Looking for Dr. Gagner? Good luck!

Hi there,

I am curious what kind of revision were you, rny or band or failed ds?

Thanks

VBG TO DS

yes same thing happened to me, i was going to have him do my revision, but there were some things that he reminded me of a used car salesman, i could not stand it.  i think technically he is great, but i also think he is a jerk....

Ditto!

I had  consulted him over email and was interested if he did do revisions, he emailed me back i got an upper gi, he didn't even see me in person and agreed to operate on me.

Long story short i decided not to have my DS revised, I am trying very hard to make it work, 5 years out and starting all over again, I am sure if i had my CC shortenend i would not have struggled but cel la vie.

Dutchy

 That all sounds horrible! Have you considered Dr. Marchesini in Curitiba, Brazil? He is one of the kindest, most experienced DS surgeons in the world, and never would jerk you around like that. For what you were paying Dr. Gagner, you'd probably be able to cover the entire trip and surgery (mine was a total of about $15,000 six years ago, and that included flying my mom down with me). Best of luck to you in getting your DS, as you do not deserve to be given this run-around!

In my earlier post about the events that led to Dr. Gagner cancelling my husband's surgery, I forgot to add that Dr. Gagner said the anesthesiologist had switched the order of patients without Dr. Gagner's knowledge. This doesn't change the fact that he was apparently overbooked that day (unless the anesthesiologist was handling the patients of other surgeons that day, too - is that possible?), but it provides more insight into what was going on at the hospital.

On February 19, 2012 at 12:10 PM Pacific Time, jmckel1 wrote: "...Dr. Gagner apologized and later explained that he was "too tired" at the end of the day, and didn't feel he would be "in top shape" to perform the delicate surgery..."

I feel your frustration.  Any surgery is a stressful time.  I had a good experience with Dr. Gagner.  I trust his skills and surgical judgment.  Plus, that is such a low self pay price to pay for a revision.  The other top dog revision DS surgeons are nearly double that.  If you want a quality surgeon, I'd hang in there with Gagner.  He puts challenging cases at the beginning of the day.  I bet you would be first when he gets things figured out.... though, it would be stressful waiting for that time to come.  Good luck with everything.  Hang in there.  Revisions are a very big deal and worth thinking things through carefully even though you may feel frustrated now.

I will concur that someone changed the order of Dr. Gagner's patients.  My daughter was having the intestinal part of the switch done on Friday the 17th.  We were at the hospital at 6:00 am.  Dr. Gagner came in about 7:30 and was surprised to see my daughter and I in the day surgery area.  He asked us who changed the order of his surgeries.  We said that we had received the phonec all at 5:00 pm on Thursday from admissions to be at the hospital for 6:00 am.  He then said it must have been the anesthesiologist that made the change.  Lauren was released this morning from Sacre-Coeur.  We are leaving to go back to Ontario on Wednesday or Thursday.


Jan

Thanks for the confirmation, Jan! Hope Lauren is doing well.

Julie