"I knew Dr. Frantzides was the right surgeon for me as soon as I met him. He was warm, knowledgeable, caring, and realistic. He is very sensitive to people suffering from obesity, and everything from the office lay out, chairs, and equipment speaks to that sensitivity. He had exactly the kind of experience that I was looking for--many surgeries and an expert in lap procedures. The surgery itself went beautifully--the only complication was a mild infection of one of the incision sites. I followed instructions to a "T" and never had any problems. Dr. Frantzides had realistic expectations about how much weight I might lose (I surpassed his estimate, and am quite pleased with my results). Since my surgery, Dr. Frantzides has changed practices, so I don't know much about how the office staff is about helping with approvals, etc. I have met with the bariatric program coordinator (Karen Thomas, R.N.)--a wonderful person. She is herself a bariatric patient and so fully understands what it's like to be in our shoes. She's very knowledgeable, very helpful and very accomodating. Again, because the practice has changed, I can't say much about the after care program. I live an hour and a half away from Evanston, and so don't attend the support meetings (though there are many, and the topics always look interesting). I did see the dietitian attached to the program once shortly after the move, and while I found her to be pleasant, she was clearly new to bariatric nutrition, and was concentrating on learning about early post-op issues, so I did not find her very helpful at the time. My guess is that she has expanded her knowledge of longer-term post-ops since, but I can't really speak to support services. If I had it to do over again, I would have Dr. Frantzides perform the surgery again. I have recommended him to two coworkers (one moved out of the area before she could have surgery, the other is doing very well and is quite happy with her choice of Dr. Frantzides). "
"The nursing and aide staff were fabulous. I know they were busy, but they never made me feel that I was bothering them, and gave me as much time as I needed. My room was very warm, and they even sent up an engineer to see if he could do anything to adjust the temperature beyond what the thermostat was able to do. Their personal approach was very much appreciated."
