Please be careful!!!! Dr. Mario almanza

[Msreesenc1]

Okay so on july 26, 2011 i went to get gastric sleeve done in mexico by dr. Almanza, and i just found out today that i have to have a sleeve revision because there is narrowing of my intestine. My new bariatric doctor at duke hospital "durham, nc" has confirmed that he dr. Almanza has failed to staple me in an accurate manner which caused me to have a twist intestine.

From what i understand how my doctor explained is, imagine a pair of pants that needs to be sewed at the side of your leg, you would need to sew straight across in a perfect line to ensure proper ease when walking however; if you sew up and down and then across this will cause slight turn at the leg of your jeans. This is what has happened to me which has resulted in all my food being thrown back up. Nothing will pass my stomach because there is a narrowing and twist of my intestine.

I also had a hiatal hernia which my doctor informed me was always there prior to my surgery in mexico. I guess its my fault as i should have know prior to my surgery that i had this however; there was no xrays preformed prior to them preforming the gastric sleeve however; when they went in my dr. Told me that he would have seen that i had the hiatal hernia and either could have repaired it and billed me as they would do in the states or would have postponed until they received an answer as to what i would like to do. However; he did neither. This too has caused horrible heart burn, acid reflux, and they only way someone would know this was there is the fact that i went to the emergency room and they took xrays of my chest and an endoscopy where they put the small tube like camera down my throat to see how it passes through my intensin it did not pass with ease which is how they discovered the narrowing and twist.

I know there are allot of people who have been to him and experienced amazing results, this is not a post to knock down the going to mexico or the dr. Who preformed my surgery, i’m just informing others that there are complications as you know and i have experienced a big one and i am so disappointed because they staff there was really amazing and i felt that he was skilled and would take this time when dealing with each and every patient. This can happen to any dr. But i still feel its crazy!!! Luckily i had coverage from my blue cross blue shield insurance prior to going, i just choose to pay out of pocket because i did not want to go through the red tape. I regret being inpatient, i wish i had gone through the proper channels otherwise i would not have to start over.


I still feel the staff and dr. Amananza was pleasant, clean, and respectable he just failed to be mindful of suturing my incisions internally which has resulted in major revision for "me". :-( also please note that i did not go back to dr. Amanaza nor did i tell him of it, i figured i got what i paid for and i would not want him to do anything else to me. I am sure he would have agreed to repair issue and switch to bypass as my dr. Here is going to do. He appears to be helpful like that.



Best of luck people!!

[britiajon]

I'm so sorry this has happened to you.

I think it's important to let Almanza and your coordinator know. Mistakes are something they can learn from. I also think you should reimbursed for your surgery, it's the least they could do. Your paying a much larger price then that 4500.

I hope your next surgery goes smoothly.

[Msreesenc1]

I think you are right! I did not think of it like that. I will notify them if it can help others. I doubt they will feel compelled to give me anything and I am so sick of being on stage one, that I just wish something can happen ASAP. I thank you for your response and appriecate your kind words. :-)

[VSGOct2011]

I am so sorry you are going through this and it's a lesson of "buyer beware" for everyone going forward. I'm sure every surgeon has his good and bad days. When I was trying to decide who to go to in Mexico I saw too many people on these forums going to him because they were self-pay and trying to do it as affordably as possible. I didn't see a lot of people commenting on the research they did into him. I understand not everyone can come up with the extra money but the red flag for me why I didn't choose him was it seemed like:
1) too many in the recovery house at once - just how many surgeries is he doing every day and do you really want to be the last one of the day when he's performed sooo many?
2nd) he's cheaper for a reason - I know things aren't as expensive in Mexico, but when you're charging $4500 when everyone else is charging $8750 well - some corners are being cut somewhere.
3rd) there was a post from late spring regarding a gunpoint robbery at the recovery house, from what I understand nobody was hurt, just items/money stolen and security had been stepped up after, but still not something I wanted to deal with post-surgery.

