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Top Surgeons, one of the companies behind the 1-800-GET-THIN promotion for Lap-Band weight-loss surgery, has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle false advertising allegations raised in a class action lawsuit filed by relatives of two dead Lap-Band patients.
Plaintiffs Ana Renteria and Laura Faitro filed the class action lawsuit in 2011 after their loved ones, and several other people between 2005 and 2011, died from the Lap-Band surgery. They accused Top Surgeons, which owned and operated the weight-loss business, and several other companies – including several surgery centers and marketing company 1-800-GET-THIN, LLC – of using dozens of billboards, television ads and radio ads to promote the weight-loss surgery without accurately disclosing the risks associated with the procedure.
The class action lawsuit further accused the companies of employing unqualified physicians and allowing surgeries to be performed in unsanitary conditions.
In December 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accused 1-800-GET-THIN, LLC of using misleading advertisements for the Lap-Band surgery in violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which prohibits false advertising of a device and requires all advertisements to provide relevant warnings, precautions, side effects and contraindications.
The FDA said warnings about the risks were too small to read on billboards that were plastered across Southern California, and the company was told to immediately cease all Lap-Band marketing that violated the FDCA.
Several wrongful death lawsuits were filed after the FDA warning, in addition to Renteria’s and Faitro’s class action lawsuit. They sought damages from the companies for false advertising.
Top Surgeons is the only defendant paying out in the proposed class action settlement, and is doing so without any admission of wrongdoing. The other defendants were dismissed from the case without admission of liability or financial penalty.
The proposed deal will require Top Surgeons to spend $100,000 on billboard advertising throughout Southern California warning the public of the risks of Lap-Band weight-loss surgery.
The company will also pay $500,000 in compensation to an estimated 11,000 Class Members, which include people who contacted 1-800-GET-THIN or 1-800-GET-SLIM and were later billed for medical service.
The rest of the proposed class action settlement will go to legal expenses, the named plaintiffs, and the Settlement Administrator.
Allergan, Inc., the company that makes the Lap-Band, said early last year that it would no longer sell the device to the surgery centers affiliated with the 1-800-GET-THIN ads.
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17 thoughts on1-800-GET-THIN Lap-Band Company Settles False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit
I would like to be a part of a class action lawsuit for Allergan’s lap band as well. I had the surgery in 2013 and then had to have emergency surgery to remove it in 2017. For 2 1/2 years before I had the lap band removed, I had terrible pain and threw up daily. It was awful. Please contact me asap.
Schanel Hardy-Taylor
Is my daughters name she had the lap band there as I did and also I had breast surgery my daughter was transported home fell out and had to have a blood transfusion right after surgery.
One of the doctors have tried to contact her several times we were not aware of this class action lawsuit and came across it I will like to have information if this case has been settled and where can we find information on awarded money due to us.
Both had surgery at this facility she had the lap band and I have a breast Reduction. Which left me with disfigurement under my arms my daughter has problems with the lap band at this point and I really need to know Some information.
I would also like to know about if this lawsuit against the lapband has been settled because I would also like information because I need to be part of this lawsuit also. I had lap band in 2007, port and tubing leak ed in 2009 so that was surgically replaced, the band slipped so in 2010 I was having another surgery so that they could fix the slip, they couldn’t fix the slip without replacing the entire band, then just recently I had to have emergency surgery in 2013 to remove the band completely because it slipped this time around my esophagus. From 2007 till the day it was removed I threw up everything that touched my lips, it didn’t matter if it was water or if it was food. Now that it is removed and I’m a year out from having a lap band, my stomach is still very sick feeling all the time, nausea all the time and pain. The pain feels like my stomach is trying to fold in on itself or something. Constipation is so bad with me that I will lay and cry from the pain, then finally after days of feeling that pain I will feel something pop inside of me and then I won’t be constipated anymore (that’s for sure). I have told my surgeon about the constipation and the “pop” that I feel but they can’t find anything wrong with me, then tells me to take a laxative. I have tried that and was still constipated till the “pop” feeling and then since I had taken that laxative everything is 10 times worse as far as I guess I should just take up residency in the bathroom till everything is out of me. I was prescribed an antacid before my removal surgery in 2013, and like I have said it’s been a year now and I still can’t stop taking the antacid because when I do I have such bad acid reflux that I don’t dare to bend over because it will come up and I’m talking out of my nose most of the time. I complain to the surgeon and his team of “experts” and they all tell me theirs nothing wrong with me, and that if that happens then I shouldn’t bend over they guess.
When they did the 2010 slip replacement the surgeon found that scar tissue had attached to my stomach and that when they went to clean that up it caused a transparent spot in my stomach, they told my husband that I will be fine that the stomach will heel with time and that spot will be fine because of the heeling process…they didn’t tell me or him till my 1 week post op check up that I would have to eat baby food consistence food till my stomach heeled that spot, I ended up eating like that for about 6 months.
