DIY gastric bypass kit on Amazon

Everything you need to perform 3 gastric bypass surgeries (instructions and anesthetic not included).

Medline Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass - Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass - Qty of 3: $258.95 (Via Blame it on the Voices)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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buggerluggs

I like it how ‘Customers Had Also Bought’ kindle covers – obviously to protect the kindles from gastric bits whilst reading the downloaded instructions….
Tim

And it comes highly recommended in the reviews!
wolfwitch

These sorts of “kits” are common-place in modern medicine, although they are usually only sold to licensed hospitals and/or clinics. It’s funny to see one retail.
Anonymous

Is it a 3-pack, so that you have three chances to get it right when performing it on yourself?!!
irksome

I highly recommend these products. My vasectomy worked out well and the infection only kept me out of work for 7 months.

Saved me a bundle! Next, I’ll be doing my own hip-replacement using Maker and Steam Punk technology I learned here on the Boing Boing.
beer_radley

These are the contents of an ordinary sterile surgery pack that are pretty generic and can be used for most surgeries. The one exception is that it contains laparoscopic insufflation tubing for pumping the abdomen full of CO2.
Anonymous

Related: The “Hawkeye Pierce” DIY Tracheotomy Kit
Mary Sue

Is this sourced from Billy Bob’s Discount Backyard Medical Supply and Barbeque (Try our world famous ribs!)

[/MedicalSupplyLogisticsJoke]
Halloween Jack

Yeah, if you’re going to perform laparoscopic surgery, you need, you know, a laparoscope. Plus, of course, the appropriate training to use it, above and beyond the specialized training for regular (open) bariatric surgery.
The Life Of Bryan

My girlfriendâ€™s been using SparkPeople, which I half-jokingly refer to as â€œa gastric bypass that runs on a webserver.â€ Thereâ€™s probably a better version of that joke to be made with this product and Amazonâ€™s â€˜cloudâ€™ offerings, but damn if I can find it.
hassenpfeffer

Anesthesia is for wusses. A Civil War surgeon could’ve performed this procedure in two minutes while you bit down on a wooden rod after a couple shots of moonshine.
Anonymous

I expect the cost of a kit appears a little higher on the hospital bill
Xenu

The subtext of this is that it’s easier to do a gastric bypass on yourself with no medical training than to lose weight by dieting.
- Anonymous
  
  I lost 55 lbs and have kept it off for nine months so far by doing nothing else besides dieting and exercise. It’s not hard to lose weight by true dieting (not fad dieting), not at all. It’s hard to stop being a lazy lump who sits on their butt crying about not being able to lose weight while doing nothing about it lol. It’s hard to have will power. People ask me ALL THE TIME what I did to lose weight, and ALWAYS look disappointed when I say “diet and exercise,” as if they were hoping I had some lazy-approved method.
  
  Listen people: If you burn off more calories per day than you take in, you will lose weight. The end. Simple as that. If you don’t have the motivation, than go to therapy WHILE losing weight to see why you aren’t motivated by something you really want. Not mocking, being serious… therapy may help you find the motivation, because the problem isn’t that you CAN’T lose weight (unless you have a legitimate problem) it’s that you can’t stick to a healthy diet and exercise routine long enough to lose weight.
  
  I know this is just a funny thing, but I just had to say this. I’m sick of people saying they “wish” they could be as thin as me, when a couple of years ago, I was very big! So I’m proof you can do it. I used to be lazy, overweight, and unhappy too but then one day I DECIDED to be happy and healthy instead. Hope I helped someone out there, you can lose weight… It’s YOUR choice. <3 a FORMER fat mess!
  
  (To person I replyed to: This isn’t all to you.. Your comment just made me think of this lol)
Anonymous

(warning grim u.states point of view here only)

As medical costs increase, insurance companies continue to control both parties, jobs harder to find, and medical information (albeit highly imperfect) on the web grows if it might not come to pass that we’ll be seeing more and more DIY medical procedures. The last strangle hold over folks trying this (which will be decried as *horrible* *unimaginable* *stupid* *dangerous* etc), is the anesthetics, and general pharma lock-down of course. It’ll be interesting to watch how far up “the clay pedestal” goes.
GreatRewards

Here’s the anesthesia –

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dole

Alright, getting the holiday shopping out of the way super early this year!
Anonymous

Apparently either lots of gastro-intestinal doctors have recently bought Kindle covers, or lots of people following the link from this site have. Look at the “Customers Who Bought Related Items Also Bought” section.
Mark Crummett

I’m waiting for the Instructable on how to use this stuff.
Prufrock451

Had to buy two sets to perform gastric bypass on my cow. ONE STAR.
Anonymous

If this BYOMS thing works out, you might be able to cut down on medical costs by bringing you own medical supplies to your doctor.
Anonymous

This is just the basic draping and support material to do a bariatric case. No instrumentation is provided except for a scalpel to make the initial skin incision and a simple electrocautery tool. The electrocautery tool wouldn’t work because this doesn’t come with a base station. There’s really nothing dangerous here that you couldn’t find in your kitchen. It’s odd I’ll admit, but you can purchase a lot of medical equipment if you have the right catalogue.

I use lots of (sterlized) old surgical equipment around the house. A couple of things might be useful.
John B

I’m a librarian, and when I was getting my master’s I used to browse the Library of Congress Subject Heading books. My favorite WTF one was “Surgery — as a Hobby.” I think this kit must be for those surgery hobbyists!
jordan

IN case you screw up the first two attempts. Makes sense.
Robert

Perform one laparoscopic gastric bypass, perform two for your friends!
CastanhasDoPara

Despite the fact that a friend of mine died from exactly this surgery done by a professional I think it’s so ridiculous that I can also see a thriving future for DIY home surgery sort of like the DIY home tattoo but instead of risking Hep or another type of nasty infection you also could risk near instant death. In the end who needs universal health care by professionals when you can get nearly the same results at a hundredth the cost in your own kitchen? Hooray for America and the freedom to be as stupid as you want to be. Flippin’ dipsh…
- Anonymous
  
  Just to expand on what happened to your friend for those who might not be familiar with the psychology of bypass surgery:
  
  Depending on several factors, gastric bypass has a 1% to 5% mortality (aka death) rate. You would think this would be a deterrent. Or never told to patients. On the contrary, obese patients are so distraught that they don’t care. I’ve spoken to many who were contemplating suicide. They are so unhappy that they figure 5% is damn good odds and no matter what, they won’t have to go on living as obese.
  
  Every death is a tragedy. I spent years as a researcher trying to develop ways of reducing the percentage (and failed). All we can do is support those we know that are so unhappy they turn to risky surgery. The silver lining in all of this is that most people do have improved lives and have their lives extended significantly.
  - CastanhasDoPara
    
    I appreciate your input and your years spent trying to improve this procedure. What I would like to ask of you is why this type of surgery has such a high mortality rate. Surely it is or can be a combination of a lot of things but overall what would you say is the problem(s) associated with the procedure.
    
    And yes I can echo your sentiment about desperation. While my friend never really talked about his weight issue he did talk about other tangential issues that I could tell were just torturing him. In any case, I hope for the future and that people of all types can either find acceptance or a better/improved option for dealing with this sort of situation.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Being eligible for the surgery means that you’re already in a high risk group.
Anonymous

I wonder if you could bring this kit to your surgeon to prevent him from billing you for some of the surgical supplies.