WLS report on CBS4 in Miami

Did anyone see this on the afternoon news by Dr. Sean Kinnish He gave statistics of some study that observed bariatric patients age 48 years and older that showed 4 in every 100 die, and that 1/2 of the men in the age group die within 1 year. I have searched the channel 4 website for more on this story but can't find anything about it, but I'm not agreeing with that statistic and was wondering if anyone else heard his report or knows what study he is quoting from? I'm hoping it will be repeated on the 11 o'clock news so I can hear what he said again. Thanks!

I'm replying to my own post because we just sat here and saw the same report on the CBS Evening News! Where are they getting these statistics? They said 5% of men and 3% of women die within the first year of having surgery either from complications or malnutrition.

Oh LAWD! I saw it on our news tonight.. darn sensational teaster. The whole thing is based on an article in JAMA http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/294/15/1903 IT's conclution is: " Among Medicare beneficiaries, the risk of early death after bariatric surgery is considerably higher than previously suggested and associated with advancing age, male sex, and lower surgeon volume of bariatric procedures. Patients aged 65 years or older had a substantially higher risk of death within the early postoperative period than younger patients." The news is out of control with "spinning" anything and everything to get them ratings. It really makes me ILL! FUMMING! Erin

It sure as he!! didn't help my case with my family. My husband was trying to tell me not to do it, and now I am waiting for the phone to ring with my mother calling upset about it! I had JUST walked in from work and my husband said there was a report on WLS coming up next that he wanted me to hear. I said, "Uh oh, it can't be good. The news never wants to report anything positive." Lo and behold I was right. I tried to make the case to my husband that the surgeon would know what surgery to suggest for me and how his complication rate goes... but NBC messed that up for me too! Brian Willaims said that the doctors often don't tell patients all the facts. After the report was over, they didn't leave me much room to argue with my husband. NBC Sandy

Trisha, It's in our paper today... Terri

Hi Shayna, I did google news which is my daily habit and on the health section there were several articles on this report from JAMA. A Dr Flum did a study on "Medicare" patients who have had the surgery and their findings were hard to read. However, the report also stated that many of these patients are older or who have disability problems if younger. I know that unless you are disabled, you cannot get mediCARE if you are under 65. My sis works in healthcare and is always stating that someone is trying to get mediCARE who is not eiligable. Anyway, the reports I read said that many of the patients of medicare who have the surgery are older or have bad health to begin with and also that the surgeons who preformed the surgery had not done many surgeries. I thought that most were interesting but a few of them did use scare tatics too. I would let your family know these facts from the report. Just go into google and hit the news link. At the bottom of the page was the report on Gastric Bypass for medicare insurance report. HOpe this helps with your decision and discussions with family members. Take care, Lori 293/257/130