Please! Almanza or Betancourt Patients: No license, No Care?

 Hi Nikki,

Thanks so much for posting your experience! And congratulations on your terrific weight loss!

I'm very sorry to hear things did not go as well as they should have for you. I can imagine how scary it was for you to have to be in ICU. Thank goodness all is well, now.

I'm with you! I'd be upset if someone would have told me that a temperature and an internal infection was my fault. I think caregivers need to be accountable as well as take responsibility for those types of results. Since with you, they did not, then to me it means that at that time, they were not willing to learn and improve their services. Without this, repetition may occur. And, I sure do wish your coordinator would have done a follow-up call to make sure you were well.

Would I be correct in saying that: If any patient has a problem with the results of surgery, that s/he should make certain the clinic knows about it all -- and then record the clinic's response? If not, please correct me! :)

I'm so glad you posted! Thanks for sharing.

I wish you a great day!

Cheryl

Hi there Nikki!

I too and very sorry that you had these complications.  I remember seeing your posts when I was researching.  I have never doubted that your situation was real or that your feelings about the whole experience were very valid.  I have said many times that this clinic/doctor situation is not for everyone and I wouldn't recommend it for some.  It was very different than other surgical experiences I have had in the US but for me that was not a negative....and I have not had any complications either so that gives me a very different perspective.  I am so sorry if anyone on here ever questioned your feelings or experiences...that is wrong!  Under your cir****tances I completely understand why you weren't happy with the clinic and would never go back.  Aside from your rocky start it looks like you have done VERY well...congratulations!!!  All the best to you!

ok i was operated for a lapband i rejected it!I was treated very well second surgery a few days later for a sleeve.No infection treated like a king and cared for like a big baby.Almanza was polite friendly and comprehensive. Mr. Betancourt was friendly and very caring about his patients.And if mr. Betancourt is not a dr. well he is not the one who does surgery and i remember him asking by phone advice to the surgeon.So many surgeries in one week and month after month 1000 surgeries or more per year How many infections and aid contractions and deaths since they are in buisness?? All i know i was there 11 days and it was just fine and i saw many people come in and go out.Met plenty who had surgery from Dr. Almanza and they are all happy and much less heavy. So doctor schmocter what the !@**& we are all losing weight and everybody was happy. **** happens when u have so many surgeries a woman in montreal died after a lapband surgery not so long ago and they proceed to what 6 surgeries per week in our super advanced and sceptic hospitals! I am in negotiations with a pharmaceutical company for the Jerusalem hospital to buy 100 000 staple cartridges and staplers because they change them at every surgery with new equipement that is sterile.

So then please tell me that the staples are titanium?
I will be having an MRI in a week and I read something somebody posted here and I am a bit freaked out.
I love my sleeve and I do not regret the operation, but all the crap flying around here has me feeling a bit freaky right now.

 Hi!

I hope you're doing o.k. and that you're not too stressed about what was stated regarding the staples.

The person who said it, had no basis for saying it. I believe it was a knee-jerk reaction to support the OP of that thread. Unfortunately, when people do those things, they don't realize how much it hurts. That type of self-serving behavior is really dangerous and of course, just not helpful.

When I telephoned Shirley, the coordinator who no longer works for Betancourt, and asked about the staples, she said they were titanium. But, that's just me. Perhaps you could call the clinic and ask? In the meantime, I hope you get an answer to your post.

Take care for now,
Cheryl

Yes titanium!Loll unles one of the numerous dead from this clinic gets an autopsie!LOLLLL people do not read the chances of evelopping infections or complications it happens everywhere and it is part of the risks!

Hi!

Thanks very much for your post. I'm sure it couldn't have been easy for you to go through 2 surgeries in such a short period of time along with a band rejection in between. Good on you for sticking it out. Are you doing all right, now, too?

I have to admit I laughed out loud at "doctor schmocter"! I wish I would have thought of that!

Could you help me out with something? Do you work for the pharmaceutical company? Jerusalem Hospital? Or are you an independent negotiator/contractor? I ask because I'm pretty sure some *****ad this are going to think: "Oh well, this doesn't count. He's getting $ from Betancourt so of course he has to write that the experience is positive". It is good to find out that staple cartridges and staplers are being changed out after every procedure.

I don't believe there is a connection between Almanza's surgical skills and the licensing issue, either. I've not yet seen anything that links the lack of the license directly to complications that unfortunately, some have indeed suffered. And, you're right -- people suffer complications from WLS surgeries, everywhere. But, I think people who have experienced them will say that their complication was one too many. I also know that we never want to hear that anyone gets hurt while trying to get medical help and I hope we all feel badly when someone does -- such as Nikki who posted here and Heather D who has posted in another, related thread and anyone else still to get surgery.

