Surgery Back ON!
Gotta put this story out there I guess, to try & prevent more horrible outcomes. I went to Emmanuel clinic when it was not very busy. I found it to be an easy surgery for me to recover from & I am now 72 (this was last September BEFORE all the flurry of infections came out.) I trusted and believed everything my coordinator told me and I especially trusted Betancourt. I have since found out he in very mu*****ontrol of everything down there, and a lot of it is coverup and lies. Yes he is charming but charm is not what you are paying for. I even argued FOR them and posted on Vertical Sleeve talk to the nth degree refuting everyone who had negative things to say about them (the whole experience) I even talked my daughter and sister to go down and have their surgeries done, that is how confident I was.
Fast forward to middle of January, I went with my family and for a few days had a very nice time. Dismayed at the size of the clinic, and I was even more dismayed that Dr Almanza was so over-booked! My sister Linda went in for her sleeve after 10 pm at night, the 6th of the day! I was worried about that as it was so overcrowded in the clinic and so little room for anyone to maneuver, but held my tongue as we expected the best outcome.
To make a long story short, my sister became very ill while there, Betancourt said it was gas pains and continued to give her pain control shots. She was in no shape to fly home on the Friday as booked, they caught the fact she had a collapsed lung and severe dehydration and she went back in for intravenous saline and oxygen, but they assumed there was no leak because of their tests.
BUT THERE WAS, a centimeter nick out of the stomach high up near the esophagus, and when the housekeeper took out the drain, fluids gushed out of Linda's body. the housekeeper just cleaned it up and said nothing, so we assumed things were OK, no leaks. She was in rough shape when I flew home with her on Saturday. She had to go to the hospital in Edmonton shortly after she got home as she went into septic shock, had a collapsed lung again, severe dehydration and kidney failure because of it. They operated on her for four hours, and ended up with flushing out her body cavity - over a liter of pus!. She was near death and was for well over a week! We were devastated to say the least..
Slowly things have improved since those first weeks passed, but she was in critical care for about 6 weeks until she could breathe on her own and not need a ventilator to help with that. The infection spread and caused all kinds of porosity in her stomach and esophagus.
To date she is still in the hospital, still being fed intravenously and with a feeding tube directly to her gut, waiting for the last hole to heal in her esophagus, they did insert a stent but haven't tested it for leaks so far. She had a large hole in her abdomen due to all the 5 ensuing body cavity flushes they had to do every other day in the beginning weeks. It is healing and she will need two further operations, a skin graft and a hernia repair on the incision site. We do expect a full recovery but only after they test her stomach out with real food, which can be weeks away yet. She has lost her job, her income of course and a good chunk of her life due to this facility's operation. Safety should be your main concern, Betancourt and Almanza's "stacke'em and rack'em" policy is not doing anyone any favors. Dr Almanza, as nice as a man he is, is now a partner and profits are what it is all about now it seems.
There have been many (20 I heard), complication tales from there since December, most were too sick to tell them themselves but are known to many of the coordinators. They all distance themselves from those, chalking it up to normal rate of complications. They have to do damage control, it is there JOB. and Betancourt controls them! Doing so many surgeries a day in my opinion is SO NOT SAFE!
Spend the extra now and go to a safe hospital down there, spend the $4000 more to save yourself from becoming another Linda, with hospital costs being what they are in the US I would think that would be more important than the up front extra now to save months of hospital and surgery bills as well as your lost income from your job.
Check out my photo albums for a picture of me visiting Linda in the hospital in Edmonton last month when I was there. Sorry Linda, I had waited for you to tell your story but you can't sit up long enough to type it out on the computer and people really need to hear this!
All of this is true and I am so sorry I doubted everyone that had problems there, even John who's wife wrote of his experience was pretty sick the day we drove to the airport and ended up with infection and in the hospital. It was extremely busy the day of his surgery too. I am not saying that you won't have a good experience, but why risk it if you don't absolutely have to, is all I am saying, there are WAY too many stories like Linda's from that facility to ignore!
Fast forward to middle of January, I went with my family and for a few days had a very nice time. Dismayed at the size of the clinic, and I was even more dismayed that Dr Almanza was so over-booked! My sister Linda went in for her sleeve after 10 pm at night, the 6th of the day! I was worried about that as it was so overcrowded in the clinic and so little room for anyone to maneuver, but held my tongue as we expected the best outcome.
To make a long story short, my sister became very ill while there, Betancourt said it was gas pains and continued to give her pain control shots. She was in no shape to fly home on the Friday as booked, they caught the fact she had a collapsed lung and severe dehydration and she went back in for intravenous saline and oxygen, but they assumed there was no leak because of their tests.
