Thrilled about having a surgery date BUT...hubby's worried now!

What do folks know about the risk of death due to the surgery.  I know the stats in the Ottawa material says 2/100 but is that during or aftercare related issues and is that overall stats or Ottawa Civic stats? I've not been very worried about this factor but he/the hubby is now all of a sudden struck with panic about it.

I do believe the two in 100 is for all bariatric surgeries.  It is the same as the chance of death from any surgery. I explained to my husband that I could die walking out of the house and getting hit by a bus. He is still worried but is more supportive ten he was initially. 

I don't know about the stats but I can relate, I was calm cool and collected about the surgery but my brother had nightmares about me dying. The people that have died that I had heard of had many serious health issues BEFORE surgery. And they were both over 500 lbs. Not sure if that helps, but that's my 2 cents!

Thanks GirlSassy... You made me feel better. It is not often you read about the "death " word in these blogs. So when I read this post I kinda got that freaky feeling which I had thought I had gotten past. 

Joanne

My brother in law is an anesthesiologist in Florida. He explained, in the U.S their rates are much higher Han ours are, especially in our centre of excellence centres here in Ontario. At my orientation I was old 1 in 200 as well but that HRRH was slightly better than those stats. So I did some digging and found HRRH is about 1in a thousand. I asked my surgeon and he said it happens and for different unforeseen cir****tances, but it does and can happen. He agreed also said 1in a thousand, so my sources were saying the same thing. I am still terrified though, anything can and does happen, so all we can do is our best to make sure we are prepared. Sorry I am not really full of great news but 1 in  a 1000 is better? 

Annette 

Well recently I attended a seminar put on by one of the bariatric surgeons and he talked about stats in Canada and one of the questions asked was about the number of deaths in Canada.

He stated the the stats in Canada are 1/300 people in Canada die from complications from the surgery.  

Also as to what hospital the deaths occurred at this is hard to find out because no hospital likes to give out information as to how many deaths they have had. 

However, you could die from walking across the street, driving in a car, falling in your bathtub or anything else.

Most people going for major surgery have the fear they are not going to make it through surgery but you are in the hands of capable experienced surgeons who do this all the time and do not want anything to happen just as much as you do.

Wonderful thoughts and they all helped (and I hope the subject didn't cause too much stress) but it's a real issue/thought at our home currently.  I've shared with hubby that without the surgery, my life expectancy would be impacted (very likely) so slight chance of death is nothing compared to not having it.  I had wondered about the rumor I had heard about the deaths were after surgery and with folks who had additional health complications.

Esther

Yes I have heard the deaths have been after surgery but there is nothing to support that the people that have died have had previous additional health complications and there is no way of finding this out unless people actually know the people that have died because the bariatric team would not give out this information.

I would not dwell on the facts as I said there is no way of knowing, what you need to focus on is that if you could also die from health complications from being obese.

It is good you are discussing this at home because our family also had this same discussion but my daughter and a lot of wonderful people I have met by attending support groups went through it and came out fine.

Not sure where you live or when your surgery is but maybe you need to take hubby to a support group meeting if there is one in your area it may help him ease his fears for you by seeing and meeting people that have gone through it.  

If you google "bariatric surgery morbidity rates" you can read abstracts from scholarly journals that indicate a .1% death rate  for laparoscopic RNY surgery. I quickly got on Google after I read your post because my GP had stated 1 in a 1000 deaths unlike the 2 in 100 that you were told.

Jennife

that should read 0.1%