Your's is not the first negative story I've heard about him either, there were some links further back about some surgery issues there and one patient death. I am very happy your doctor at home was able to catch this and will be able to rectify it and hope this is an opportunity for people to re-evaluate whether cheaper is best when you are talking about your own most precious commodity --- yourself. For what it's worth we are all people who have lived our lives obese for so long that we want a magic quick fix and when you have someone offering you a cure you want to have blind faith or believe the positive stories. You also need to explore and dig deep, not just on these forums, but others, and in legal registries and any other kinds of searches you can do to make sure you are getting someone who will be credible. I hope to goodness Mr Almanza returns ALL of your money including airfare and any other out of pocket expenses because he's got a pretty loyal following here and it would be the only thing in my mind which makes him credible and accountable for his error.

Good luck with your revision and next recovery

[nycbiscuit]

What seems shady is that he should have seen the hernia and even if he wasn't going to take care of it because you hadn't paid in advance for that, at least he should have told you after the fact so that you'd know that you needed further attention.

[brendadenton64]

glad your home doctor is making you better

[MrsPiggy549]

OMG...Sure hope you contact Dr. Almanza ASAP! What were your symptoms...How did you know something was wrong? Wonder why the sleeve staples affected your intestines? I did not quite inderstand your explanation. Hope you are getting proper treatment and not being taken advantage of. You have already lost a great deal of weight, hope your revision will not put your health at grave risk. Can't they just correct your intestinal problem without a bypass? I hope you are not going to regret this decision; bypass leaves you without the ability to properly absorb nutrients and it is usually performed on those who are at least 100 lbs overweight! Good luck & good health, Terry

[connie]

Hmmmmmm---- I am so sorry that you had this experience, I will toss a prayer up for you. I just have to ask---
Why would you wait for 3 months of throwing up to go to the Dr., especially if you had just had major surgery like the sleeve? Blessings- Connie

[2BTRUE]

Question. How did the sleeve affect your intestines? He stapled you stomach to make the sleeve he doesn't touch the intestines. Sending prayers your way.

[buddyd11]

This is truely a scary situation, I hope all works out for you and please keep us posted. God bless

[sleepycrna]

This is very strange. I know I've said before that I do the anesthesia for the sleeves at my hospital, which means after I put them to sleep. I actually pass the bougie and move it around during the staple process from beginning to the end. At no point are we anywhere near intestines!! The only time the intestines are involved is with a true bypass. This is a straight forward cut across the stomach only. I've heard of strictures forming inside the stapled stomach at around 5 weeks. This is almost like scar tissue that is formed after surgery, it really is not the fault of the surgeon. It just happens, but this intestine thing is confusing. Exactly what part of your intestine is involved?

[Sunflower]

Thanks for sharing this information. It helps in making a final decision. The idea of going down to Mexico for a quick, cheap procedure is very attractive. But stories like yours gives one pause. Please let us know if Dr. Almanzas group repays your expenses. That information will be very telling about the credibility of his practice and Hospital Jerusalem.

[JoyESS1]

I am praying for you right now Line'e and i am also agreeing that you need to contact Dr. Almanza and staff right away. This site is run by his staff so of course a lot of people rave about him and choose him. I was seriously thinking of going to him when I first came to this site (in fact I was directed by Jarrod of Admin) but I kept trying to research about Dr. Almanza and could find no unbiased information anywhere. I also was checking out the whole idea of going to Mexico so I was wondering what recourse any of us might have if we did have complications. I got scared and frustrated about other co-morbidities on top of my inability to find information and wrote out a vent (titleing it that is was a vent) and felt like I got little support and even a bit slammed for worrying about what recourse one might have with out of country surgery. Gads, if this had happened to you with a stateside doctor wouldn't you be suing him? Louise claims that they've had no deaths and no leaks in 13 years but maybe no one reports them to her? Thankfully, I guess, I was turned down because my co-morbidities mean I need to be in a hospital for a few days to be safe and not in a day clinic surgery. I am on disability and only have Medicaid so I have no choice but to be self-pay (taking out a medical loan) and so of course his low cost was very tempting. I will add him and his program to the prayer list too. TC

[mi_mariposa]

I to am sending you well wishes and prayers! I am unsure of what exactly happened as others have posted, so please, please contact Dr. Almanza and his team, I think they should have a chance of asking questions/correcting this as well. It is of course your choice to go to someone else, but I would also have a 2nd / 3rd opinion!! Why did you wait so long to go to the doctor??

Good luck to you!!

[britiajon]

Who said she took this long to go to the dr.? I'm sure diagnosing this sort of thing is a process.