Re: RE: Rescinding of Comments

March 31, 2000

<< Therefore, I must rescind me earlier comments >>

I very much appreciate your taking the time to " tell the rest of the story " .

I have found Dr. Rutledge to be very compassionate and was rather taken aback

at what seemed to be tremendous insensitivity on his part. You are right, he

is getting busier and busier. And so many of us rave about how wonderful

Dr. R. is. However, I have noticed though, the beginnings of something

rather troubling. Something I have observed about us humans over the years,

is that the more we put someone on a pedestal, the more it seems we

eventually want to knock him off that pedestal. I for one believe Dr.

Rutledge is one of the finest surgeons in this country today. But he is also

a mere mortal. A human with frailties and shortcomings like the rest of us.

He has a " Tiger by the tail " with this surgery and I am sure is trying to

perfect the procedures to be able to avail this lifesaving/life changing

procedure to as many as possible.

While I am on my soap box, I would like to also address the question about

the $255.00 clinic fee. I went to a local surgeon and paid $225.00 to be put

in a room with one other lady and watch a video, fill out a questionnaire and

see the doctor for all of 10 minutes! I thought it was money well spent

because it confirmed I would not want that doctor to do my surgery. When I

went to my first clinic by Dr. Rutledge there was such a difference. One

cannot say you only see Dr. R for 5 or 10 minutes. That is not what you are

paying for. There is so much more to the value of a clinic visit than just

the time in the room with only Dr. Rutledge. Everything from Insurance

Battling, meeting postop patients, Dr. R. lecturing for several hours, etc.,

etc. Even this tremendous support list is an offshoot. Plus what if you

don't have the surgery?

I very much appreciate everyone on this list and find the support and

compassion for each other to be wonderful.

To all of our success,

Florida MGB Post-op 2/28/00

P.S. I hopefully will have word from my doctor this coming week about a

hospital meeting room for our Florida Support Group.

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