I don't understand how your band could have been placed "through" your stomach. The doctor would have had to cut and suture your stomach with the band inside. Additionally, there is no way you lived from the time of your surgery with stomach contents leaking into your abdomen. You would have become very, very sick after only a few days of this at most. If your band was inside or partially inside your stomach, it would have been due to erosion. A rare, but possible complication of the LapBand. Did you have any port infections? Many times erosions are caused by port infections, which can come about when getting a fill. Did you have Dr. Ortiz or Martinez check your port during and after your fill appointments with them? Did you have Dr. Ortiz examine you and evaluate the situation as soon as your symptoms appeared?
Here are some facts regarding the LapBand and erosion:
The Lap-Band is a foreign body and is subject to the reactions of the human body to it. The complication that requires Lap-Band removal is erosion (The thinning out of the stomach wall due to a natural reaction of the stomach to eliminate the band; though un-frequent it is still present.) A band that is placed "inside" the stomach is considered a perforation and though extremely rare, patients require a revision to remove the band hours after the initial surgery, as symptoms will appear almost immediately after surgery. A perforate stomach and a band placed in it cannot exist more than that time without serious and life threatening complications. It would seem that the pictures you quote are what any Lap-Band surgeon in the world call an "erosion". This is a known complication of the Lap-Band procedure many times seen after a port infection. It is important that any and all complications be treated promptly by surgeons that know and understand the Lap-Band, its possible complications and how to treat them accordingly.
Kat
