She ended up in emergency surgery, with doctors discovering the band had slipped, perforated her stomach and caused massive infection that destroyed most of the organ, the suit charges. It alleges she spent months on a feeding tube and undergoing reconstructive operations.
Ms. Haggart’s suit also claims there was Japan Hokkaido Slimming Pills minimal pre-operative preparation and that she met the surgeon for “approximately one minute” shortly before her operation in November 2009. Three days later, she was in hospital in her hometown of Sudbury, diagnosed with septic shock and a “significant abdominal wound” that doctors blamed on the Slimband operation, as they warned she “may not make it,” her lawsuit charges.
In statements of defence, the clinic and Dr. Yau said Ms. Haggart received a lengthy briefing from the surgeon about risks and that she initialled each page of a 10-page booklet outlining “risks and possible complications” of the procedure, indicating her understanding (Slimband was asked to provide a copy of that booklet to the National Post, but declined). In a preoperative consultation she was warned of “the risk of infection as well as intraoperative perforation,” the defence statement maintains. The statement also claims she neglected to tell the clinic that she suffered from high blood pressure. (A statement of defence has not yet been filed for Ms. Glassford’s lawsuit.)
They said the operation was performed in a “careful, competent and diligent” manner, that Dr. Yau also repaired a hernia he discovered and that Ms. Haggart was released in stable condition.
Mr. Scot-Smith stressed that less than 1% of Slimband’s patients suffer complications, “far below what you would typically see in the bariatric field.” Studies from other weight-loss clinics indicate complication rates from gastric banding of as high as 39%. One recent Belgian study reported 50% of patients requiring removal of the band, though in a similar British study just 7% did. (Academic databases have no record of any peer-review research published by Slimband.)
The Toronto clinic received a full pass from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons in its most recent inspection, Mr. Scot-Smith said. The college itself does not make public its inspection results.
Severe complications are, undoubtedly, rare. But another former company employee who underwent Slimband’s surgery alleges it’s more common for patients to simply not lose much weight, or to tire of unpleasant side effects. She claims there is little mention of those possibilities in advance.
Slimband’s marketing “gives this idea that 2 day diet lingzhi it’s going to be this magic pill, and you don’t have to worry what you put in your mouth any more,” she said. It’s not unusual, she said, for patients to have trouble with stomach noises, and suffer frequent vomiting. “They’re not telling you that.”