A ubiquitous marketing campaign for weight loss surgery, whose billboards, TV ads and radio spots have flooded Southern California, is under fire because five patients have died since 2009 after procedures at clinics affiliated with the brand.
A series of lawsuits and state and federal investigations have cast unwanted attention on the company behind 1-800-GET-THIN, which as built its brand off Lap-Band bariatric surgery.
Now, the Lap-Band’s makers have severed their ties with 1-800-GET-THIN and will no longer allow clinics affiliated with the campaign to use their product.
The Lap-Band, developed by the pharmaceutical company Allergan, is a medical device that restricts stomach size, which can lead to the consumption of less food weight loss.
The Los Angeles Times points to the deaths of five patients since 2009 that occurred after surgeries at 1-800-GET-THIN clinics.
In 2010, Laura Faitro died horrifically after a Lap-Band procedure at a clinic that works with 1-800-GET-THIN, according to her husband John’s attorney.
‘Not telling patients like John’s wife that they cut her liver three places during the surgery and put her in a wheelchair and sent her home to die,’ lawyer Alexander Robertson told CBS Los Angeles.
Mr. Robertson has filed two wrongful death lawsuits against the company.
Additionally, the Medical Board of California said a doctor affiliated with 1-800-GET-THIN was negligent after a different patient died after he performed the Lap-Band surgery in 2010, the Times reported.
Dr. Daniel Shin operated on Tamara Walter, 52, and then her in the care of a nurse for 85 minutes, despite her health becoming progressively worse, according to the medical board.
When he finally returned, the nurse warned the Ms. Walter likely had a collapsed lung. She wasn’t taken to a hospital until she stopped breaking.
The decision to stop selling Lap-Bands to doctors who work with 1-800-GET-THIN is an enormous blow to the company.
All 1-800-GET-THIN ads mention the patented medical device and surgeries using it are the signature procedures of doctors who work with 1-800-GET-THIN.
Despite the cloud of allegations, the marketing company issued a statement saying that the doctors who work with the surgery hotline have safely performed thousands of surgeries.
The procedures typically cost $12,000 to $20,000, the Times reported.
