This is a great article. It's the story of the 1 800 Get Thin clinics and five lap band related deaths. One of the deaths, Paula Rojeski, is also under investigation by LAPD's Robbery Homicide Unit. Kudos to journalist Stuart Pfeifer and the LA Times for relentlessly pursuing this story for months.
Here's what I suggest you do before you have any outpatient surgery and it can all be done from your home computer. It's a variation of President Regan's great maxim, "Trust , but verify". First off make sure that at any Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) i.e. a stand alone surgical center not connected with a hospital, is what it says it is and has properly trained staff. If it's a new clinic make sure it's not "new" in name only with a fresh coat of paint after a run in with regulatory authorities. Keep in mind the anesthetist is every bit as important as the surgeon. Be under no illusion, an inept anesthetist or someone giving you an anesthetic who is not properly trained can kill you.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE:
- Google the clinic and the doctors involved.
- Always go to the California Medical Board's web site and see if the surgeon or anaesthetist have been board sanctioned or are under investigation.
- Talk to the surgeon AND anesthetist before your procedure and make sure they're actually going to do your surgery and not delegate it to someone else.
- Check with the three main accreditors of ASCs that the clinic is indeed accredited. If it's not, this is a big red flag. Don't have your surgery there. FYI, the three main accreditors of ASCs are American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF), Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (Accreditation Association or AAAHC) and The Joint Commission.
