??Dr. Tishler??

Hmmm...burn my bridges....leave bills unpaid...if I could pay him now...I could have paid him then............let me just say..........first of all...I did not realize this bill was still 'out there' since this procedure was performed in 2004, my husband and I have had to refinance our house twice to consolidate our medical bills because my insurance, when I was working, was very poor...at the time, I was a school bus driver...not a professional anything...I drove schoolbus so I could take my 4 children with me.....why this bill slipped through the cracks so to speak I do not know.....IF we had the money back then, I would have paid the bill....I have a family of 6 and $613 is what I usually have left over to spend on groceries......."OH POOR ME"....well let us see....obviously nobody else is going to provide my family with sympathy... so I damn sure amgoing to do it....since this gall bladder removal..I have had a family of 5 stay with us for 4 months because they were homeless and the father was in the hospital in critical condition......I had my mentally disabled sister live with us because she was being abused by her boyfriend.....I have witnessed my son have numerous seizures.....watching him for hours in the emergency room...not knowing what his name is...who we are....where he goes to school...he is 16...and we have to tell him he cannot get a license until he is seizure free for a year because the meds that we just cannot get right aren't keeping his body from convulsing....I have had the news that my beautiful 12 year old daughter has to go to the childrens hospital to a specialist because she has scoliosis, I have driven my son to North Carolina to college just to be told "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, you have to have an additional loan for $11,000"....were we able to do it?? No....We had to bring him back home...I have had to sell my parents house...on the day the moving truck was there, the ambulance was there....for the next two and a half weeks I watched my father's health fail...I was the person who had to call the doctor and tell him NOT to put a feeding tube in my father's body ....so he would slowly starve to death....I watched him die....I set up my elderly mother in her new apartment and I am the one who takes care of her....I have had the doctor tell me that this excruciating pain in my back will never go away because it is degenerative disease....I cannot sit or stand for more than 10 minutes at a time...I cannot clean my house like a normal mother can and I am only 38 years old....I cannot play with my 7 year old son like a normal healthy mother can..when he gets home from school I am usually laying on my bed because I am in pain..what does he do? He sits next to me...does his homework....reads a little....sometimes helps with laundry and then goes outside when daddy gets home...and yes I have people tell me "Well if you would just lose some weight...maybe your back wouldn't hurt".....I am on medicare....yes I have prescription insurance.....I still have to spend 1/4 of my medicare check on the 9 prescriptions that I have to take numerous times a day......The rest goes with my husbands check toward household BILLS and food for the family.......I DO NOT BURN MY BRIDGES.....as a matter of fact I go back, cross them and try to fix them if at all possible....I DO NOT IGNORE MY BILLS....AND YES...I WILL SAY POOR ME........I AM NOT BASHING ANY DOCTOR......JUST STATING WHAT HAPPENED..........so now here I am.......BOWING OUT.....TURNING MY CHEEK.....AND BACKING DOWN.......LAURA .....OUT

Please don't leave the board over differences of opinions. Theres a lot of good info from a lot of good people including "Momo". As far as Doctor's I had Dr. Nazdam and he was Wonderful! No attitude at all, just a regular Joe who you could ask any question to. Take a look see at him. I Think Cyndee on here went to Danbury hospital and it is a 'Center of Excellence" so you may want to pick her brain about those doctors. as well. If you change your mind and want to ask anyone here any questions just do it. There is way too much good information on here to be walking away from it. Take Care,

It was unfortunate to read comments that critiqued someone's ability to pay an old doctor's bill-- comments such as those are simply hurtful and should not be tolerated. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with people exchanging their impressions of different doctors and what we perceive their level of skill and patient care. They are not personal attacks on the patients-- but, yet, sometimes I see personal attacks directed at those people who post their negative impressions of particular surgeons. I think the original poster is owed a big apology.

I don't know Steve I have re-read her post several times, and I still read it as bashing Aranow. I have a hard time with her acting like it is a doctor's obligation to take back a patient with a history of non payment for services. You disagree that WLS is elective? You disagree that her post on the whole issue could dissuade people from investigating his bariatric program? You disagree that doctors don't need to pay bills too and deserve to be paid for services renedered? Sorry if I was mean spirited, I have read some of your posts in the past Steve and you are less than sugary sweet a good deal of the time. I didn't bring up the unpaid $613.00 bill she did. That's an awfully large bill to "not know about"....

Your retort only compounds the insensitivity of your initial comments. First, I can not and do not judge how others manage the finances. I have no way of knowing others' financial pressures, personal obligations and stresses. Therefore, I have no way of assessing and then judging how they manage their affairs. Secondly, I do believe that gastric bypass surgery, which saves lives and cures co-morbidities is no more elective than taking high blood pressure medication or have angioplasty (after all, there are less effective ways of fixing the medical problems alleviated by those means). Therefore, I do not find it unreasonable that a surgeon should accept those patients who have a means to have an insured procedure (regardless of an alleged debt owed to an associate). You ask if I do not agree that bills deserve to be paid for services rendered? As neither you nor I were present when the alleged debt was incurred and have no knowledge of the quality or lack thereof of the services rendered, we can not judge whether the debt deserves to be paid.

Wow, hope you don't leave the boards over this. I personally live in Cromwell, only 5 minutes from Middlesex and I didn't choose Dr. A. either for several reasons, including the fact that I don't think he's the best surgeon. OKay...maybe if you want the "open" surgery, then he is very qualified but if you want laparoscopic, forget it. He says he doesn't do laproscopic surgery because he can see more, however, it's really because he doesn't have the experience with the laparoscopic procedure. For me when faced with the option of very qualified surgeon that does "open" surgery (big scar, more chance of hernia & other complications, longer recoup time, etc) and a very qualified surgeon that does laparoscopic (shorter recoup time, virtually no scars, less chance of complications), I chose the laparoscopic surgeon. I have great insurance so money wise it didn't matter for me where I went but there are major differences money wise for those who are self-pay or medicaid or medicare. Dr. A makes his salary doing surgeries so it's definately about the money for him. At Yale for instance where I had my surgery, the surgeons are salaried by the university so it doesn't matter to them what your financial situation is and if you qualify for this life saving surgery, you will get it. They will work with you on price if you are self-pay and work out a payment plan and they accept medicare and medicaid. There are many good, qualified surgeons in this state and it's really a matter of preference of surgery type and whether or not you trust/like the surgeon. You need to feel comfortable and confident in the surgeon you choose. It's definately important to take your time when researching all that goes along with WLS. By the way, I am NOT bashing Dr. A. or any other doctor with this response, however, I do think that most newbies aren't always getting impartial advice about surgeons on this board.

I don't think anyone is DR bashing. They are human like anyone else and everyone is differrent. I have left many docs because we simply didn't click. A patient and doctor have to work as a team and it can sometimes not run smooth;y. You just have to go where you are comfortable. As for my doc.....Dr, Nadzam? He is a regualr Joe as Julio and said. I feel he is very caring and empathetic as well as having marvelous surgical skilss. We click together. He also likes me because as I was being sedated for my endoscopy , I called him Mc Dreamy.

Hi I just want you to know I felt extremely comfortable from the first time I saw and heard Dr. Darren Tishler.  The seminar he gave was very down to earth and he answered questions so we could all understand.  When I went to the support groups before surgery he did the same. The day I went to his office he talked clearly and answered all of my questions and my husband's.  I had my lap-band put in on 4/30/07 and 2 hernias taken out..  There were other Dr's that I checked out but did not care for.  Everyone has their own story and preferences.  I will praise Dr. Tishler for ever, he and his office staff. You must feel comfortable so good luck where ever you go ..Joanneg