"I did not get to see Dr. Scott, so have no idea whether he is likable or not. I met with Dr. Della Torre, who performs the surgery with Dr. Scott.
My first impression was this office overbooks patients. My appointment was at 1:30 and I didn't see Dr. Della Torre until 3:30. Since I still had a 4 hour drive home at that point, the unnecesasry 2 hour delay was not warmly welcomed.
Dr. Della Torre began the session by asking my permission to tape record his comments to me concerning surgical risks. I asked him if he was sending the tape home with me for review. No. I asked if he was doing this for litigation purposes, and he replied yes. Apparently he is being sued by a bypass patient. He said he had just instituted the tape recordings 2 weeks ago, so he is apparently being sued by a Recent patient. eeewww.
I was extremely uncomfortable listening to him talk to himself on the tape recorder. When I asked if I might interject a question now and then he said yes, but every time I did he quickly replied "I'm going to run out of tape". Clearly this communicates to me he was more interested on this particular day in covering his legal *** than interacting with his new surgical candidate-me.
He stated he has performed 500 of these surgeries in 5 years. I found this encouraging.
He explained the 2 occasions that would turn a laparoscopic procedure to an open procedure: multiple adhesions which prevent his ability to proceed safely, or a liver so enlarged he can't get to the areas he needs to reach laporoscopically. This dispelled the inaccurate information being offered by the KC weight loss support group, who told me anyone who was over 300 pounds (I'm not) couldn't have a lap. procedure because the laparoscope was too small to reach through massive layers of fat.
He also dispelled a rumor I'd heard but not believed from others at the KC weight loss support group: it is NOT physically impossible to regain any and all weight lost due to this surgical intervention. In fact, he'd done a "re-do" for a lady who had gained every bit of her weight back that very morning. sigh."
