Armando Joya Bariatric Surgeon M.D.

I had the vertical sleeve performed by armando joya in puerto vallarta- July 2014. I purposely waited until now to review. Initially, I did not lose my weight after the procedure. I lost 11 pre-surgery and post, I lost an additional 9 lbs...not much weight lost right?? That's how I was feeling.. It wasn't until one year after my procedure that my weight started coming off... From July 2015 to now, I have lost 25 lbs. I started out at 190 and now weigh 145. I am short in height 5'0. Everything about dr. Joya is great. He and his staff, including the hospital was upscale. Understanding the nurses was a issue but they tried to accomodate me. Though people call me "skinny" I would like to lose about 20 more lbs.
I have taken sugar out of my lifestyle which I believes helps. Remember, you can stretch your stomach out again if you choose not to make a change after your procedure.
ONE MORE THING:: I used gerald Witt as the coordinator. He was nice and communicated with me UNTIL I made the initial down payment.. After that, he was done. Very dry in his communication. Also lied and stated he lived in puerto vallarta and that I would probably meet him when I was there. I regretted going through him to get up everything for me. Natalie who works with Joya was great.

I had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy on July 4, 2006. Great surgeon, great hospital and great experience. I lost 85 pounds and 9 years later I'm still maintaining within 5 pounds of the original 85. My weight still creeps back up from time to time but I take control of it sooner and get back to where it needs to be. No complications of any kind from day 1 until today. It was the best decision I ever made.

I found the care and treat of Dr. Joya and his team to be outstanding! Dr. Joya visited me a couple times in the hospital prior to the surgery, answered all my questions and made sure I was comfortable. The rest of his team, including the Nutritionist Nathalie, also came to my room and were very helpful and considerate through the whole process. The day following surgery again all the team came to see me at least once to check on me. I felt very well cared for. The Amerimed hospital was the nicest hospital I've ever been too. While not everyone speaks English well they certainly understand great patient care! Dr. Joya and Nathalie are still in contact with me and I feel like I have a real team supporting me on this journey. If you're thinking of surgery in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico I highly recommend Dr. Joya and his team!

Thank you Dr. Joya and staff! You have completely changed my life for the better. I am now 2 1/2 years out of RNY done by Dr. Joya and am now even thinner than I was in High School. My total weightloss is 152 lbs. and never going back. Dr. Joya and his staff were awesome and I am so glad I found him.

Much thanks, Joselyn in Oregon

I have heard so many great things about Dr. Joya. I decided to use him, even though there were cheaper doctors. (not by much) My surgery is scheduled for June 17, 2014. So far it is a 5 star for me..they communicate through email quickly and answer any questions I may have.

I had surgery with Dr. Joya in January and he was great! Nathalie was wonderful as well. The entire experience was smooth and I'd do it again. The hospital was clean and quiet and I got better care from the nurses than I have ever received in the US. Never once did I have to ask for anything. They were in right on time to being me pain meds without me asking. If it wasn't for the language difference you'd hardly know you were in Mexico. Most of the nurses can speak English and if they couldn't there was always someone close by to help. I think I only ran into 1 night nurse that didn't speak very much English and we muddled through with sign language of a sort.

My only slight complication if you could call it that was that I had to have an endoscopy after surgery to clear out something after I didn't pass the swallow test. It was not a leak though! I also had a little fever, but that's nothing Dr Joya can control. I always tend to run a fever after any surgery I have, not sure why. They were very on top of it though with X-rays and anything needed to make sure I was healing properly. All in all, I'd do it again and I'd have no reservations about going back to Dr. Joya again...or sending anyone else!

Although having surgery in another country was terrifying, the hospital was fabulous. Dr. Joya and his staff were wonderful. I am a nurse in the states and brought my best friend who is also a nurse. The process is streamline and I didn't have any complications. They do things a bit different in Mexico compared to the US, but I felt safe during the whole experience. It's been 8 months since my surgery and I've gone from 230 pounds to 173 pounds. This was the best decision of my life other than having my daughter.

