Leakages??? :-S

I have a question about leakages. From what I understand, if you have a leakage,you dont survive. Has anyone here had a leakage and survived? What causes a leakage. I know its when staples come undone. What causes that to happen? Am I worrying about nothing? I have not had surgery yet but recently I heard about a lady in my office who had one and died last July. Needless to say,it has me running scared. Can anyone help me to understand this better.Thanks in advance

I had surgery 2/24/04 and eight days later I developed some upper abdominal pain as well as pain in my shoulder. It was really only minor pain at first. I figured it was gas. As the evening progressed the pain got worse and I was running a fever of about 101. Then I started having trouble breathing and my husband took me to the ER. Yes, a few of my staples had come undone and I did have some leakage. My doctor took me back to the OR and repaired it. He told me that he had used a new type staple gun and wasn't sure why they came undone. He said they were secure after the first surgery and he ran two leakage tests before he closed me up. This is an almost unheard of occurence with my surgeon. He has done around 7500 surgeries in the last 30 or so years and had only one leak before mine. He has only had two deaths in all that time, the last being in 1991. So as you can tell I am very much alive. I also had the same fears as you. Everyone does. Chances are that with a good surgeon with lots of experience things will turn out fine. Even with the best of surgeons problems can happen but the odds are in your favor. Hope this helps.

Leaks are not good because they are accompanied with infection, but with a doctor that is watching closely, they can be caught quickly and treated. Sometimes small ones seal on their own; sometimes a second surgery is required. Ask your doctor about his experience with leaks. (How many has he had? How did he discover them? What did he do about them?) When I learned that in thousands of surgeries, my surgeon had not had any, I relaxed a lot. For my surgeon, his most frequent complication is post op hernias. The reason that people die from leaks or other complications most often is that they do not call the doctor soon enough when they are experiencing pain or other signs of problems. You can control that! Joy

Thanks so much for your help. Of course, this has weighed heavily on my mind.I guess the key is to stay in close contact with your dr at the first sign of any problem.Thanks again