Can I get your honest opinion?

Call a good medical lawyer. They will help you determine if the surgeon should be responsible or if it was truly an unavoidable complication. They can get your records and find out who did what. Good Luck!

Request the operative record from the hospital. I am not sure how easy it is to falsify, or if it will have all of the detail you are seeking but I wound up with one from my knee surgery and it had a lot of details.

Thank you!

I hate this for you!!!! I have never heard of an "assistant" before so this is good information (or worrisome info?)  I wish and pray the best for you.  I really feel you are going to be fine, but it's going to take a little extra to get there.  Hang in and keep us posted.

It shouldn't be worrisome. It is very common to have an assistant in the room. It is more uncommon not to have one. Most of the time they are just assisting and should not be performing the surgery themselves.

I just want to say that I am so sorry this happened to you and you are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope the balloon procedure works and I hope you get the answers that you deserve.

I think once you start a "legal" process your surgeon may no longer be willing to continue to treat you and you may want to think about that before pursuing what is known to be a true well known complication and it sounds like he was on top of your care and working to help you from the first moment. It sounds like he really covered himself which means good care you and I'm not saying this in a bad way. You picked him for a reason. You have quite a bourdon of proof with malpractice and the doctors are well trained. Really does sound to me like he is giving really good follow up care. I know that is difficult to hear given how much you are suffering and I really do feel for your suffering. I'm just thinking you should stick with him and let him fix your stricture endoscopically and if you have to have more surgery, then revisit seeking another doctor. Just my thought. Best wishes to you. Hugs!!

Does your surgeon oversew the staple line?