"This "doctor" made my life miserable and should have his license revoked. I went to him in Oct. 2008 for a revision to my RNY (I had the RNY performed by a different surgeon) called an ERNY - this revision was to shorten my common channel even more than it had been for the RNY so as to stop gaining. I had had many conversations with him over the phone as I lived out-of-state and he convinced me this surgery would help me. When I met him I felt comfortable with him and his office staff. His personality was a little "strange" (and he seemed so full of himself - constantly bragging) but I felt confidant in his skill to perform this revision. He even had 2 of his former patients call me - they did nothing but boast about him. The surgery went fine but 2 months later I was desperately ill - I had complete malabsorption and was put on a feeding tube. Even that didn't help - I was near the end of my life. I was in and out of the hospital. I called Dr. Schlessinger a few times. The 1st time he took my call but said I must have lupus (yes, diagnosed me with some a disease over the phone). He never returned any calls after that. I consulted with a few bariatric surgeons and chose yet another one out-of-state to help me - he performed a DS. The RNY had made my common channel 100 cm. Dr. Schlessinger was to shorten it to 75 cm. The doctor who performed the DS had predicted it must have been shortened much less to have caused such malabsorption - and that anything less than 65 would be definite death. Well after my DS the surgeon told me my common channel was not shortened to 75 cm -- IT WAS SHORTENED TO 25 cm!! I had no intestine left to absorb anything. He said the intestine was cut in the wrong place and left hanging. He repaired it to the best of his ability - and he saved my life. It took me 2 years to get my health back after the DS - I will never be 100% but at least I'm alive. After this horrible ordeal I was told by a few other former patients of horrible mistakes made on them as well (and one patient, a 42 year old father of young kids, died). He's a monster. I wanted to sue not for money but to put this monster out of business so he can't kill anyone else but after contacting several attorneys was told of the difficulty in doing it since I was out-of-state. Also I had no money to pursue it - the past 4 years I've had astronomical medical bills. I have nightmares of this maniac. Please find another doctor - this "doctor" is a liar and not a trained professional. Please stay away from him. The past 4 years have been a living hell for me and my family. I have even had to take an early retirement due to my health from what he did to me. Why did he do it - was it in error? I talked with a few others that the same thing was done to and some even worse - so how many times can one doctor make this "error". Please protect yourself and find another surgeon!"
