Seriously: Web Exclusive: Do-it-yourself gastric bypass surgery

A product sold on Amazon.com has some doctors outraged, and for a good reason.

It's a do-it-yourself gastric bypass surgery.

Physicians say the kit could be very dangerous, if not deadly.

It's advertised as a gastric bypass kit for sale on locally-based Amazon.com, tagged by users as a "do-it-yourself" surgery kit.

Family practitioner, doctor Linda Petter, is outraged. "Shock. Absolute shock. There's certain information, certain equipment, supplies that definitely should not be sold on the Internet."

That's an Internet site known more for books, movies, and music.

But the gastric bypass kit, listed under surgical supplies, even has reviewers who say, "This kit was easy to figure out."

Petter worries it could get into the wrong hands, saying, "What if someone takes it the wrong way? You're potentially putting your health, your life in jeopardy and that is very very serious."

The listed seller is Medplus, Inc., based out of New Jersey.

A representative there insisted the kit is legitimate, but meant to be used in a medical facility.

He says, "This kit is not used for home. This is for a medic use, for professional use."

Petter says she's never seen anything like it, and that the equipment shouldn't be available to the general public, period.

She says, "You're on an Internet source where anybody has access to not just licensed medical personnel, so therefore it has the potential to get into hands where it doesn't belong." 

The kit was being sold for $264.

But Amazon.com has now pulled the listing off its web site.

amazing... should be under the sameheading as snake oil.

My husband pointed this out to me last year and I thought it was a toy or joke until I saw the price tag...