BUT THERE WAS, a centimeter nick out of the stomach high up near the esophagus, and when the housekeeper took out the drain, fluids gushed out of Linda's body. the housekeeper just cleaned it up and said nothing, so we assumed things were OK, no leaks. She was in rough shape when I flew home with her on Saturday. She had to go to the hospital in Edmonton shortly after she got home as she went into septic shock, had a collapsed lung again, severe dehydration and kidney failure because of it. They operated on her for four hours, and ended up with flushing out her body cavity - over a liter of pus!. She was near death and was for well over a week! We were devastated to say the least..
Slowly things have improved since those first weeks passed, but she was in critical care for about 6 weeks until she could breathe on her own and not need a ventilator to help with that. The infection spread and caused all kinds of porosity in her stomach and esophagus.
To date she is still in the hospital, still being fed intravenously and with a feeding tube directly to her gut, waiting for the last hole to heal in her esophagus, they did insert a stent but haven't tested it for leaks so far. She had a large hole in her abdomen due to all the 5 ensuing body cavity flushes they had to do every other day in the beginning weeks. It is healing and she will need two further operations, a skin graft and a hernia repair on the incision site. We do expect a full recovery but only after they test her stomach out with real food, which can be weeks away yet. She has lost her job, her income of course and a good chunk of her life due to this facility's operation. Safety should be your main concern, Betancourt and Almanza's "stacke'em and rack'em" policy is not doing anyone any favors. Dr Almanza, as nice as a man he is, is now a partner and profits are what it is all about now it seems.
There have been many (20 I heard), complication tales from there since December, most were too sick to tell them themselves but are known to many of the coordinators. They all distance themselves from those, chalking it up to normal rate of complications. They have to do damage control, it is there JOB. and Betancourt controls them! Doing so many surgeries a day in my opinion is SO NOT SAFE!
Spend the extra now and go to a safe hospital down there, spend the $4000 more to save yourself from becoming another Linda, with hospital costs being what they are in the US I would think that would be more important than the up front extra now to save months of hospital and surgery bills as well as your lost income from your job.
Check out my photo albums for a picture of me visiting Linda in the hospital in Edmonton last month when I was there. Sorry Linda, I had waited for you to tell your story but you can't sit up long enough to type it out on the computer and people really need to hear this!
All of this is true and I am so sorry I doubted everyone that had problems there, even John who's wife wrote of his experience was pretty sick the day we drove to the airport and ended up with infection and in the hospital. It was extremely busy the day of his surgery too. I am not saying that you won't have a good experience, but why risk it if you don't absolutely have to, is all I am saying, there are WAY too many stories like Linda's from that facility to ignore!
On April 14, 2010 at 12:32 PM Pacific Time, stoongal wrote:
Gotta put this story out there I guess, to try & prevent more horrible outcomes. I went to Emmanuel clinic when it was not very busy. I found it to be an easy surgery for me to recover from & I am now 72 (this was last September BEFORE all the flurry of infections came out.) I trusted and believed everything my coordinator told me and I especially trusted Betancourt. I have since found out he in very mu*****ontrol of everything down there, and a lot of it is coverup and lies. Yes he is charming but charm is not what you are paying for. I even argued FOR them and posted on Vertical Sleeve talk to the nth degree refuting everyone who had negative things to say about them (the whole experience) I even talked my daughter and sister to go down and have their surgeries done, that is how confident I was.Fast forward to middle of January, I went with my family and for a few days had a very nice time. Dismayed at the size of the clinic, and I was even more dismayed that Dr Almanza was so over-booked! My sister Linda went in for her sleeve after 10 pm at night, the 6th of the day! I was worried about that as it was so overcrowded in the clinic and so little room for anyone to maneuver, but held my tongue as we expected the best outcome.
To make a long story short, my sister became very ill while there, Betancourt said it was gas pains and continued to give her pain control shots. She was in no shape to fly home on the Friday as booked, they caught the fact she had a collapsed lung and severe dehydration and she went back in for intravenous saline and oxygen, but they assumed there was no leak because of their tests.
BUT THERE WAS, a centimeter nick out of the stomach high up near the esophagus, and when the housekeeper took out the drain, fluids gushed out of Linda's body. the housekeeper just cleaned it up and said nothing, so we assumed things were OK, no leaks. She was in rough shape when I flew home with her on Saturday. She had to go to the hospital in Edmonton shortly after she got home as she went into septic shock, had a collapsed lung again, severe dehydration and kidney failure because of it. They operated on her for four hours, and ended up with flushing out her body cavity - over a liter of pus!. She was near death and was for well over a week! We were devastated to say the least..
Slowly things have improved since those first weeks passed, but she was in critical care for about 6 weeks until she could breathe on her own and not need a ventilator to help with that. The infection spread and caused all kinds of porosity in her stomach and esophagus.
