LabBand Port placement too high???

 I posted a link earlier to an Allergan recall (which is the band the OP believes she has).  

www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfres/res.cfm

I have no idea if this applies to the OP, but certainly worth looking into and seeing if she can use it to her benefit.  Weird thing is that I only found one reference to the Allergan recall, and lots about the Realize recall.  From what I read about the Realize recall, they would replace the device, but not pay for the surgery, which totally seems unfair.

Tami

I am at my wits end!!!

I had LapBand surgery 01/30/2009. The port location is ON my zyphoid process and against my ribs. The scar is exactly across my middle where the band of my bra lays. It has bothered me from the beginning and I complained to the surgeon about it very early on. It would swell when I did any activity to the size of about a walnut. He agreed it was placed too high, and needed to be moved, but he wanted to wait until I lost the weight so he could plce it in a proper location. Well, fast forward 1 1/2 years, port is now swollen permanently to the size of a golf ball, seems a huge mass of scar tissue, i can not get fills, excersise, wera an underwire bra, sit comfortably in a car or even have sexual realations without it becoming severly irritated and painful nor have I lost anything in over a year. I even get random shooting pains in it throughout the night. I called and called and called the surgeon office, no response.

Then I receive a recall letter, saying that there is a problem with the port...hmmmm. I call the surgeon again. I seemed to be getting someplace, then I was told that they were required to send the letters out, but they did not know what to do with the patients calling. So, again, call after call after call I made, until I called and asked for the malpractice insurance information. And boy did I get calls back!! They scheduled me immediatly for a visit and again, the surgeon agreed, that the port needed to be moved and scheduled me 1 week later for revision.

But, alas, this was too good to be true! My surgery was cancelled and a letter sent, yes a letter, not a phone call, but a letter, signed by the surgeon, stating that he could not, in good consience, do an expensive procedure and have me get a bill that would be distressing, so until I got insurance, or financial assistance he would not be doing the surgery. You see, the insurance that paid him 10's of thousands of dollars the first time, I no longer have, in fact I have no insurance. The hospital's finance department said I could make payments over 36 months, but the surgeon said only "CASH UPFRONT".

Does anyone else out there think I should have to pay even a PENNY for a corrective surgery? I am perplexed as to how this is moral and/or ethical. I have no recourse at this point, not enough money to pay the origonal surgeon, no other surgeon will come near me, and not a lucrative enough case for an attorney. So much for the little guy...