Had gastric bypass 3 yrs ago, lost 300 lbs but went in with cong heart failure, pulumary disease, diabetes, asthma,etc ran into several complications, kidneys shut down, icu to ccu, then wound open and draining for months, oh year when i left the hosp i was bleeing internally, went home for 2 days afraid to go back to the hosp till mom called 911 and i went to a local hosp. 7 pints of blood and never did find where i was bleeding. Finally get back to work and few months later got a hernia..big..and threw up for the next two years..got a skin removal and tightening out of it but a few months later my body starting rejecting the mesh, made a open wound and developed staph infection. Now we are seeing a blood specialist and have a pic line for 6 weeks of antibiotics, just about ready to have the surgery and I lost my beautiful 25 yr old daughter. Needless to sat the surgery was delayed and i have been on oral antibiotics for almost a yr. I think the mesh is trying to come back through the stomach and i now have a intestinal infection. The blood specialist has written the letter to the surgeon saying the mesh needs to come out now. I go to the surgeon and he gets to looking and there is over 12 in of mesh and he remembers all the complications..2nd surgery sh been 2-3 hrs i was 6 from adhesions. I signed the consent forms for the surgery but then his nurse calls and he wants a plastic surgeon in at closing..I make the appt but he is not on my aetna hmo...there are 0 plastic surgeons in that hosp and my dr only works from there. Best i can hope for is an out of network referral b/c it is medical and i will have to pay the rest if he will take it. HELP
Hospital Reviews(Decatur, GA) - Dekalb Medical Center
Surgeon Info:
Surgeon: Sidney D. Appel M.D.
At first I thought Dr appel dry and did not much care for him. Since the surgery my opinion has changed so much. He is still dry but he is caring and does know what he is doing. His staff and especially Kathy are wonderful. Due to insurance not approving the surgery anymore he is thinking of retiring next year..i hope not. He keeps you pretty informed but I had to do a lot of research on my own. Overall I would recommend him for the gastric bypass but he is not a plastic surgeon and doesn't claim to be. His surgical competence is much better than his bedside manner
Insurer Info:
Aetna Citigroup, hmo
The insurance company was great once I got to the right person. My surgery was a live or die effort. They did not stall as much as my primary or specialist because I was such high risk. You have to be persistent with everybody, it took me two years to finally set a date. Now I am running into trouble with additional surgery needed. My doctor wants a plastic surgeon in for closing but the hospital he works out of has 0 on their list. It is considered medical and they would pay but my doctor only works out of the one hospital. I will keep you posted