Re: Dr Ren

[Guest guest]

Debi:

I see that you have already heard from Deb, the person who had the very negative comments about Dr. Ren. I feel it's very important to hear all sides of any controversy and she certainly explains her side eloquently. You will get others who swear by Dr. Ren's competency and professionalism. Unfortunately it is up to you to decide who's right and who's wrong for your needs. So your quest to find out about her has begun.

Regards.

Joe Frost, old gentleman, not old fartSan , TX, 60 years oldDr. Welker Lateral Gastrectomy with Duodenal Switch340 starting weight, currently 257http://www.duodenalswitch.com/Patients/Joe/joe.html

Dr Ren

> Has anyone used Dr Ren at NYU ? I called her office and found I could get a consult within days, which I thought was a little strange. I just checked her page at the Assoc. for Morbid Obesity, and found only a few posts...one of which was horrible ! Any info would be greatly appreciated since my appt is for next Wed.> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------->

[Guest guest]

Debi,

I'm a patient of Dr. Ren's;surgery (BSD/DS, Lap) set for 6/26. She was

recommended to me by Dr. Hazzi, on the staff at NYU and my Dr. for

28 years. I trust him with my life;more important, my DH trusts him with my

life. I have been told by both pre and post-op patients that she is

wonderful,an impression that was strengthened when I had my consult with

her. She explained both procedures (RNY & BSD/DS) clearly and, each time I

have e-mailed her with additional questions, she has replied within 1 day.

I, too, got a consult within a week of calling her but I think that's

because the program at NYU is relatively new and is not yet as booked as the

program at Mt. Sinai. She did work extensively with Dr. Gagner at Mt. Sinai

and, I believe she worked with him in refining the Lap. procedure. It must

say something about her that she HEADS the NYU program! Besides, many

surgeons, of all persuasions, have procedures that go sour-surgery is an art

as well as science-THINGS CAN GO WRONG, even for the best of Drs.!

Keep in touch, we can share experiences.

Marcia

> Dr Ren

>

>

> Has anyone used Dr Ren at NYU ? I called her office and

> found I could get a consult within days, which I thought was a

> little strange. I just checked her page at the Assoc. for Morbid

> Obesity, and found only a few posts...one of which was horrible !

> Any info would be greatly appreciated since my appt is for next Wed.

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

Debi,

I'm a patient of Dr. Ren's;surgery (BSD/DS, Lap) set for 6/26. She was

recommended to me by Dr. Hazzi, on the staff at NYU and my Dr. for

28 years. I trust him with my life;more important, my DH trusts him with my

life. I have been told by both pre and post-op patients that she is

wonderful,an impression that was strengthened when I had my consult with

her. She explained both procedures (RNY & BSD/DS) clearly and, each time I

have e-mailed her with additional questions, she has replied within 1 day.

I, too, got a consult within a week of calling her but I think that's

because the program at NYU is relatively new and is not yet as booked as the

program at Mt. Sinai. She did work extensively with Dr. Gagner at Mt. Sinai

and, I believe she worked with him in refining the Lap. procedure. It must

say something about her that she HEADS the NYU program! Besides, many

surgeons, of all persuasions, have procedures that go sour-surgery is an art

as well as science-THINGS CAN GO WRONG, even for the best of Drs.!

Keep in touch, we can share experiences.

Marcia

> Dr Ren

>

>

> Has anyone used Dr Ren at NYU ? I called her office and

> found I could get a consult within days, which I thought was a

> little strange. I just checked her page at the Assoc. for Morbid

> Obesity, and found only a few posts...one of which was horrible !

> Any info would be greatly appreciated since my appt is for next Wed.

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

Debi,

I'm a patient of Dr. Ren's;surgery (BSD/DS, Lap) set for 6/26. She was

recommended to me by Dr. Hazzi, on the staff at NYU and my Dr. for

28 years. I trust him with my life;more important, my DH trusts him with my

life. I have been told by both pre and post-op patients that she is

wonderful,an impression that was strengthened when I had my consult with

her. She explained both procedures (RNY & BSD/DS) clearly and, each time I

have e-mailed her with additional questions, she has replied within 1 day.

I, too, got a consult within a week of calling her but I think that's

because the program at NYU is relatively new and is not yet as booked as the

program at Mt. Sinai. She did work extensively with Dr. Gagner at Mt. Sinai

and, I believe she worked with him in refining the Lap. procedure. It must

say something about her that she HEADS the NYU program! Besides, many

surgeons, of all persuasions, have procedures that go sour-surgery is an art

as well as science-THINGS CAN GO WRONG, even for the best of Drs.!

