Posted on 03/26/2008 10:33:51 PM PDT by Coleus
Leonard "L.J." LaBeur of Rochelle Park was 443 pounds and a few weeks shy of his 19th birthday when he decided to have weight-loss surgery. "He wanted to sit in the movie-theater seats comfortably," his mother said. "He wanted a Ralph Lauren jacket." He died about a month after doctors performed a procedure that reduced the size of his stomach to that of a golf ball.
LaBeur's mother, Elaine, has sued doctors who performed the surgery in 2003 at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center for malpractice. The trial opened Tuesday in Superior Court in Hackensack. "This surgery is not the quick fix that they marketed to me," LaBeur said in an interview at her lawyer's office in Hackensack. "What this trial means for me is that I now will know what happened to my son." The attorneys for the three doctors named in the suit would not talk about the case.
L.J. was LaBeur's only son. He played football for St. Joseph's High School in Montvale and was a state weight-lifting champion, she said. "He was a big boy all his life," she said. After he graduated from high school, he began exploring weight-loss surgery. Bariatric, or weight loss, surgery is on the rise among teens. An estimated several hundred have undergone the procedure, said Dr. Kelvin Higa, president of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
It's likely to continue to grow. "Adolescent obesity has tripled in the last decade whereas the adult obesity population has doubled," said Higa, a professor and bariatric surgeon based in Fresno, Calif. The surgery limits the amount of food the stomach can hold to a few ounces. Last year, it was performed on 205,000 patients, mostly adults, who are morbidly obese — more than 100 pounds overweight — according to the society.
With little data available on the effects of bariatric surgeries on teens, many insurers decline to cover the procedure for young patients, Higa said. At a cost of $18,000 to $25,000, few families can afford to pay privately for the procedure, he said. Elaine LaBeur's attorney, Walter Lesnevich, said insurance companies usually do not cover the surgery unless it is performed in relation to a weight-related disease such as diabetes.
"If you are doing it just to improve your appearance, they won't cover you," he said. "It's like getting your nose fixed." Leonard LaBeur had no health problems, his mother said. His family paid $25,000 out of pocket for the surgery on June 3, 2003. Leonard LaBeur left the hospital two weeks later. He lost more than 57 pounds in 20 days, his mother said.
Three days after his discharge, however, he was back in the hospital with severe stomach pain. He returned several times for treatment, she said. At one point, doctors found more than a gallon of fluid in his stomach. Lesnevich argues that this was caused by a leak from a defective surgery, a leak that went undetected because doctors failed to give Leonard LaBeur a CAT scan.
Hugh Francis, an attorney for two of the three doctors who have been sued, said in opening arguments Tuesday that LaBeur could not be given a CAT scan because he was too big to fit into the machine. Lesnevich said the leak caused severe infection that put Leonard LaBeur in shock and eventually left him brain-dead. LaBeur's father, Leonard David, suffered a heart attack in the hospital when he heard news of his son's failing heart. He died three years later from a heart condition, Elaine LaBeur said.
When her son remained unresponsive for days, she eventually decided to have him taken off life support, she said. "I didn't just lose a son," she said. "I lost my entire family." Her suit was filed against Dr. Ibrahim Ibrahim, Dr. Stefanie Vaimakis and Dr. Mitchell Spinnell. Some experts believe the benefits from weight-loss surgery clearly outweigh its risks.
"It's entirely appropriate to do bypass surgery on a 19-year-old" if the patient meets requirements for the surgery, said Dr. Michael Bilof, who practices in West Orange. A father of four, Higa said: "If it were my child, I would have the surgery performed at an earlier age because I know the dangers of being overweight — not just the health issues but the psychological issues as well." "If someone is morbidly obese as an adolescent, what chance do they have of living a normal life or just surviving past 30?" he said. "We have this idea that an adolescent needs to be protected from this amazing therapy."
Health issues including Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and cardiovascular problems can plague teens as well as adults. But the psychological damage of being 100 or 200 pounds overweight in school kids can be devastating, Higa said. "Everybody remembers the fattest kid in the class," Higa said. "You're ostracized and made fun of."
Research shows that about half of obese school age kids remain overweight as adults. A study released in June 2002 in New Jersey found that 18 percent of sixth graders were overweight and another 20 percent were obese. In New Jersey 13 percent of the 4,451 weight loss surgeries performed in 2005, were on patients between ages 15 and 29, according to data from the state Department of Health and Senior Services. "Bariatric surgery saves lives," Higa said. "If you factor in all the complications, untoward side effects, the killer disease of obesity takes more lives by far than any complication of the operation. There are no other medical treatments for this disease."
Others are more cautious. Deaths are extremely rare — less than one percent by many accounts — in gastric bypass surgeries, said Anil Minocha, a gastroenterologist who published several articles on the procedure. But he warned that bariatric surgery should be considered only after all other weight-loss solutions have been exhausted.
"You shouldn't jump on it as a first resort," he said. While telling jurors on Tuesday that his clients did all they could to treat LaBeur, Francis emphasized that weight-loss surgery is not always safe. "It's a major surgery, and no matter what is done, there are risks," he said.
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mark
So who bought him the massive amounts of food, year after year, that caused him to end up weighing 443 pounds in his late teens?
I have a friend who has experience with GBGBs (gastric bypass gone bad). They generally go right straight to OR. I don’t buy the hospitals excuse of he was to big for the CT scanner.
Rare condition may be cause of West Boca High cheerleader's death after breast surgery
This needs clarification. Do they mean a gallon of fluid in his STOMACH, or outside of his stomach in his abdominal cavity? I had this surgery 6 years ago, and had a G Tube temporarily placed to drain fluid secretions from the portion of my stomach that was stapled off. During the first 2 weeks, I was putting out in excess of 1 liter a day. If I didn't drain it out via the G Tube, I was extremely nauseated. The problem was easily fixed with medication (Aciphex), and I was off the med within a month, and got the tube out shortly after.
I have heard of patients ending up back in the OR after this surgery, and the surgeons finding items such as partially digested peanuts in the "pouch", and this being 2 weeks out from the initial surgery. At this point, the diet is usually yogurt, nutritional shakes, and maybe eggs. Eating peanuts at this point is a BIG no-no. So, I wonder how many of these complications are a result of patient non-compliance?
BTW, I am 200 lbs lighter today than my highest weight pre-op, and that was over 6 years ago. The surgery can be a big help if the patient allows it to be.
I actually had the surgery at the same Medical Center I work at. They were only doing it for about 6 months when I had mine done, so I guess I took a big risk. They are now doing several per week, so the risk now is much lower than when I had it done. What type of work do you do?
Right now I am working in a cardiac unit. I was working on a stepdown unit before. I was an LVN for several years before I got my RN.
Mark
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abcnews.go.com | 03/25/08 | Tanya Rivero/Joann Brady
Posted on 03/31/2008 11:45:52 AM EDT by Froufrou
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1994451/posts
I have heard of people being denied weight loss surgery because the were too heavy.
Some have told me that the doctors told them that they had to lose weight BEFORE he would perform the surgery.
443 pounds seems VERY heavy for someone to be operated on.
it’s a lot of weight and i can imagine how large the incision was and how much anesthesia he needed to put him out.
why can’t people just lose weight by a diet, lifestyle change and some exercise.
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