Question:
Why is everyone saying so many people have passed on after wls?

I've read the WLS memorial page and there are not any new updates as to who's passed on. Who are the people everyone keeps saying have passed on? I just would like to send my sympathy out to the families. Thanks!    — Treva C. (posted on July 10, 2002)

July 9, 2002
These notices usually appear on the message board. They rarely tell us why nor do they get posted to the memorial page.
   — faybay

July 9, 2002
Have you ever noticed in this country the news media picks up on the "horrendous death" of one or two people and ignore the fact that thousands have been saved by such surgery. We as Americans tend to focus on the negative, believing something unsafe if even one death occurs. Sure, any death is a tragedy but life doesn't come without risks. But you have to put such deaths in perspective. Many, many who opt for WLS have multiple co-morbidities that make the surgery worth the risk. Many who have died even died of unrelated circumstances, but does the media report that? No.....the media just uses any related death scare people to death. Life is like a game....if you want to achieve the win, you have to play the game. I hope everyone who opts for WLS knows the risk, but weighs that risk with the potential gains of the committment. I am pre-op and I don't want to live the rest of my life with the health problems I have right now. I know there will be times when I am tempted to pick up something I'm not supposed to eat or do something my doctor doesn't recommend, but all I have to do is think of the pain I've experiences over the last couple of years to, hopefully stick to the doctor's plan and be successful. I'm in this to win and no media report is going to stop that!
   — Cathy S.

July 9, 2002
Profiles DO get moved tom the memorial page. But first a family member MUST prove the person died. Imagine the horror of coming here and finding YOUR profile there while your still alive! Sometime ago a idiot reported in chat someone had died as a prank:( The same sort of thing could happen to the memorial page and I appreciate that a idiot couldnt get MY profile put there.... Now I attended a funeral home ast night for a friend who died of WLS. Bad things do occur and EVERYONE needs to know the risks. But nearly everone who has WLS comes out fine. Truly terrible about that 1% or so that doesnt make it. But many more like me would of died WITHOUT surgery. Not everyone on the memorial page died from surgery. Some WAITING for surgery... Others from car crashes and such. Of all the friends having WLS I know, and its a lot, only one Diane has died. She had a non malignant spot in her lung that ruptured. Thankfully Wanda my friend is finally improving, she had surgery in february, is off the vent but has a long road ahead in rehab. Most WLS patients are high risk.
   — bob-haller

July 10, 2002
Please bear in mind that the people who have died from WLS probably would have died from a tonsillectomy. It's usually not the surgery that does it, it's the high risk patients.
   — Leslie F.