[mish]

Did anyone see this?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/14....ap/index.html

"BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Massachusetts health officials announced plans Tuesday to assemble a panel of experts to examine the dangers of obesity surgery, less than a week after the state's third death in a year linked to weight loss operations"

Hmm, something to add to my collection of thoughts. I guess we don't know what state of health these people were in.

[jiffypop]

verrrrryyyy interesting.. but based on this, i'd start questioning the surgeon's skill. the lap band is a relatively quick procedure, in experienced hands and a good surgeon. wonder in which hospitals the deaths occurred????

the place peachie and i had our surgeries done has had 8 deaths since they started in 1999. and they've done close to 5000 surgeries. so much depends on the surgeon!!!!

we'll have to watch this...

[L144S]

Ok I am from the area. All three deaths were at three different hospitals. The geltleman who died the other day did not die on the table. there is roumor of anathesia problems but he ultimalely died of a heart attack 2 days after surgery.

I think I have said this before and it is what really ticks me off about all this press is that obese people make terrible surgery canidates! I think that if you know the risk you enter in to it knowing what could happen.
Here is the link from the local tv chanel.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/heal...27/detail.html
-L

[peach pit]

8 deaths, Jiff? I thought it was only 2!!!!!!!

peach

[jiffypop]

so did i. this is what they said at the preop meeting last night.

and thanks L. it really could just be coincidence BUT....

[ageoldie]

What's the stats on obese people dying of heart surgery? What about gall bladder operations? Hip replacement surgery? One of the main health risks of being obese is that you are such a surgery risk. Some surgery they can't even do on obese people. I say it is SURGERY itself that's the problem, not the WLS.

[mish]

Barb, I agree with you. I think that by the time a lot of people have wls they are already really quite unwell. So it's a good idea to have it done while you're overweight-but-still-healthy! That's one reason I am looking into it now - so many people have said that they wished they had done it sooner. And apart from the weight and a few foot aches and so on I am reasonably healthy, I think. But also, as you say, it would be interesting to see what the morbidity statistics are for any type of surgery for the obese. Hmmm!