Keep in touch, we can share experiences.

Marcia

> Dr Ren

>

>

> Has anyone used Dr Ren at NYU ? I called her office and

> found I could get a consult within days, which I thought was a

> little strange. I just checked her page at the Assoc. for Morbid

> Obesity, and found only a few posts...one of which was horrible !

> Any info would be greatly appreciated since my appt is for next Wed.

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Kris:

I have taken this from your Angel Report post of 3/21 on Jackie Ward

"Due to lack of blood supply to the duodenum, Dr. Maguire had to do a BPD without the switch on her. She was disappointed at first, but Dr. Maguire indicated he has tried to do the switch in such cases, but they haven't worked and had to end up having further surgery to change it back to a BPD. "

This is part of a message posted by Deb Mullins on 1/27/01 after her surgery

"Dr. Ren, took the time, had the patience and skill to take them down. When she went to divide my duodenum, the area of the pylorus and the duodenal remnant went dusky, indicating a compromised blood supply. Rather than risk, that becoming necrotic and the subsequent leaks whether gastric or intestinal or both, and the infection or infections that would have occurred, she made the decision to anastomois my ileum directly to my stomach. Whether as a result of the original gallbladder surgery or due to that segment of my anatomy suffering compromised blood flow through the years it had taken/developed it's blood supply, from what dr. Ren figures, from the area it had been fused to, she was also unable to ID a vein or artery in my pylorus or area of duodenum. This further indicated that this piece of my anatomy was no longer viable. I have a sleeve gastrectomy, but no pylorus and no duodenal remnant. I have essentially what is a BPD, but the stomach is configured as if I did have the DS portion of the surgery done. I'm very interesting in hearing from anyone that possibly has the same configuration and what their experience has been with it? When I raised some questions about this connection, thinking of sharon and her breath odor problems for one, dr. Ren assured me we will take care of anything that arises, I guess she meant literally and figuratively:) I do have some reflux and some edema, so I do not know how things will settle down. I also may dump, but i am not investing any worry in things that have not occurred as of yet:) I want to close by saying i will comment further on my experience when i can sit down and write for a longer period of time and also to say that the care given to me by Dr. Ren was excellent, my care by other staff, whatever the department at NYU was also by and large, excellant. I was well taken care of and before any pre -ops get to freaking about this, this was simply an aberrant occurrence that had to do with my anatomy, nothing else that I can tell could have changed the scenario.Oh and one other thing, i weighed myself this morning before i left the hospital, I've lost 5 pounds in 3 days :):):)ciar"

Just to set the story straight, Anyone wanting to read information regarding Deb Mullins story can go to the archives and type in Ciar1 and you can read every post she has ever posted. What is interesting is why she switched from Dr Gagner to Dr Ren in the first place.

Viau, Switched 3/29/01Dr Ren, NYUMC http://www.thinforlife.orgMaximum weight 325lost 9 lbs prior to surgeryPre-Surgery weight: 3164/18/01: 293 (-23 lbs in 20 days)32 pounds gone forever

[Guest guest]

Dr Ren, the two surgeons that assisted her, NYU and the nurses

involved are being investigated by the agencies i listed.

I received a call from an investigator at the misconduct board last

week, as well as a letter from the hospital board.

No decision has been rendered, that I have been told will take

several months.

Those sites that are listed will not show an investigation, they only

show when decisions are reached, and even then it depends on the

action taken if the doctor is listed, as in license suspensions. I

have been told by the investigator at the medical misconduct board

that I may never know the action taken, if action is taken, I will be

apprised of the series of options that the investigation may take,

that is quite possibly all I will know.

I really wished that I felt like my original posting,I was 4 days

post op, still doing meds, still did not have my brain engaged.

I had asked Ren and others at NYU a series of questions. No answers

were forthcoming, I then began to get copies of my medical records,

things didn't add up even more, they still don't.

I speak from my own personal experience, and will continue to do so.

What was done to me was wrong, Ren may portray herself as this

caring, compassionate individual, however my medical records and my

dealings with her since my discharge from NYU have shown me

otherwise. Maybe I am just the " lucky " individual to experience the

Ren that can not even ackowledge that a complication occurred and by

her own words degrades and negates my body/anatomy and person.

" I cannot answer many of your questions because their is no answer.

