Family sues Ottawa Hospital after woman, 37, dies following gastric bypass surgery

I'll bet that was Dr. Reed in Guelph.
He was most forthcoming so was Dr P H.

So sad this had to happen.

You are correct, it was Reed.

It's odd that Dr. Dent wouldn't give that information. I met with Dr. Shiau a few weeks ago at the Civic and while I didn't ask how many procedures the surgeons have performed, she volunteered the information up front that they have had 3 deaths in 600 surgeries at the Civic when discussing the risks with me.

Dr. Dent doesn't discuss anything about the surgery itself as he is not a surgeon....and he will tell you that straight out. He will refer you to the surgeon for questions relating to the surgery and complications, etc.

That being said....a death is a death and is tragic regardless of cir****tances. Anyone can look back with 20/20 vision and say that it could have been prevented but the reality is in the present. I only hope that whatever lesson there is to be learned from the parties involved prevents similar deaths in the future.

Another thought: without the surgery, chances of death from obesity related causes was probably MUCH greater. We all had to weight that decision....do I risk this small chance of death from surgery or an almost certain death by staying fat?

Either way, my heart goes out to the family.

Going for surgery on December 23rd with Dr. Yelle and I had and still have 100% trust in him. He was very forthright for me when discussing complications and the severity of the operation. This story does not deter me or make me any more anxious. I feel terrible for this ladies family but as others have said so far we have heard one side of the story and unfortunately because of the legal system we will probably never hear the hospital's side.

Based on my research what is known is that the more surgeries that are done, the safer those surgeries are.  As another poster mentioned the learning curve is about 100 surgeries.

With that said the larger centres and of course locations in the states are much safer for the simple reason that they surgeons are doing more.

I don't know how long Ottawa has been doing surgeries but if that was two years ago I'm assuming that it hadn't been going on for long.

As others have said it does bring to the front the fact that this surgery, along with every other surgery, has a risk of death.  I had lazer eye surgery a few weeks ago and had to sign off saying that one risk of that type of surgery is blindness.  Remote chance but still exists.

What I am worried about is the public's perception of this surgery. If I knew nothing about this and I read the article I woudl assume that this is a dangerous surgery and shouldn't be performed and those that are obese should just stop eating so much.

Erin

When I did my research on numbers of surgeries before a surgeon became better at it, it was around  200-500...which was my basis for chosing my own surgeon who had done more than 3000 surgeries at the time...

Admittedly, this is extremely tragic and sad. I would like to make a few other points, though.

1. Would this woman's death have made headlines if she had died following another, less "controversial" surgery? My belief is not. If this woman had died as a result of complications following a cholecystecomy (gall bladder removal), for example, would this story have even made the papers? I doubt it. IMHO, this is news because of the type of surgery and because it is still seen as "the easy way out".

2. Medical errors happen. They happen in Canada, the US, and everywhere else. I will not comment on whether or not the hospital or physicians made an error in this case. What I will say is that sometimes people can do everything right and still end up with a crappy outcome. The hospital will do an investigation, the lawyers will do an investigation, and then they'll fight over who was at fault.

3. I refuse to ask my surgeon what his batting average is. This is my personal choice. Why? If he tells me he is 700:1, there's no way to tell whether or not he'll be 701:1 or 700:2 once he's done with me. If a physicians mortality rate is such that his losses are far above the average of his peers, he would simply not be allowed to continue operating. (I am a health care professional for over 10 years so I'm not just making an assumption here.) I, instead, asked my surgeon what the most common post-op complications he saw (ulcers) and what they'll do to help prevent it from happening (antacids for at least 3 months).

I hope none our families will have to go through this. I hope that everyone is using their pre-op waiting time to research and become well informed so they can act as their own advocate. My heart goes out to the family but it also goes out to the surgeon and the rest of the team. I feel confidantly that this loss weighed heavily on them, too.

Thea

*hijack*

It is so awesome to see a surgeon recommending a PPI post-op! Who is your surgeon? I wondered when the Ontario surgeons would get with this research. Taking a PPI for 6 months post-op is the single best way to avoid ulcers according to the research that's been done on RNY. Are they recommending it to you for a specific reason or does this surgeon recommend it to all his patients?

I'm being followed out of Thunder Bay's centre and will be having my surgery done in Hamilton. I'm pre-op so I don't have a surgeon as of yet. We were told during our pre-op class that the regime for PPI's post op is a minimum of 3 months. I'll take it... beats the alternative!