Gastric bypass surgery is a way of making the stomach smaller and allowing food to bypass part of the small intestine. Gastric bypass surgery takes a loop of bowel and bypasses the major portion of the stomach, creating a small pouch that contains around 2 ounces, making the patient who eats, feel full, with a smaller portion of food. By avoiding part of the intestine when food is consumed, fewer calories are being absorbed, which helps with weight loss.
Gastric bypass surgery is becoming one of the most common elective surgical procedures in the nation, providing the patient with the ability to eat less and lose weight. People who have problems controlling their weight, or can't lose weight with other methods are turning to gastric bypass surgery in larger numbers. However, even though this procedure has become a common phenomenon in this country, it is still a major abdominal surgery. With any surgery, many complications can arise, including anesthesia complications, infections where the incision is made, leakage from the stomach into the abdominal cavity, leading to an infection called peritonitis, and catastrophic circumstances, including death.
Medical malpractice with gastric bypass surgery can also result from anesthesia errors.
Anesthesia errors may occur when medical staff fail to properly communicate with each other, fail to understand the patient's unique medical situation, such as medication sensitivities or allergies, or from personnel that are not properly trained anesthetists. Since many gastric bypass and other elective plastic surgeries are performed in doctor's offices and other non-hospital medical centers, there may not be a properly trained medical staff with all the necessary resources to help a patient should a medical emergency arise. Even in hospitals, medical staff occasionally make catastrophic errors during elective surgeries that result in permanent injuries to the patient, including death.
Victims of gastric bypass surgery negligence or other plastic surgery medical malpractice, have legal rights. Dr. Bruce Fagel is a top medical malpractice attorney and a licensed medical doctor. This unique experience gives Dr. Fagel the expertise to analyze a patient's medical situation to determine if there was medical malpractice involved with the gastric bypass surgery. For more information about gastric bypass surgery errors, please watch the
gastric bypass surgery problems video.