Advice Needed!!

Ok, I need some advice. Today was my fist consultation with my dr. It went great. The ball is rolling. They called insurance and we dont need alot of pre stuff done. Just the NUT and psych eval. So was really excited. Said they could probably get surgery in about 5-6 weeks. I was so afraid after reading alot of posts about how long the process can take. Anyways, I went to work after appointment and talked to my boss about what I was doing. He said it was fantastic but wanted me to call someone and talk to them. When I called this individual i found out that they had this person as their doctor and had gastric by pass surgery from him. Something went terribly wrong and he spent 9 months in the hospital and is now paralyzed. (On an good note the by pass has helped him lose over 150 lbs even with being paralyzed). Here is my problem, The only other doctors that are in network is 2 hrs away. Do I go to someone else? What would you do? Its easy with this guy, he didnt require 6 months of diet before surgery etc. I am afraid if I go to someone else that the process will take a lot longer. Now this was about 3 years ago and I did check him out with the bbb and he is a bariactric center of excellence. I asked him how many surgerys he had done, he said over 200 by passes, over 300 lap bands and about 250 gastric sleaves. I know everyone is human and can make mistakes. Without knowing what caused the problem with the surgery how do I decide what to do? This gentleman was over 500lbs and he would only say on the phone that the dr shouldnt of opperated on him. So...... What would you do???? Any thoughts?

Did the guy you talked to tell you what went wrong?  Did the doctor do something wrong or was it just one of those complications that sometimes happen and can't be prevented?  I'm not sure what kind of complication of wls would cause someone to become paralyzed.

You could also ask the surgeon.  He can't tell you any specific details about a particular patient, but you could say you talked to someone who said he was paralyzed as a result of RNY and ask what might cause that.

I would not decide against a particular surgeon based on one bad outcome, though.  You might ask the doctor some more questions, like how many of his patients have died as a result of wls and how many had serious complications.

It's your insurance that determines what the requirements are, not the doctor. If your insurance doesn't require a 6-month diet plan, the doctor likely won't either.

I would definitely check with another doctor, in any case.

The risks of surgery (of any kind) on someone who is over 500 pounds are GREATLY increased over someone who is even 350 pounds.  Many surgeons refuse to do surgery on people who are so large because there are so many things that can go wrong.  I would check out the surgeon thoroughly (does your county have an online legal database that shows lawsuits?), but unless you find evidence of multiple lawsuits or problems, I wouldn't worry about that one incident even though the outcome was terrible.

Lora

I have check the court systems and he has not been involved with any legal lawsuits. The Gentleman would not tell me the exact problem but kept saying that the doctor never should of operated. I am only 258 lbs so although obese not that severe. My husband is worried about it but I really liked him and would like to go to him.

If the guy wouldn't even tell you what the problem was, you don't even know if it was really caused by the surgery.  I would not base your decision about a surgeon on incomplete information like that.  And if the surgeon really did something wrong, why didn't he sue the surgeon?

You can check out this website about doctors in Texas

Www.reg.tmb.state.tx.us/onlineverif/phys_noticeverif.asb

You can check their credentials there

Thanks that was really helpful. He has has 2 suits against him. Both for inaccurate record keeping in 1995. They both were mediated with a $1000 fine. So I feel better about him.

The surgeons that I saw had 1300 or 3000 operations the group as a whole had 13000 between them and that was 4 or 5 years ago.  200 and 300 is not that many for major surgery.  You asked and I would walk out and go the extra miles.  The extra time is not a negative as far as your progress is concerned.  You need to have a lot of medical tests done and I don't see how you can do them in 4 or 5 weeks.  Maybe he is taking shortcuts and that is why he had problems.  I would rather be on the safe side.

Any surgery at all there is ALWAYS risk. You should pick your surgeon based on his experience level with weight loss surgeries. If he has done at least 3000 you are prob ok. If not you might feel more comfortable to see a surgeon with more experience.

I was super morbidly obese, close to 600 lbs and I survived.