I had the lap band in the beginning (2007) because I was told it was safe and that it could be removed for any reason at anytime. I was told that it was rare that people would have problems with the lap band and that the percentage was so low that they (the doctors and his “expert” team) weren’t really concerned because nothing will go wrong. In my opinion every thing went wrong and still is…I am still paying for the damages done by these bands…I paid for the surgery to have it installed, I paid for the 2 surgeries to fix then, I paid to have it removed…and now I am still having to pay that doctor money to see him to refill prescriptions for the antacid medication and if I complain about pain or how I’m feeling then I also get to pay for all the tests that he wants to do, only to tell me that I’m fine and he then tells me it’s stress related and that I should find ways to release the stress….punching him and his “expert” team would be a good start in my opinion, but I can’t do that since I was the one that went to him in the beginning and wanted this done. I just never thought it would turn out like this. When he (the surgeon) told me and my husband that the band would have to come out as soon as possible in 2013 he was talking to us (me and husband) about converting me to a gastric sleeve. After we left the office my husband said to me “it’s a new procedure there’s not enough studies about it and the problems that people might be having, I don’t think you should do it because then what happens if you have problems where or what do we do then.” I had to agree with him because we weren’t told all this with the lap bands either because they didn’t know these things then and if they did no one was telling us patients. So removal was all it was for me.
I need to know how to be part of the class action suit…Is it too late?
I would like info about the class action suit . I had the Lap Band on 4/08 and had to have emergency surgery for the removal of my band due to erosion On 01/14 . It had made me very ill because of the infection the erosion had caused . Yes ,, I am very Interested in any information . Thank you .
I would like info about the class action suit . I had the allergen band on 4/08 and had to have emergency surgery for the removal of my band due to erosion On 01/14 . It had made me very ill because of the infection the erosion had caused . Yes ,, I am very Interested in any information . Thank you .
I need info on this class action lawsuit is it to late to join
Is it to late to be a part of the law suit? How do I get the info for it?
Needed Class Action law suit
1800-get-thin false advertising
Allegan defective device
Dr. and or Hospital never warned me of possible side effects.
Date of Discovery 01/2012
There are thousands of people like me that have the same medical problems that I have, problems that will NEVER go away, side effects that we were NEVER warned about. We all had Lap Band surgery to lose weight but what we received instead is a medical nightmare that changed our lives forever.
Lap Band installed 07, vomiting and pain began immediately thought it was normal. Started going to Doctors and hospitals nothing found, then the diarrhea started, again Doctors and hospitals, colonoscopy and endoscopy 01/2012 (date of discovery) found lap band had eroded into my stomach. Lap Band removed 01/2012, very ill, still pain, vomiting and diarrhea. Constant vomiting caused a hernia so another surgery to repair hernia 11/2012. Still pain, vomiting diarrhea continually going to Doctors and hospitals, specialist does another endoscopy 07/08/2013 and finds major problems where my stomach was repaired, sends me to a surgeon immediately because he was so worried, saw surgeon within two days on 07/10/2013. Surgeon did his own endoscopy 07/22/2013, told me the lap band did a number on my stomach and he could not do the repair said I needed to see him in his office 07/26/2013 so he can go over alternatives with me. I am still vomiting and have diarrhea more times a day than I can count and the pain is severe. My Surgeon is a Bariatric Specialist and he no longer does Lap Band Surgery because of the damage Lap Bands do. He would make a great witness on my behalf.
I go nowhere except to Doctors and Hospitals, when I do I take a bag that consists of trash bags, paper towels, baby wipes, water and a change of clothes. I vomit and have blasting diarrhea EVERY TIME I eat anything. I am single but cannot date; my boyfriend broke up with me because he could no longer handle my illness. My life has changed so much. Sometimes I crawl from the bed to the toilet several times a day, sometimes I make it sometimes not. I have vomited and had diarrhea while in the car and in the presents of others. A couple of months ago I was so sick that I was on a gurney at the hospital the vomiting and diarrhea would not stop and a hospital employee made the comment “disgusting she crapped all over herself”. The pain is like having hundreds of hot knives cutting into my stomach. I have so many scars it is embarrassing, I will never be able to take my clothes off in front of anyone again. This is a small list of what I have been through and there are others just like me and some are worse like losing their eye sight. I have all of my documentation along with pictures to back up my story.
I feel the Doctor was negligent because he never warned me of these possible side effects and the danger. The Lap Band was defective because it eroded into my stomach.
My life will never be the same and my health will never be restored.
Send info and a claim form thanks.