Health journalists and patient advocates should be on high alert for the changes that are sure to come with the announcement last week that the FDA has approved the Lap-Band device for nearly every person with a few pounds to lose.
Allergan, the maker of the Lap-Band surgical device, likes to say that it puts patient safety first.
Undoubtedly, it does not want patients to have a bad outcome. More injuries and deaths from Lap-Band surgeries – especially at a time when the company is seeking FDA approval to expand the use of the devices – could derail a very successful sales record.
Yet many of the clinics and doctors being promoted as Lap-Band surgeons on the company’s own website have a series of problems that should give patients pause.
So many doctors have been trying to lure people to get Lap-Band surgery, with deadly consequences, that the maker of the Lap-Band surgical device, Allergan, has finally been forced to speak up.
Stuart Pfeifer at the Los Angeles Times recently asked Allergan CEO David E.I. Pyott about the sleazy 1-800-GET-THIN campaign:
The consequences can be severe when clinics lure patients by setting up “1-800” numbers and offering free se
When I wrote about the “Dieting Sucks” campaign two years ago, I predicted that similarly unscrupulous plastic surgeons would join the race to the bottom. They did.
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