Post Date: 12/12/09 8:07 am 

MWG, I am "Poster X". My name is Nancy, and while I sincerely appreciate your protecting my privacy, I have nothing to hide.

 I have some things I agree wholeheartedly with you on and othere I do not. 

To begin... When I went to my very first Dr. S. support meeting, I met Joyce and she was very kind to me. "I asked her" to introduce me to Dr. S. after the meeting, which she did. "I mentioned to her" that my intentions were to have a tummy tuck after the weight loss, something I had always wanted since the birth of my two children. We discussed it no further.

He came across a "extremely caring and supportive", that was the lie, all a show to get patients. From my very first official appt with him, which was to be approx. an hour. to discuss all the aspects and complications of having an ERNY, considering I had had TWO previous RNY's in the past 20+ years and  all the scar tissue in my abdomen from many previous other surgeries.

This VITAL appt lasted 15 minutes because he had to go!

The next time i saw him was the morning of surgery, as he was running an hour late due to surgical complications of the patient before me. He was hurried , rushed ( time is money) and rude.

In fact the only time he was not rude and short with me was that first support meeting before i even had applied for insurance coverage. Boy was I snowed.

My pre-op bloodwork never found it's way to Tempe St. Lukes from Dr. S's office,  in advance of my surgery, so a rookie lab tech came in to pre-op to draw blood at the last minute. The pre op nurse could not find a vein for the IV after several painful trys, and finally said to me " let's put this in "Druggie style"  and comented to the anesthesiologist , just standing there, " I'm not catching it from him for this one". Guess who HIM is?

Later that night, after surgery, the IV burst the vein in my arm and my upper arm swelled to twice it's size, no one on staff noticed! or ever checked it? About 2am, they finally found 4 different people from other hospital depts to try to put in another IV, i never recieve the second drip bag of antibiotics because of the blown IV. it was trown on the floor as waste. My 31 year old daughter was with me and witnessed everything. Tempe St. Luke's is an old and dirty hospital.

This was during September of this year and signs were posted all over "No children under 12 on patient floors" due to the H1N1 virus, yet the next morning i was almost run down in the patient  floor hallway by little kids going in to see a family member, small children.

Dr. S. discharged me the next morning after surgery, time to make room for another paying customer, within 1 week I had infection in my wound drain and three places along the incision, I called him and he blew me off , in fact was furious I had bothered him on the Jewish High holidays, Just a note , I am Jewish as well.

I was taken to Banner Baywood ER that night, put on antibiotics and pain meds. I went in to see him within a couple days and he looked at my infection sites and said "Quote: If you think that is infected, you need a Psychiatrist"  and sent me away again.

Within a couple days I was in Cigna Urgent care, with agonizing pain from these infections and was then admited to Banner Wound Clinic for treatment. it took a month and a half, but Banner finally got the wounds to close. I thought the nightmare was over. I was wrong. 

A month goes by and suddenly there are two bulging abcesses from under the drain area and the incision line. I was terrified. Banner ordered more antibiotics and a CT which showed pockets of fluid beneath the skin trapped there, The Specialist said I needed surgery to open them up, clean out and reclose. They put me on home health nursing care every two days to repack the open wounds. I made an appt with Dr. S., he could not see me for two weeks , he needed more time off I guess, when I did see him, he said I did not need surgery, was overreacting and that if I had taken better care of my nutrition I would have healed by now. In other words, this was my fault.

Now more than three months into this nightmare, I am still terribly sick, need to find a new surgeon to correct Dr. S.'s sloppy work AND SLOPPIER ATTITUDE.

I would not have him touch me again ever, He is the most self centered egotistical man I have ever met. He is the "bait and switch guy", all sweet up front but G-d help you if anything goes wrong because he WILL NOT take responsiblity for it and won't take your calls.

Now as far as my own responsiblitity, I knew my best result would be a RNY to DS out of state by an EXPERIENCED DS REVISION SURGEON, but it would not have been covered by my insurance and I am not rich by any means. So I took a caculated risk and lost, that's on me. Not Joyce, not Jenn.

Jen has always been extremely kind and helpful to me, I don't understand why she works for such a monster. She is very capable and could do so much better.

Joyce has alway been there for me to answer legitimate questions along the way with no push for any plastics, she knows i would never even consider risking my life again with any elective surgery and she understands that and is still my friend.

The comment you referenced to was a "joke" between friends. nothing more , no push for her Boss, just a joke to try to cheer me up.

In closing, I am seriously considering filing a complaint with the AZ Medical Board for failure to treat the infections, TWICE. Infection can occur with any surgery, however to deny it exists and treat it promply  is negligent. Fortunately I advocated for myself through my PCP to get desperately need care, if i has just listened to Dr. S. I might not be here today. He would do ANYTHING to avoid having records of complications because that would prohibit him from getting a "Center of Excellence" rating to treat medicare patients ( more money) .

Well that is my story, told as honestly as I can. Take or leave any thing from it you wish. I can tell you that if I had known there were medical complaints against him from other states before I chose my surgeon, it would have been a different story.

Compassion goes along way, Dr. S. has NONE.

Thanks for your words of encouragement.
BARRY