Louis Kosta Bariatric Surgeon M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S.

With Kaiser's Severe Obesity Treatment Program, you do not individually meet with the surgeon until you have been in the program for several months to a year. They make you do a lot of mental and physical homework before you are cleared to talk to the surgeon and get a surgery date. I went to see Dr. Kosta (works with Dr. Moiel) on July 3rd. He was very friendly, nice, and informative. I had been told that he could be kinda grumpy, but I didn't see that at all. I feel VERY confident in his abilities and I am secure having my life in his hands.

Felt he was cold, but appeared to that is the typical bedside manner of a surgeon.

My impression only worsened once I fell into a month long coma, was on life support and my family was told I would not survive.

Dr. Kosta is a very untruthful, manipulative surgeon. His skills are not my concern, however, his lack of ethics are.

I was initially intimidated by Dr.Kosta by his reputation and he spoke quite fast.I recommend bringing a support person to all meetings with him because he tends to throw info at you quickly. As I met with him more and more I was convinced he was the surgeon for me. His office staff is fairly strictly business. Dr.Kosta is very blunt and upfront about the change in lifestyle and he is committed to making sure you have exercise as part of your life going in. He does address risks of the surgery at the last pre-op very thoroughly. I felt that once Dr.Kosta bought into my commitment to be successfull at weight loss through the surgery, he was behind me all the way. I have had some minor set backs since surgery and he has been excellent with my aftercare as has been the program coordinator. His surgical competence and bedside manner were without a doubt quality care. My scar is as beautiful as a scar can be. I would recommend Dr.Kosta for the RYN procedure.

My husband and I met with Dr. Kosta recently. I hadn't heard too much about him but really enjoyed meeting him. He was friendly and didn't rush us through the meeting. He was well spoken and seemed very competent and knowledgable. Much of what he told us I already knew but he was kind and said many nice things about my progress to this point. Surgeons, in my experience, are not typically chatty and bubbly. They are pretty serious and focussed about what they do. I found him to fit that mold...to a "T". My husband and I were very impressed and I have no hesitations in letting Dr. Kosta do my surgery.

Dr. Kosta turned out to be a good surgeon for me although my first impression of him wasn't very good because he was not a good listner and was short with me. However he is very caring and although I had the complication of a nicked spleen during surgery, he repaired me well and was honest with me about why surgery took so long. I would recommend Dr. Kosta and his staff as Kaiser Sunnyside to everyone who asks. There barriatric program in general is top notch!

I met with Dr. Kosta this morning. I was told he was not very friendly and all business and would not smile. I found him quite pleasant and he smiled quite a bit. He was very professional and he didn't chat and joke but I was very happy with him. I had lost another 9 pounds. That makes a total of 54. I think had I not lost each and everytime, Dr. Kosta could be short. He basically says this is what you need to do and if you don't then surgery will be delayed. He told me not to go out and celebrate and gain weight. He did say I was indeed a candidate for surgery and he would be happy to do the surgery. I was so excited. I have been approved!!!! However, his schedule is full for the rest of April and May so I will have surgery in June. He will call me as soon as the new schedules come out and give me my choice of a day. If he operates on Sunday I will take June 1st... Hee hee.

Well, Dr. Kosta had a cancellation and remembered me and gave me first crack at the appt. April 23. 5 days to go. Talk about going fast at the end. I saw him the day before surgery to finalize everything. He was able to talk to my husband and answered all his questions. He still was professional and very business like.

Next time I saw him was in the operating room. Came in and gave me a pat on the shoulder and said everything would be fine. After surgery he came in everyday to see me but being out of it a bit, I don't remember a whole lot.

6 days out of surgery I came down with a nasty incision infection. Dr. Kosta looked at it and got real busy. He explained everything he was doing and telling me that this could delay my recovery by a few weeks. He was kind and considerate and very sorry this happened to me. He patted me on the shoulder and told me to hang in there.

10 days out I was feeling soooo bad and went back in. He made room for me in his busy schedule. He had a blood test done and we found myself very low on potassium. I was feeling so down and out and Dr. Kosta was so wonderful and understanding. Reasurring me the entire time that things would be ok and I would again feel human. Lots of shoulder pats and kind words. When he had clean the incision again, he was gone. He does not waste anytime standing around and I find that if I don't ask the questions while he works he might be gone before I ask. I feel very confident with Dr. Kosta. He truly does care and once you are his patient he wants to take care of you.

So, if you get lucky to get Dr. Kosta, you will have a Dr. that truly cares. Not a talker and probably lower on the bedside manner stuff but a wonderful surgeon who you can trust.

Dr Kosta and Dr.Moiel work in the same office.
I really trust Dr. Kosta, he is a very intelligent, no messing around kind of doctor. My surgery went off without any difficulty. The incision is healing very nicely, so I guess he's a pretty good stitcher. Dr. Kosta was thorough and very well organized.
The program with kaizer is the best I have found. The bariatric surgery support staff all know what they are doing. Mary Lou is the case manager. She is very well organized and addentive to every detail. There are times when she has to deliver messages that she knows you don't want to hear. (like when they told me I had to lose 100-125 pounds before I could have the surgery) Brenda is the dietician. She has a wealth of information and seems to intuitively know what you need to "know" and what you need to "understand". Julie is the social worker. Julie is compassionate and understanding. She is very easy to talk to and she does not think that everything you say is because you were abused as a child. Tamara is the physical therapist. Tamara has a real heart for what she is doing. She is encouraging and supportive. She is ready with solutions and attentive to follow-up. Dr. Bachman may be the last person on the team that you will meet. He is the Internal Medicine guy who looks over your medical information and lab work and he makes the decision to send you on to the surgeon to finally set the date.
This is a serious, life-changing decision. If you don't understand that clearly when you begin this process, you will before it is done. All members of this team are great and I don't think better care is offered anywhere.
The one bad thing was that some of the nursing staff at the hospital, after surgery, were not especially compassionate. They were not prompt to answer the call-light, even for my roommate (if they answered it at all) The day after my surgery, my roommate sent me out to find a nurse to take care of her. Also, none of the nurses would help to pull me up in the bed. I understand that they do not want to risk back injury, and I am a very heavy person to lift. But, that's what the drawsheet is for; and that's why they are trained in lifting technique. The nurses would not help me and that was disappointing. Fortunately I was only in the hospital 2 days and all else went very well.
Oh, off track! Overall I would rate Dr. Kosta a 10 and say that his surgical competence is a bit better than his bedside manner but I believe that he was great in both areas.