Can you let me know how many people have actually died from gastric bypass surgery or complications from it ?

DOZENS: Gastric by pass surgery has a realtively high complicatin and death rate. I don't know the exact numbers but i would guess that 1 :100 have severe complications and 1 in a few thousand die. This is compared to 1:100, 000 deaths with many other surgeries. There are many issues. If you know of a specific case and want direct analysis write to me directly. Remember that morbid obesity is morbid.

Less than 0.5%: One thing to keep in mind with patients who are morbidly obese is they are at increased risk from any type of surgery, not just bypass. The longitudinal assessment of bariatric surgery or labs study showed that bypass surgery in the morbidly obese, in an experienced program carries a low risk of morbidity and mortality. Mortality& morbidity is actually higher in heart and hip surgery in the obese.

About 0.1%: Last year the big bariatric database showed about 0.1% mortality with gastric bypass. That is about 1/1000. That i actually safer than the mortality with appendectomy.

Obesity is Risky Too: In 1997, a study at east carolina university found that the annual death rate in a non-surgical group (of obese diabetic patients) was nearly 5 times higher than that of the bariatric surgical group (of similar patients) during the 6-9 year follow up interval.