To date she is still in the hospital, still being fed intravenously and with a feeding tube directly to her gut, waiting for the last hole to heal in her esophagus, they did insert a stent but haven't tested it for leaks so far. She had a large hole in her abdomen due to all the 5 ensuing body cavity flushes they had to do every other day in the beginning weeks. It is healing and she will need two further operations, a skin graft and a hernia repair on the incision site. We do expect a full recovery but only after they test her stomach out with real food, which can be weeks away yet. She has lost her job, her income of course and a good chunk of her life due to this facility's operation. Safety should be your main concern, Betancourt and Almanza's "stacke'em and rack'em" policy is not doing anyone any favors. Dr Almanza, as nice as a man he is, is now a partner and profits are what it is all about now it seems.
There have been many (20 I heard), complication tales from there since December, most were too sick to tell them themselves but are known to many of the coordinators. They all distance themselves from those, chalking it up to normal rate of complications. They have to do damage control, it is there JOB. and Betancourt controls them! Doing so many surgeries a day in my opinion is SO NOT SAFE!
Spend the extra now and go to a safe hospital down there, spend the $4000 more to save yourself from becoming another Linda, with hospital costs being what they are in the US I would think that would be more important than the up front extra now to save months of hospital and surgery bills as well as your lost income from your job.
Check out my photo albums for a picture of me visiting Linda in the hospital in Edmonton last month when I was there. Sorry Linda, I had waited for you to tell your story but you can't sit up long enough to type it out on the computer and people really need to hear this!
All of this is true and I am so sorry I doubted everyone that had problems there, even John who's wife wrote of his experience was pretty sick the day we drove to the airport and ended up with infection and in the hospital. It was extremely busy the day of his surgery too. I am not saying that you won't have a good experience, but why risk it if you don't absolutely have to, is all I am saying, there are WAY too many stories like Linda's from that facility to ignore!
Stoongal, you may know me as WASaBubbleButt from VST. I want to thank you for posting your sister's story. I'm so sorry for what your entire family has had to endure. That unlicensed clinic causes more harm and pain to people and their family members.
A housekeeper removed her drain? Is that Claudia? The 16 year old young lady that gives morphine injections as well?
No, not Claudia, she was in the operating room as an assistant when I was there, and she sat at the recovery house on the weekend because her mother had weekends off. I think she is 17 now and I understand all the assistants and caregivers at the clinic are not qualified by any standards except learning on the job, which may be fine in Mexico, but knowing that even Betancourt who poses as a medical doctor (surgeon he said), certainly one should feel very queasy at the thought of the aftercare quality there. They are all fine dedicated people, and you will get to love them, but they can't tell a medical emergency like Linda had - or John or Medina had, or many others who have had them there, from gas pains! Scary thought! Why should anyone risk it? There are so many better options in out there, research it folks!
Donna,
I am so sorry. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I had surgery at the same time you were there with your daughter and Linda. (I was the girl who helped find the phone numbers for the airlines) and I remember we all felt just terrible that you had to leave knowing Linda was not doing well. The couple from Michigan who left that Sunday also (I think)--the husband had some sort of an abcess and his wife posts periodically on his progress but he has had a length hospital stay with emergency surgery, etc.
Be well and stay strong.
I am so sorry. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I had surgery at the same time you were there with your daughter and Linda. (I was the girl who helped find the phone numbers for the airlines) and I remember we all felt just terrible that you had to leave knowing Linda was not doing well. The couple from Michigan who left that Sunday also (I think)--the husband had some sort of an abcess and his wife posts periodically on his progress but he has had a length hospital stay with emergency surgery, etc.
Be well and stay strong.
HW: 251 SW: 243 CW: 146 Height: 5'6.5"
(deactivated member)
on 4/17/10 8:02 am
on 4/17/10 8:02 am
Dear Donna,
I'm very sorry to hear about your sister. I can only imagine what she, you and your family are going through, right now. A trauma like this makes it very hard to sort through all the emotions you must be feeling. From what I've come to know through your own and others' posts, you are a very strong, caring and generous person who tries to help everyone who asks. Your sister is very fortunate to have you, I think. It's not easy to go through something like this, even if one takes care of only herself. So, I hope you will not let the burdens of others weigh you down as you help those who should be taking all of your time and energy right now.
Please take care of yourself -- mind, body and soul.
Sincerely,
Cheryl
Ps. I also hope your daughter is doing well. We connected, briefly, on VST about the great pictures she took in TJ during her surgery stay.
I'm very sorry to hear about your sister. I can only imagine what she, you and your family are going through, right now. A trauma like this makes it very hard to sort through all the emotions you must be feeling. From what I've come to know through your own and others' posts, you are a very strong, caring and generous person who tries to help everyone who asks. Your sister is very fortunate to have you, I think. It's not easy to go through something like this, even if one takes care of only herself. So, I hope you will not let the burdens of others weigh you down as you help those who should be taking all of your time and energy right now.
Please take care of yourself -- mind, body and soul.
Sincerely,
Cheryl
Ps. I also hope your daughter is doing well. We connected, briefly, on VST about the great pictures she took in TJ during her surgery stay.
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