"Yes, it's true that it is not state-of-the-art, but it was very good. All rooms are private, with a bed or daybed for your guest to stay with you overnight. The doctor visited frequently to check on me and even came back at midnight to see how I was doing.
Dr. A. visited me frequently--I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and threw up tons--he kept coming back to see me, to try different meds, etc. He even came back at midnight the 1st night to see how I was. The next nigh he came back at 10:30 PM to check on me. This was after having come in 3-4 times during the day.
I was worried about pain--I've never had surgery before and I have a condition wthat sends out incorrect messages about pain making it worse than it is. Any time I complained about pain (and there wasn't much at all-I was just scared it would get worse), he immediately get me more meds. When I mentioned I felt acid reflux, he said that he had already given me something for it, but, again, immediately got me something stronger.
Someone else who was a surgical nurse posted that he was the gentlest surgeon she had met and that that was important because he wasn't rough during the surgery, allowing for better healing.
Dr. A. has done over 300 VSG's (mmore than most doctors in the US) and has a 0% leakage rate-something most US doctors cannot say. He is less invasive in terms of follow-up testing (swallow and leakage tests), does not use a drain as some other surgeons use, and is very comforting. Susan told me that He no longer uses Heparin and I was a bit concerned about clots, but had been equally concerned about internal bleeding (happened to my mother--they couldn't get the right balance), so I asked him about that---he uses something similar to Heparin that has a lower molecular weight (nope, have no idea what that means) that allows the blood to thin enough to prevent clots, but not so thin that bleeding might occur. He even showed a website that explained it.
Also, no US doctor has someone like Susan (his assistant/liaison/facilitator/don't know what to call her) that you can call at ANY time (she carries the phone with her even on weekends!) with questions. In addition, she called me the day before I left for Mexico, which was a Saturday, to see if I had any last-minute concerns or jitters.
The day I left the hospital I went to the bathroom and dried blood came out in the stool--I was nervous about and I asked my DDP to call Susan who within seconds told us that it was normal and what might happen over the next few days. If this was a US doctor, I would leave a message and I would be lucky to get an answer that day.
She also called, again on a Saturday, after the surgery because she had not heard from me to make sure everything was okay. Sadly, that just doesn't happen here in the US.
Another bonus of going to Mexico is that you get a private room and whoever goes with you can sleep in your room. This was not only a great comfort to me (not being alone in the hospital), but also a great help considering how many times I was throwing up-the nurses come quickly, but there's not much lead time for that.
When I was there, they were renovating some rooms for bariatric patients--don't know when that will be done."
"If the surgery had gone as intended, it would have been fine. However, it did not go fine, the band used was too small and she had an almost complete obstruction. Theu nurses in post-op were good to excellent. After they realized she had to stay overnight, the trouble began.
She was assigned a room and a bed; when we went down, the bed was unmade and we were unsure whether the bed was being used. The excellent nurse from post-op ran around looking for a floor nurse to get clarification but could not find anyone. She checked the board, saw that the bed was empty, changed the bed and helped my friend into it. We waited and waited for someone to come. No one did. We had to go get her a gown since no one brought one for her.
She threw up for over 5 1/2 hours and nothing was done. Her doctor's assistants came in to visit (their office was just down the hall), but were not very helpful or responsive. Every time she finally got an order for a new med it took a full 2 hours to get it. We actually timed it each time. When we complained they said "We have certain routines that we have to follow." Our response was that their routines were obviously broken. In the 3 days that she was there, not one food tray was brought to her. On the 2nd night, I said that she had not gotten food all day and her response was "Oh, maybe the computer is down, because she's not the only." When I asked her to bring some broth for my friend she said she couldn't do that and that I should call downstairs to the nutrition office. I told her it was already closed. She said she couldn't do anything about it and that I should just try calling.
Seeing this experience, I decided I was not going to an American hospital. I literally called the surgeon in Mexico from her hospital room (where, bythe way, the care was superb!)"