You've got me thinking about numbers. 1000 surgeries divided by 48 weeks/year (4 weeks vacation + civic holidays) is roughly 21 surgeries per week. If I'm not mistaken, out of a sample size of 1000 and especially for medicine, there is a 1% - 3% "acceptable" error rate. Did I get this right? If so, that's 10 - 30 cases, with a median/average of 20. Since you work in the field, do you know the actual stats for the Betancourt clinic?

I don't presume that every person who has a WLS procedure goes onto a website. And even if they did, they could inflate the number of cases and then positive and negative outcomes by using many different screen names.

But the numbers you've provided give us a better idea of what we might look for on the boards on an annual basis. For every 30 cases of negatives we see, there should be roughly 970 positives for the same surgery site. What you've brought attention to is that it is so much easier to inflate the number of negatives because it is a small number relative to its counterpart. I don't think it would be difficult for someone to produce 30 complications from all of the boards, combined.

What I am concerned about is the potential of people to artifically inflate the negatives or propogate other falsehoods to make it seem like there are more negatives than there really are. Nevermind hurting the clinic. Every person who posts a fake complication sucks the life out of every valid experience -- it's much easier to believe the whole basket of 30 complications is fake when it is believed that even 2 have been manufactured. That simply is not fair for Heather D or Nikki.

Thank you very much for posting! I'm very appreciative of you motivating me to crunch some numbers. But, please do let us know if there are any inaccuracies in those numbers. I hope I haven't bored you too much!

I wish you the very best!
Cheryl

I've been on this board for a year and almost without exception the only problems I've seen posted were from this practice, and there have been many.  That is all you need to know.  If you want to take the risk, that is up to you.

First, to everyone who is reading this post and the post to which I'm replying, please don't become angry and over-excited. One strategy for getting people off a thread is to start a war. I thought we were making progress (or at least I thought I was making progress) and I'd like it to continue if you do. Thank you for your consideration in every case.
______________________________________________________________________________

Hi,

I have to say I don't really understand your post or why you feel it has relevance for the subject of this thread.

I don't understand why, if you really want to help, you don't prove out what you say. If you really want to help, it's your duty? obligation? to do what you can for the person asking the question. Do you think you're more important than the person who is asking for help? Honestly, I don't understand the reluctance, if the post is "really" there to "really" help.

It really bothers me that at least 4 screen names I've come across, seem to think that because they have an older new belly that they are above having to give relevant examples. Is that it, stomach seniority? Is that the issue here? Is it because you've given your research before and people were not appreciative enough or they did not agree? Sorry, I don't get why some people think they should be believed automatically and why they should be trusted automatically. And especially, over the internet. Not everyone is the same person on the internet as s/he is off the internet (Whitty & Carr, 2006).

"That is all you need to know". What is that -- a threat? arrogance? you don't like me? Please tell me why you would make such a statement.

I also don't get what you mean by "almost without exception". I found some of my research about who was experiencing what types of complications, on OH. There are many people with differing procedures who used different surgeons and who had an infection that were reported on the Main Board.

For VSG, 4 patients who did not use Almanza, reported infections. Out of these links, and on this forum, there are 3 cases of infections associated with Almanza/Betancourt that I would say are legitimate: Heather D, Nikki, and Marie S. Another poster, neededsurgery, seems to be bogus and s/he posted numerous times on numerous threads. Is this what you mean -- are you counting the same thing more than once? Are you still referring to the sutures that everyone knows were a problem but that now has been fixed?

It was a good exercise for me to reread some of these and to see how some have changed their minds about Almanza or Betancourt, ostensibly, because of the licensing issue and/or their loyalty to PeanutFreeMom/Mel. I'm glad I saved all the threads in my database.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4080762/Not-sure-what -to-do-re-infected-incision-site/

 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/complications/3472107/Leva quin-ab-cramping-and-diarehia/

 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/mexico/4062026/surgery-with-Dr-Almanza-on-12-11-09/

n  1 internal infection reported but there is no information on the poster

 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/mexico/4063269/Dr-Almanza/

 

same screen name as above, reposted

 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/mexico/4064642/Duodenal-Sw itch-with-Dr-Almanza/

same screen name as posted above

 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/4124605/abcess-infecti on/

Heider infection + Zapata infection

I wish you well.
Cheryl


 

Just wanted to add another couple of other infection that I know of, but I don't think the patients have posted much on this board about them, if at all.

A man who was at the recovery house when I first arrived had one of his incisions open and begin rapidly draining pus. My husband saw this and said, later, that it was exactly like what happened with my infection when it started leaking.

Another man who was there at the same time I was mentioned that one of his incisions was feeling warm. Later, after we were all home, he posted about his infection and that he was taking care of it himself since he is a nurse.