And unfortunately I am sure that this is unsatisfying, however I

think you should be incredibly happy that your surgery went extremely

well. I personally am thrilled with the way things went, because I

know that you had no complications and that you will lose a great

deal of wt. Not having your pylorus is not a complication. However, I

know for a fact that DS/BPD patients are very controlled oriented and

sometimes obsessed about the details of their anatomy. " "

Ren, M.D.

They say that we learn our lessons on each other.

From " love, medicine and Miracles, by Dr Bernie Siegal, M.D.

surgeon, " I became aware that, no matter how I'd struggled against

it, I, too, had adopted this standard defense against pain and

failure. Because i was hurting, I withdrew when patients needed me

most. "

That is not an unfamilar response that caregivers have with patients,

esp. patients that represent failure and death.

From " Mortal Lessons " by Dick Selzer M.D. surgeon, " I do not know

when it was that I understood that it is precisely this hell in which

we wage our lives that offers us the energy, the possibility to care

for one another. A surgeon does not slip from his or her mother's

womb with compassion smeared upon him or her like the drippings of

birth. It is much later that it comes. No easy shaft of grace this,

but the cumulative murmuring of the numberless wounds he has dressed,

the incisions he has made, all the sores and ulcers and cavities he

has touched in order to heal. In the beginning it is barely audible,

a whisper, as from many mouths. Slowly it gathers, rising from the

streaming flesh until, at last, it is pure calling-an exclusive

sound, like the cry of certain solitary birds-telling that out of the

resonance between the sick man and the one that tends him there may

spring that profound courtesy that the religious call love. "

I have often in the last week or so dwelled on the words that some

friends of mine, that i have been lucky to meet in person and speak

with on the phone with, from this list, have told me.

They are that just for today, I do not need to forgive Ren, Just for

today I do not.

The other person talked of praying for someone that she hated, that

she had begun that exercise with no integrity to it, however in the

space of several months found forgiveness as she prayed for that

person's wellbeing. I am not there yet.

I can not begin to try and express the pain I am in. It does not seem

to have an end. I carry on in my daily activities as best I can, I

often appear to be engaged with others, whether in work, or family or

with friends, yet I am not there, not all of me. I laugh, I talk, I

come up with witty retorts, I attempt to focus on my studies however

my concentration is seemingly blown. I am not present to anyone or

thing, not really.

I cry, at all times of the day and night, I am tormented by

unanswered questions, inconsistancies, like a radiologist's report

that states I have a jejunal connection, not an ileal, at my stomach

pouch. By part of an op note that talks about an end to side

duodenoenterostomy being performed, something that would have been

impossible once my pylorus and duodenal remnant had been excised, yet

Ren goes on like the DS was performed. Even her surgical notes in my

chart consistantly state DS/BPD as the surgical procedure. It is such

things that wake me most nights, to lie in the darkness staring out

the sometimes moonlit window.

" Exceptional patients want to know every detail of their x-ray

reports. They want to know what every number in their lab test means.

A doctor that harnesses that intense self concern, instead of

rejecting it and being to busy, dramitically improves the patient's

chances. "

" Physicians must realize that the patients they consider difficult or

uncooperative are those most likely to get well. Psychologist Leonard

Derogatis, in a study of 35 women with metastatic breast cancer,

found that the long term survivors had poor relationships with their

physicians-as judged by the physicians. They asked a lot of questions

and expressed their emotions freely. Likewise, National Cancer

Institute psychologist levy has shown that seriously ill

breast cancer patients who expressed high levels of depression

anxiety, and hostility survived longer than those who showed little

distress. Levy and other researchers have alos found that " bad "

aggressive patients tend ot have more killewr T-cells, white cells

that seek out and destroy cancer cells, than docile " good " patients. "

Love, Medicine and Miracles, Bernie Siegal M.D.

" A new philosophy, a way of life, is not given for nothing. It has to

be paid dearly for and acquired with much patience and great

effort " " Fydor Dostoyevsky "

" A surgeon is responsible for informing a patient about risks,

benefits and possible complications of a proposed surgical procedure.

Failure to provide full disclosure of the risks of a procedure and

alternative modes of therapy constitutes negligence. A surgeon is

liable for misrepresentation, whether by affirmative statement or by

nondisclosure. "

" Each patient is entitled to receive sufficient information from

which to intelligently base a decision regarding whether or not to

proceed. The patient has the right to decide what will or will not be

done to him or her. " Perioperative Nursing, Chap 4, legal and ethical

issues.

May you all be " exceptional " patients,

deb