Bad Experience in Mexico: Dr. Joya

Hey all,

I just wanted to share my lapband experiance for anything who is thinking of going to Dr. Joya in Mexico for their surgery. I had lapband surgery with him in 2008, and lost 60 pounds. In early 2010 (just over a year later) the band started leaking. I didn't know that at the time, it took almost a year to figure out what was going on, mostly because i don't have any doctors close to me that understand the band. I went to see him finally last week to find out if it was the port, or the actual band. By this time have gained all of my weight back. He determined that it wasn't in my port or tubing, and that the actual band was defective and would have to be removed, and replaced, and at a 100% cost to me. Basically, they washed thier hands of me, and offered no solutions except a discount on having a gastric sleeve done. I would never reccommend him because stuff happens, and when it does, he is not there for you whatsoever. They didn't offer to contact the manufacturer, or anything....basically....they said good luck, and charged me another $650 for the cost of finding out it was defective. They also chipped my tooth during the endoscopy, which is a veneer, and is going to cost $1000 to fix. They deny that as well. I completely understand that things happen, but they do not care about thier patients, they care about $$$$$$ to pay for their new fancy hospital. I would absolutely stay away from this Doctor.

On November 16, 2011 at 5:58 PM Pacific Time, sunfyre wrote:Hey all,

I just wanted to share my lapband experiance for anything who is thinking of going to Dr. Joya in Mexico for their surgery. I had lapband surgery with him in 2008, and lost 60 pounds. In early 2010 (just over a year later) the band started leaking. I didn't know that at the time, it took almost a year to figure out what was going on, mostly because i don't have any doctors close to me that understand the band. I went to see him finally last week to find out if it was the port, or the actual band. By this time have gained all of my weight back. He determined that it wasn't in my port or tubing, and that the actual band was defective and would have to be removed, and replaced, and at a 100% cost to me. Basically, they washed thier hands of me, and offered no solutions except a discount on having a gastric sleeve done. I would never reccommend him because stuff happens, and when it does, he is not there for you whatsoever. They didn't offer to contact the manufacturer, or anything....basically....they said good luck, and charged me another $650 for the cost of finding out it was defective. They also chipped my tooth during the endoscopy, which is a veneer, and is going to cost $1000 to fix. They deny that as well. I completely understand that things happen, but they do not care about thier patients, they care about $$$$$$ to pay for their new fancy hospital. I would absolutely stay away from this Doctor.

I've heard LOTS of stories about Joya over the years, but he is not the worst one out there.

Have you called the manufacturer?

In the olden days, before it was owned by Allergan and before it was owned by whoever it was before that (Inamed?), it was owned by a company (Bio Enterics) that actually stood behind the product for defects.  There was a time when they subcontracted their ports out to the lowest bidder and got a ****load of defective ports...but they QUIETLY and with confidentiality agreements, fixed those problems.  ("How does SHE know THAT?"  Because I knew someone with a bad port and went with her to Tijuana to have it replaced, and she didn't need any money and she kept track of mileage and hotel receipts and meals could not discuss why she was doing all of that, and didn't talk about it afterwards in any detail, and I'm not an idiot.  There was even a Yahoo group regarding bad ports.)

Anyway, it's been a long time, but there was a man named Don Something...Mills?  And he was very good at addressing these issues.  I'd call them.  They are (were?) in Santa Barbara, CA.

You should be posting this on all the major OH forums and on his OH page twice a wee****il he feels like helping you to fix your problems by shutting you up.

REMEMBER....The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Keep on talking. Tal****il you want to throw up! 

Don't "go away." That's what they're counting on. You want to talk, talk, talk!  The more you talk, the more people know about the treatment you received, the fewer patients go to that particular medical practice, the less money the medical practice makes... and money talks... sometimes it's the only thing that gets through.

I'm sorry you're going through it.

I understand your frustration, and he should stand behind it.........but the real issue is the band, not the surgeon. A leaking band is not caused by surgeons error. My understanding is that Allergan requires the band to be mailed back to them and then they decide if their POS band has failed yet again. Personally I would NOT trust them to be any more honest about that than they are with their initial advertising of the band though. :-( After all..........if they are so unethical as to constantly make the false claims that they do about how the Lap-Band "works"............then why should they suddenly develop a conscious and and do the right thing about a band leak???

I don't believe most of the US surgeons will cover the price of the failed band either. But I don't blame you. I wouldn't use him again either.

Good luck!