help me narrow down mexico surgeon choice

Cos....if No One Called You Back In Reference To Dr A. Rod That Should Have Sent A Red Flag To You That His Previous Patients Didn't Want To Talk About Him. My Surgeon Was The Best In Mexico...go Dr Ortiz---you're The Bomb!!:) :) There Is No Way I Would Not Want To Relate And Share My Experience About A Great Dr That I Had With Anyone!! You Still Made That Choice To Proceed With That Dr. Sorry About What You're Going Thru But That Was Still Your C.h.o.i.c.e!!!!

Lena23

I agree.
All Doctors are at the end of the day just fallible bipods same as the rest of us.
I got burned in Mexico. On the one hand I'm clearly biased, on the other hand I'm no longer ruled by what I can afford. The difference is this, if the Surgeon has a bad day in the U.S. then he is financially accountable to you. If the Surgeon has a bad day in Mexico then you can kiss your money adois.
If Mexico is all you can afford then your decision is made and I wish you the best of luck, but you must walk into it knowing what to expect.

But Cosmos... you may or may not have been burned. While I agree that Rodriguez probably has the highest erosion stat in the industry, it is STILL a known complication of the band and this was well known when you were banded. Even the bad docs get it right once in awhile and erosion still happens.

I'm sorry it happened to you but I'm not convinced you were burned because you eroded and had to pay to have the band removed. You would have had to pay here too and had NO legal recourse because erosion is a KNOWN complication with the band.

Now, if he would have put the band in upside down, or left scissors in you then you'd have a point. But he didn't, you had a known complication. You would have paid more in the US for band removal so let's get realistic here.

"BURNED"

Webster's defines "burned" as: Had. First person singular, past tense.
El Hombre' had $20,000 USD in his hand and suddenly it disappeared and his lap band with it.

Dear Miss WasaPerryMason, you are a 25 year nurse. I'd like to speak to a "recourse specialist".

Who did your surgery? What happened to you? I am so sorry that you've developed such a complication. I didn't do my research either. After I returned I found out my doctor had been arrested for federal insurance fraud in San Diego and Mexico. A little scary, but I guess I have been blessed so far. Let me know how you are. Thanks!-Jessica

Hello Jessica

I went to Monterrey, Mexico in 2006. I was banded by Dr Arturo Rodriguez for $7,900 and then another $3,000 for 2 extra days in the hospital due to the onset of pnuemonia.
By the time I got back to Houston I had no blood pressure at all in the emergency room. 4 days ICU and 6 days in the hospital.
All toll I missed about $6,000 worth of work and then ofcourse the airfare to Monterrey.
I thought Man am I glad thats over !!! After 6 months I started tightening the band down. I waited for a while because I was concerned after the sickness. Each time I had an adjustment there was no restriction at all. Thats when I learned that no US doctor will touch the band if it was put installed in Mexico. You can get a fill at Wal Mart and I finally managed to get an endoscopy which showed that something was very wrong. They knew for sure that my port was leaking but it looked like something else was going on.
I finally had to go back to Rodriguez. He quickly determined that my band had "ERODED", and was now down in my stomach. For another $2,500 he cut the port out and then he pulled the band right out through my teeth. I have it at home on my desk.
I hear frequently from a lot of people that Mexico is all they can afford and they might die without it and therefore I shouldn't bad mouth Surgery South of the Border. Then ofcourse I have to be biased, I know that and I plead no contest to it.
Just let me say this, If you only have enough money for the transportation to Mexico and surgery then you need to call it off. As this thread will testify Lap Band have complications. If your insurance wouldn't pay for the band they probably won't pay for the complications either. I had one endoscopy put on my insurance and they investigated it and promptly billed it back to me. I had to borrow money to pay Rodriguez for the debanding.
I'm not a lawyer but I ain't stuid nither. If I had been here in the US I'm reasonably sure it would have had a much different outcome. If that statement is wrong then none of us can afford to self pay for a Lap Band.

