Friend of family dies from Lap-Band Surgery

If you have ever thought of having the lap-band surgery to lose weight, you might want to reconsider or at least make sure you have all the facts before you do. My sister-in-law's best friend, 38 years old, died late last week from complications of the lap-band. This friend has always had medical problems stemming way back to high school. She's been on numerous medications, had frequent seizures and headaches and joint complications. Her most recent ceizure medication caused her to gain unimaginable weight. On the flip side it was working to control the seizures so they felt it best to keep her on this medication. She started seeing a weight specialist and was put on an extreme diet to control the weight the medication was causing her to gain. It was a yo-yo cycle...gaining and losing. She is a very tall woman but even for her height she was extremely overweight. They decided the lap-band might be for her and she started the pre surgery weight loss program and lost 50 pounds. They scheduled the surgery and everything went fine until about 8 days later. She was taken to the emergency room not feeling very well, was kept overnight and sent home. Less than a day later, she passed away. They live in the middle of nowhere in West Texas and her husband was rushing to meet EMS about halfway. By the time they met EMS, she was non-responsive and EMS could not re-vive her with CPR. This was 10 days after her surgery. Autopsy revealed her inside was one huge infection. It just goes to show that all surgeries have risks and doctors can't always diagnose what is wrong. She leaves behind a husband in the military and two children, somewhere between 9 and 12 years old.