1 in 50

[firecat]

A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington found that 1 in 50 people die within one month of having gastric bypass surgery, and that figure jumps nearly fivefold if the surgeon is inexperienced.

From "Gastric Bypass Surgery Gone Bad" on http://www.cbsnews.com/

Comments

[libskrat]

--> body_positive, perhaps?

[firecat]

Feel free to link to this or post an entry there about it. I didn't post it there because it's not very positive...

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Indeed. It's more of a "please find a way to feel positive about yourself rather than getting this surgery" thing.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's so terrible.

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

grumble.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

How awful. I knew it was bad, but not that bad.

[firecat]

Doctors/surgery centers routinely lie to reporters and patients about the death rate.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

What I'd really like to see are stats for how many die within, say, five to ten years. Or, alternately, what the average lifespan is of people within the same size and health range who have the surgery vs. don't have the surgery.

[firecat]

Yes. It would be hard to collect those stats because the immediate cause of death may not look like a complication of gastric bypass - one of the people mentioned in the article I quoted was said to have died of a heart attack, but since it was within a short time of surgery it was obvious that this was a surgery complication.

I also recall seeing from a respectable source (I don't remember which one) that the average lifespan of a mildly to moderately obese woman is longer than the average male lifespan. Most WLS is performed on relatively young (30s-40s) women who are in good health; the death rate in this age group is pretty low.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

And people think I'm gambling my health because I cut carbs. Geez.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

GBS horrifies me. I know a half-dozen women who have had it done. Fortunately all have survived, but some of them have horrendous health problems as a result.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

There is one small positive - that this number is coming from a mainstream news source for a change. Usually only advocacy groups advertise this number, with the "bariatric docs" countering that it's only a tiny tiny fraction, or their "what's a 2% risk of death compared to the 100% risk of dying from being fat" argument.

[firecat]

Yes, you're right. May there be more such numbers in the mainstream news (until such time as a lot fewer people are deciding to get WLS).