Re: Surgeon

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 09/18/2001 4:32:33 PM Central Daylight Time,

SKeib13337@... writes:

> Hi, I just called Dr Hares office, and they charge $4500 in addition to the

> surgery for " behavior modification " which is their support group. Not

> covered

> by BC/BS. What is with these doctors???????????

> Sheryl

>

Sheryl,

Doctor Hess does require upfront money of $2500 from some insurances that pay

poorly for the surgical fee. However, then mine paid well so I was

reimbursed my $2500. If Dr. Hares was within distance from you, Dr. Hess

(although probably a great deal farther) may be within distance also. Aside

from shortness from one person in his office, I don't think you would be

sorry going to him. He keeps the whole process pretty streamlined. Although

they schedule dates pretty far out, once you get insurance approval, you can

usually be moved up quite nicely. My original surgical date was Sept 19 and

when I got insurance approval I was moved up to April 27!

Dawn--South Suburban Chicago area

Dr. Hess, Bowling Green, OH

BPD/DS

4/27/00

www.duodenalswitch.com

267 to 165 5' 4 "

size 22 to size 10

have made size goal

no more high blood pressure, sore feet, or dieting!

[Guest guest]

I agree with checking out this surgeon. There are some successful

patients of his around here. However, I am very cautious about him.

Earlier this year he did the notorious " MGB " which is a Billroth II

procedure that causes deadly bile reflux and was abandonded 30+ years

ago for WLS. He then decided to do the DS, and as far as I have been

able to determine, got no instruction on this at all. I've seen more

than one post about his RNY post op patients with terrible

complications.

If I recall correctly he has had a dreadful complication rate, has

had to convert lap to open surgery more often that I was comfortable

hearing, and has had some bad complications with his post ops. That

isn't to say that there aren't complications with all surgeons. We

morbidly obese are a very high risk populations. But you might want

to as exactly how many DS surgeries he has done, how many had

complications and where he learned to do it and which surgeons he

uses as resources for his DS work. Many of the DS surgeons talk to

each other and check out concerns, problems, and techniques.

I know that he has a faithful following and has done other surgeires

(such as hernias, gallbaldders) for grateful patients. But it isn't

the individual success I'm talking about. But rather the overall

stats and willingness of a doc to do that which may be harmful to a

patient and not necessarily with good training.

These are my opinions only as I have monitored and read about DS, RNY

and MGB surgeons for more than a year.

in Seattle

> You may want to do a site search of . I believe there were

some

> complications with some of s patients that you would want to be

aware of.

[Guest guest]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Dr did the MGB. I

am extremely well informed about Dr Rutledege and his MGB practice.

And I know that Dr G started doing this surgery as well.

Here are 4 posts from another list about this:

in Seattle

#1

From another list:

Date: Fri Aug 3, 2001 6:17 am

Subject: and the MGB....

You all may remember that I refuse to endorse because he has

done the

MGB and talks out both sides of his mouth, on the one hand, saying

it's a bad

surgery, yet on the other, doing it anyway.

When Watts had to have her emergency revision of the MGB,

there was no

choice, it was or Bubba at the corner gas station, because

there were

no other doctors available. , you may remember, got a leak

after

' operated on her and nearly died. She is still at home

recovering and

will be out of work 6-8 weeks, instead of 3-4 days and she is the

sole support

of her baby son.

has admitted that he has already had to revise 2 of his 6 MGB

patients, too.

Here's an email I just got from someone else. I removed the name for

privacy

Re: [MGB-TRUTH]

doesn't have access to a computer until she goes back to work

but

I'll pass your question to her and post a response.

I can tell you from talking to her she liked Dr. as a person

but

she would not have chosen him to do her revision, she was forced to

go to

him by circumstances. She had terrible pain and was weak and in

terrible

shape, and he was the only doctor available other than Goober from

the gas

station in Mayberry who moonlights part-time as a surgeon. The other

doctors in the area were on vacation.

He told her family he had already had to revise two of his own MGB

patients

and that the MGB is bad, yet I am hearing from other people that he is

telling other people different things than what he said to

and her

family. This is consistent with what he has done since last October,

talking

out both sides of his mouth. He continued to do the MGB even after

he had

admitted it was a bad surgery.

got a leak and nearly died after the surgery by .

I am glad survived. You didn't ask for it, but my personal

opinion

of is not changed and I would not go to him for anything. I

wouldn't let him deliver kittens.

I do not believe you can trust him to tell you what he found, if for

no

other reason than his own interests are served by protecting Rutledge

from

malpractice, for one thing, since he, too, did the MGB on people and

likely

had to use the same tricks in his notes and billings and he has

already

demonstrated that yes, he does talk out of both sides of his mouth.

The fact that he seems nice and is likeable means nothing, because

you'll

note everyone said that about Rutledge and Ted Bundy, the serial

murderer,

and every single successful con man throughout history, too.

============

#3

Dr. Raoul

seems to be a very competent open and lap surgeon but he has

done

the MGB " on request " even after stating he knew it was a bad

surgery. He

talks out both sides of his mouth. He recently had to do an emergency

revision to RNY on one of Rutledge's MGB victims who had bile reflux

and he

admitted he had had to convert 2 out of 6 of his own MGB patients,

already,

too, yet he has recently told another patient the MGB isn't so bad

and she

doesn't need a revision. He admitted in email to me last fall

(2000) that

he knows the MGB is a bad surgery and dangerous (yet he continued to

do it!)

Greystone Professional Center

SouthPark BLVD

Winston Salem NC 27127

Telephone:

Licensee Name Raoul

License Number 38956

License Type Medical Doctor

Address GREYSTONE PROFESSIONAL CENTER

Address SOUTHPARK PROFESSIONAL CENTER

Address 1000 SOUTHPARK BLVD

City State Zip WINSTON SALEM NC 27127-

Birthdate 11/08/1959

License Issue Date 05/19/1990

Medical School Bowman Gray 1986

Internship School Carolinas Med 1987

Residency School Carolinas Med 1991

Specialty is General Surgery

Board Actions: No action

License Renewal Date 11/08/2001

=============

#4

> He does NOT still do the MGB!!!! I don't know how many he has done,

> but have talked to him about it. He stopped doing them before the

> insurance trouble stopped Rutledge.He said he realized the

> complication & stopped doing them because of it.

This is something that concerns me. In email, months ago, in 2000,

he told me

the same thing, that he had stopped doing the MGB because of the

complications.

But I know he did more after that.

Then in the pre-op group on Rotgut's list, there were people posting

after

Durham Regional cut off Rutledge, to relate that was still

doing the

MGB for a few weeks after that, but then there were posts after that,

saying

that had also stopped (after Rutledge) due to the insurance

issues and

controversy over Rutledge. That's anecdotal and not from ,

but it's

troubling.

Gonazales has email and he certainly knows how to contact this list

and me, too,

for that matter. He could take the opportunity to clear the air. In

fact, I

wrote to him several times asking him for his position on the MGB --

BEFORE the

insurance issues came up -- and he stopped replying.

=============

> > You may want to do a site search of . I believe there

were

> some

> > complications with some of s patients that you would want to be

> aware of.

>

>

>

>

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