I am 20 years old and a few months ago I was 280 lbs at five foot 6. I found out that my insurance would not cover the surgery, so my parents and I checked out Mexico and found Dr. Joya. We went for it! On February 10 we flew down to Mexico. A car met us at the airport and someone was there holding a sign with my name on it! We were taken to the Sunset Plaza Resort, an UNBELIEVABLE hotel (And I have stayed in very nice hotels, but this was just stunning!) the next morning (monday, the 11th) we went to Amerimed, the private hospital. It has a clean, modern interior. They tested my blood to see if I was okay for surgery and voila! Me and my parents were taken up to my room (which was huge, it had an anteroom with a modern sofa, desk and TV, updated bathroom, then a long hallway that led to the main part of the room which had bed, nice sofa, an arm chair, and a flat screen (that had a few channels in English like CNN, I'm sure there were more that we didn't find, several hundred channels). In the late afternoon I made Dr. Joya who talked to me and my family for a few minutes. I was then taken to surgery (gastric bypass, laparascopic). I woke up feeling a bit ill, which lasted through the night. The next day, Dr. Joya came into see me and elected to give me an endoscopy to see if this would clear a blockage. It did the trick and I felt GREAT--for a few hours. After that I became nauseaus and vomitted all night; Dr. Joya was contacted around four AM. He quickly assembled his surgery staff and by five I was under anesthesia again. It turned out that they performed another endoscopy and found another blockage much further down. Dr. Joya went a little further with the camera and discovered that my bowel had twisted. Of the complications you can have with this surgery, this one is fairly common. Dr. Joya corrected the problem, and it didn't cost us anything since we chose to do the Complications Fund (which I highly reccomend)I was supposed to leave the hospital Thursday (I think) but because I had a second surgery, I stayed until Sunday. Dr. Joya came to see me two to three time a day, not to mention one of his collegues would come to see me every hour or two. The nurses were great and most spoke ok good English. Shout out to my favorite! Can't remember his name right now (had it a few minutes ago...) heavy-set with black glasses. I left the hospital that sunday and returned to Sunset Plaza where my dad (who would go back to sleep there at night) made friends with some of the staff, they were so excited to see me and said they were hoping I would leave the hospital soon! Roberto and Diego ALWAYS asked me how I was doing if they saw me. When it came time to eat I first had a broth from chicken noddle soup, but for some reason nothing else sounded good. The staff got very involved in our search for sugar free popsickles. My dad finally found some at Wal-Mart (yes they have one, and a Costco, too!.) on Monday I had a check up with Dr. Joya and Natalie (the dietician) and then we flew home Tuesday. I continued to face nausea and ate very little though. We contacted Dr. Joya's office and he said I needed another endoscopy and that I should go to the ER. We went and they were unable to do the procedure. Dr. Joya talked to the ER docs on the phone to discuss my situation, which was great. However, they found out I had low potassium. They started giving me potassium through an IV but when you have low potassium and it goes through the IV too fast, you have something very similar to an allergic reaction. My feet and hands clenched shut, my neck, back and shoulders spasmed, my throat started closing up. They didn't know at the time that it was because they gave it to me so quickly, so they took out the potassium IV and I was left worse than when I came in, single most painful experiance of my life. The following Monday I began to have a repeat experiance at home. We called 911 and I was taken to a great doctor at the ER. He explained that this happens when you have low potassium (SO BEWARE; MAKESURE YOU GET ENOUGH POTASSIUM!) and he then called the local bariatric surgeon who was located twenty minutes away (I had called that doctors office before the surgery and asked if he could do the followup care, they said they couldn't take me on until 1 year post op) turns out that was the opinion of the hospital system, not the surgeon, and when he heard my story, he took me on! They did medical transport to get me to his hospital and I was kept there for two days. Once I was taken home and forcing myself to eat, I became less nauseous. Two weeks after that I had a kidney stone. Icing on the cake. Dr. Joya is great; the problem is he can't really provide follow-up care. You truly need it, I don't care what anyone says: you NEED a doctor post-op to work with. Everything worked out for me because the local bariatrician took me on. I would absolutely recommend Dr. Joya, just make sure you have follow up care!I am nearly two months out and have lost about 34 lbs since I started the liquid diet. Good luck to you, and feel free to message me any questions about Dr. Joya or my experiance so far post surgery!

Dr. Joya has a very efficient team and I have had three surgeries with him. All without complications. I would suggest him for people who are comfortable doing a lot of research on your own and don't need a lot of hand holding. As far as competence, he is a great surgeon. His team is very nice and all speak english. The hospital is adequate. Very clean and helpful nurses, but many of them speak only a limited amount of English.

For me, he is the perfect surgeon as I know what I want. I've done my research and have a support system at home.

I would recommend Dr Joya to anyone. My husband and I both have had RNY with Dr Joya and had great results. The Hospital is beautiful and there were no complications for either of us. www.drjoya.com