Conrad Rusnak Bariatric Surgeon

Dr Rusnak is an exceptional physician & surgeon, well respected in his community, the province of BC and indeed across Canada.

After a first consult with Dr Brad Amson about 10 years ago & finally giving up on the idea of surgery (I was not impressed with Dr Amson nor the length of the wait lists his patients had to endure), I reconsidered when my co-morbidities were growing increasingly worse & I knew my life was at risk. Knowing Dr Amson was the primary doctor most WLS patients went to in BC, I was determined to find someone else as good or better. I was blessed & lucky to do just that!

I found Dr Rusnak while googling RNY surgeons in BC and came across a link for the UBC website. Dr Rusnak had participated in a Grand Rounds presentation to medical students stressing the need for more surgeons to specialize in the areas of bariatric surgery. I was so impressed with the presentation content, I decided to take a leap of faith & email him with my story.

Unbelievably he responded and quite quickly, asking me to phone his cell! How amazing is that and how rare in today's world!

After speaking with him, I made an appointment to see him in Sept 2008 and had my surgery in May 2009 (was delayed from April).

He is a "real" person who truly understands the situation morbidly obese & super morbidly obese people are in. He is caring, sincere and unfortunately for the WLS community, retiring the end of July 2009. He has been the Chief of Surgery for the Victoria area as well as an active advocate for bariatric surgery. He will be missed by many I am sure. By me for sure!

He has been working with & training a new partner in his practice (Dr Malik). Hopefully some of Dr Rusnak's charm & humanity will rub off if needed.

I am having my 3rd post op appointment with him just prior to his retirement and I know tears will fall from my eyes as I try to express the overwhelming gratitude I have - he helped to save my life.