a 2 inch hole underneath it. Gastric juice had leaked out
of my stomach and eroded the port and cable so they moved freely. My
abdominal cavity and pelvis was full of gastric acids. My liver was
hours away from being beyond fixable. Also very lucky my colon was
not further damaged. They 'think' they found all the damage. I'm 6
weeks into my recovery and still have a month to go before I can go
back to work.
I wanted the band surgery, I read the risks just like the rest of
you. I should have read closer. Holes in the stomach are common,
they usually cause pain, so don't go as far as mine did. But allot
of them don't. The only way to know for sure is to have a scope.
Have a scope please. If I had had one yearly I wouldn't have been
so very close to dieing. We have all said we would do anything to
lose the weight but it is NOT worth what I went through and will
continue to go through for the rest of my life. I had to have
multiple blood transfusions and who knows what the long term effects
will be, add in all that gastic acid floating around for the extra 3
days and I am not out of the woods yet. I could still die from
this. Thanks for listening, it has been cathartic for me to write
this down. Please feel free to e-mail questions. Be careful, be
safe, be healthy. Gloria