Can my friend's mom get bariatric surgery under a local anesthetic?!
Question:
My friend's mom is morbidly obese and she needs a surgery to save her life. The problem is that she cannot go under a general anesthesia because the last time she did, her heart stopped. So my question is what weight loss surgery options are available to her and can she go under a local anesthesia for any of these procedures? Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Answers:
I don't think so. The only options I've heard about are open and closed--which is whether they open you up with 1 big incision and do the work by hand or do a bunch of little incisions and do the work via a camera. But it's major surgery lasting for hours. You can't be awake. I think the open one is quicker but it's also harder to heal.
They may do something else to have her lose weight first--like a hospital stay and liquid diet, jaws wired shut, etc. and/or maybe use a different anesthesia.
As long as the doctors KNOW she has a history of dying while she's under, they know to look for it.
There's a lot of surgery info on the obesity help website, maybe there's someone there with a similar history.
Good luck to her.
Answers: