Question:
What are the chances of death during/ after surgery?
I have been excited and anxious about having my gastric sleeve surgery this Thurs Mar 25th, 2010. All of a sudden today I haven been getting nervous. I have a wonderful husband and 3 sons. What are the chances of dying during surgery? Is it really 2%... gosh that may even be too high?! gosh... am I getting cold feet? is that normal? — Heathersf (posted on March 22, 2010)
March 22, 2010
I am not familiar with the gastric sleeve. I had R-N-Y. I think cold feet is normal. It is still surgery,
if you were having your tonsils out you would still be nervous. Usually,
you make a lot of changes after surgery and change is scary. You are
changing your eating, you are changing your appearance and some people have
some personality changes as they gain self-confidence. Just look at the
big picture of what your life would be like in another year if you did not
have the surgery. Would you have more health issues is you stayed
overweight? Sometimes things in life are a leap of faith and you make the
best decision based on the information you have.
— rachaelp
March 22, 2010
omg- yes... thank you so much!!! ahhh, I will feel better in a couple
weeks... I just need to get past Thursday:) thanks for your time
— Heathersf
March 22, 2010
You will be fine! It is normal to be nervous we are nervous with all
surgerys!My Dr told me the mortality rate for RNY was 1% .What I thought
about was me being so overweight I could die of a heart attack that was the
scariest thought for me.I do know that you must get up and walk as much as
possible after surgery to prevent blood clots from setting up and it is
also to prevent you from getting pneumonia.The people that things happen to
are the one's that do not take care of them selfs.
— davonjack
March 22, 2010
You will have a far greater chance of dying if you do not have the surgery,
than having it. Does that make any sense?
This surgery will give you the fighting chance to prevent from having any
further health problems & will improve your health to lessen the chance
of death. My RNY is on the 31st. Good luck & keep us posted.
— SPIRIT2002
March 22, 2010
EVERYONE GETS COLD FEET THATS JUST
NATURAL . THEY TAKE SO MANY PRECAUTIONS NOW THIS SURGERY IS EXTREMELY SAFE
. IF I'M NOT MISTAKING THER'S LESS THAN A 1% CHANCE OF DYING FROM SURGERY
.THE WORST THING I EXPERIENCSED AFTER RNY SURGERY WAS A SORE THROAT AND A
VERY DRY MOUTH . YOU'LL BE FINE JUST THINK OF HOW GREAT YOUR LIFE IS GONNA
BE . YOUR HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, LOOK AT ALL THE POSITIVES AND
FORGET ALL THE NEGATIVES . THIS TIME NEXT YEAR WE'LL BE READING HOW GREAT
YOU LOOK AND HOW GOOD YOU FEEL . GOOD LUCK ............ROGER
— ROGER COTE
March 22, 2010
i think its normal and healthy to have second or even third thoughts. You
are making a life change and one that is not easy to come to terms with.
But your quality of life will be greatly improved if you compare 1 yr out
of surgery to 1 year later without it. For those of us who have had the
surgery, we would have done it all again, or even sooner if we could have.
But fear of the unknown is human nature. prayer is a good source of
strength in any situation. And I am a firm believer in "when its your
time its your time, no matter what" so with or without surgery, if
your number is up, you have no choice. The surgery is just a blame if the
unthinkable happens. But the number of deaths from surgery has decreased
over the years as the medical field has gained great insight into the ways
to perform the surgery and get the best results for the patient. Good luck
to you and congrats on your decision to get healthy! hugs n God Bless,
Kim
— gpcmist
March 23, 2010
Cold feet are totally normal. You
will be fine! My dad is a surgeon and he says less than 1/10th of 1
percent of all surgeries result in death during surgery. There have been
many studies done, the biggest one related to complications including death
in bariatric surgery patients states that there is a 2.6% complication
rate, that can be anything from dehydration to death. Death is more likely
to occur if you are a male, but still the rates are very low. You will be
fine, nerves are normal, I was scared to death the night before, I wrote
letters to my kids and hid them in my desk in case something happened to
me. A few months later I found the letters and actually gave them to my
kids (both adults), they were touched but both laughed at me for being so
"dramatic". You are much more likely to die of complication of
obesity than you are from surgery. Good luck and God bless you and your
family!
— brindledanes
March 26, 2010
I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way when I had my surgery
seven years ago. I was not one of the people that looked forward to the
surgery, I was petrified. I also wrote letters to my kids and updated my
will.
I was more worried about dying from complications after the surgery than
dying on the table. But someone told me something that helped. It was
this: If God is ready to take you, He will do it even if you don't have
the surgery. If He is ready for you, you could die walking down the street
(or whatever, you understand what I am saying). So surgery or no surgery,
you will die when God is ready for you to die. But we have free will that
allows us to make decisions, including the decision to take care of our
health so that we can live longer, happier, healthier lives.
As long as you follow the doctor's instructions and do as you are supposed
to do (walk, walk, walk immediately after the surgery to prevent blood
clots, etc), there is every reason to believe that you will be fine.
Prayers and best wishes to you.
— Libby S.
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