WFAA-TV

A News 8 report on the rise in botched lap band and gastric bypass operations prompted a flurry of calls and emails, most of them from patients who said they also had problems.

None of the patients reported their problems to authorities, including 49-year-old Ellie Plunkett. Plunkett said her esophagus was punctured during a laporascopic lap band procedure.

"I was in ICU for five days on a ventilator," she said. "I was septic. I came home with five tubes. I was near death."

The damage is permanent. Two years later, her stomach doesn't empty properly and she has difficulty eating. She said she never filed a complaint against the doctor who performed the original surgery.

Laparoscopic gastric banding is an elective surgery that is considered less invasive. It has a 0.1 percent chance of death according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

But a News 8 investigation showed the numbers may not be as advertised. The reason for that is unless it's part of a clinical study, no organization tracks complication or death rates for any procedure, from brain surgery to heart procedures to face lifts and lap bands.

Dr. Donal Patrick, executive director of the Texas Medical Board said it is "absolutely" possible that complication rates for such surgeries are much higher than reported.

The TMB licenses and disciplines doctors. Dr. Patrick said unless there is official punishment, there's no way to know if a physician is good or bad.

"The only way to know is what they tell you, and it'll be what they want you to know," Dr. Patrick said.

Hospitals often are the only ones to know if a physician is performing well or not. For legal reasons, that information is considered confidential by almost every medical facility.

Virginia Davis of Methodist Dallas Medical Center explained that internal procedures, including readmission rates, help hospitals know if a doctor is performing to standards.

"We think the physician is the best source of that," Davis said. "As a hospital, we do not provide that data because our physicians, as most physicians, practice in more than one facility; and anything that we provide would not be a full picture of that physician's practice."

But patients can learn whether a physician has an active medical license, has lost any lawsuits or been disciplined by the state board.

Last year, of the millions of medical procedures of all types in Texas, the board leveled punishment in only 333 cases.

Dr. Patrick believes the lack of tracking has let bad doctors remain in practice. He would like to see changes, starting with patients who aren't afraid to report problems.

Plunkett said she hopes her story helps as well.

"I know bad things happen, but I would not want to see anybody else go through this," she said. "I put my family through living hell."

E-mail jstjames@wfaa.com