Like I said I'm biased so don't let me be the last word. A lot of people get a band in Mexico and do just fine.Thing is you must know what your getting into because complications or more of the rule than the exception. On one side of the coin Mexico is cheaper and on the other side of the coin they are the only ones who will touch a Mexican Band.
You have no legal recourse South of the Border

I wish you the very Best of Luck

Can you please send me the information that you have that supports the erosion rate that you refer to with regards to Dr. A. Rodriguez? Or better yet, can you please post it here?

Thanks

Hold your breath Tricia

I have it not.

??

I guess I'm not understanding your post?

Cosmo I totally get where you are coming from and being a Mexican bandster I do appreciate it....I think it is important that everyone going into this needs to know the pros and cons of the procedure....and post op possibilities...and you are right when you say that your ins. isn't going to pay for self pay for anything related to the band..in the US or Mexico so all SELF PAY patients should be aware of that. If you are self pay in US or MX and you have issues your insurance will not cover any problems that they can find that stemmed from any part of your band. NICE HU? I am so sorry that you had that issue with your Doc...and I am glad that you place his name out there for other bandsters that are researching going there.....Mexico was my choice for many reasons....time frame, money, hassell and not personally knowing but one person who was banded here in the states..my other three friends were all banded by my doc and loved him. I think had I not known someone personally that was banded by him I would have been much more leary of it all but only being a week out of being banded I have to say I am happy with my choice. I do think that there are many differences from US and Mexico ......if you are a VERY needy patient then Mexico is probably not for you...but for me I wanted to be banded--made sure I was fine and out the door..hahaha I did however stay in the hospital for 3 days after being banded because that is how my doc does it knowing that almost all his patients are out of country patients he wants to make sure there are no complications...he also does an upper barrium swallow after surgery to make sure all is working properly and sends them back with you for your US doc if you choose to not return to them. I have to say as far as recourse...in MX you are right..no malpractice....but as you can see on the boards us AMERICANS tend to have HUGE mouths and they know that we are their bread and butter and that if they are continully have problems they will be tagged as BAD BAND DOCS. Again I am so sorry that you had so many problems and I wish you much luck. I think you are just trying to warn us and anyone should read your story and apply it to them as it applies. To date I am a happy mexican bandster.
Kelly

I'm sorry Tricia.
I am totally with you. I'd like to know where Wasa gets this Mexican Intelligence. I don't think the CIA has better connections.

Cosmos...I think she was talking to you.

Not from what I have seen. From what I have seen is that it is silly to say ALL banding in Mexico is bad because you went to a bad surgeon.

Instead of telling people how bad Mexico is because you had a bad experience due to your surgeon or complications that could happen to any of us, why not help people do their research and find a GOOD surgeon for a safe surgery?

You'd have to get that from your doctor, he is the one that told me this. He told me this last November 30th when he invited me to his Christmas fiesta on 12/6. Obviously, I declined.

He said he used to work with Dr. Sanchez and Sanchez is the one that was making the infamous "Mexican Band" (ever see a horrible and eroded band on US doctor's websites? THAT is the Mexican Band). Arturo was his lead surgeon. Arturo told me that they were putting the band in and they were eroding over 50% of the time. Yet.... they kept putting it in anyway.

He said he removed over 350 of his own surgically placed bands due to erosion. I doubt any surgeon has seen that many band erosions. He's had more erosions than many doctors have bands placed!

If you take into consideration the 350 bands he removed, the 1.3% erosion stat that is the global stat, that comes out to about 20% erosion for Arturo.

He even called my doctor asking my doctor to request that I stop telling people about that conversation. Of course, my doctor has no way to tape my mouth shut or tape my typing fingers so that conversation did him little good. Perhaps if Arturo wants me to stop telling the truth he should call me back and explain why he kept placing this band when he knew they were going to erode.

Until that conversation I was fairly pro-Rodriguez. But those days are over.

I have many many sources, and I stay friends with them all. Then there are other types of sources such as Inamed, J&J, band distributors, patient coordinators that work for these doctors, tons of sources.

There is a TJ doctor that jokingly asked me if his wife was cheating on him. I don't have those kinds of sources. ;o) But I do have band doctor sources and I'll keep posting what I know until my fingers don't type anymore.