Question for Dr. Overcash patient

I agree!! He does what is NECESSARY to get the job right the first time!

Hi,   I had open RNY with Dr. Overcash on 4/11.     I can tell you that when I woke up I was told that I no longer had a spleen.  I read the surgical report and it said that my spleen was extremely adherent to my stomach.  It was nicked and would not stop bleeding and so was removed.  I can't possibly tell you what the results would have been if my procedure was done by lap but I do wonder all the time.  I haven't read of many other people having this problem.   On the up side I am down almost 70 lbs although Dr. O wants me to be down another 11lbs.  I just seem unable t o make the goal of over 1/2 a pound a day that he expects.  I am 35lbs from my goal. Hope this helps

I can't believe you lost your spleen!  Isn't that an important organ?  Wasn't it there fault that the spleen was nicked and would not stop bleeding?  Was he held liable for this incident?

OOOH I'm sorry you had to have this happen!!! My gosh..I'm sure there are things that can happen during anyone's surgery that can cause problems...like adhesions that the surgeons don't see prior to surgery and other things - like the spleen adhereing to the stomach.   I just read up on the spleen and it is an important organ that helps in the destruction of old red blood cells and holding a reservoir of blood...however if its diseased or in this case nicked...it can be removed. So to answer Darnell's question one can Live w/o the spleen...and obviously OC recognized that otherwise as a surgeon/medical expert he would have found an alternative  to fix the problem w/o removing it.  I have nothing against it being done Lap but what OC has said about it vs open..I see his point of view and understand why HE chooses to get it done that way. In any case..as I said before - he does both lap and open.  That is ABSOLUTELY GREAT that you're only 35 lbs from goal!! AWESOME!!! Congrats!! Babydog - have you joined our online support group? Please stop by post pics and comments of your story - Im sure others would love to hear it. Hugs

Hi,  First to Darnell, while I do wonder if the loss of my spleen could have been prevented I have accepted the fact that it was a complication of my surgery.  However, had I have been given the choice spleen or surgery I would have kept my spleen and checked out alternative options. Babypphat,     I had joined the online support group but then I unjoined cause I couldn't handle the 400 emails that got dumped in my box.  I am afraid I am not very computer savy and have has to yet master the photograph aspect of it.  For starters I would have to find a picture figure out had to scan it in my computer,  far beyond my current skill and time availability.   I must say that I have to ask you this,   I know you that you truly like Dr. O and I would like to also, but I find his people skills offensive. That's the nicest way I know how to say it.  My last weigh in I lost 24 pounds in 2 months and was told that that's not good enough, I must be eating too many carbs, and that he implied, no he pretty much outright said t hat I wan't listening to him.    Meanwhile,  I am very pleased to be loosing 12 lbs a month.    Please tell me what approach you take with the man to make your visits to him tolerable and friendly? thanks

HI - Babydog...I do believe that you are correct to say that having the spleen nicked and needed to be removed as a complication of surgery is the correct assumption. I would have taken it that way as well because you really never know what can happen. If he still does it..OC comes out before surgery and says - "DO you understand the risks involved?" And we all say  - Yes. That being any complication and/or death. I know he has done many many surgeries and has not had spleen "accidents" but that's not to say any other surgeon either would not have an accident and ......  even under lap surgery I've heard surgeons' say there could be mishaps. On the online group - our overcash online support group link is http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/floridabariatriccenterw lssupportocala/    I can tell you that we do not generate anything close to even 10 emails daily ..meaning at the most you can get about 2 - 5 if that on a given day. We are not that big a group and I know what you mean about getting 400 or more emails. I'm savvy when it comes to that and I could NOT handle receiving that much so I would elect to stay away from that many but we're a small group and generally ALL OC patients. I do "like" OC but I'm not blind to the fact that he can be abrasive and show tough love.  We all talk about it in the group many times with many people. I think that's why he intentionally does it to provoke us to want to change our ways because many of us are in denial as to how much carbs and things we sneak into our diet that we don't think are necessarily bad. So during other phase of this process he is tough as nails. No bones about it..he's upfront and in your face about the surgery, and possible complications and then he gets tougher afterwards and many of us don't like it. I knew one girl that cried after a visit and after talking to her we got her to admit that although she wasn't grazing her choices of food were not the best either and that's what was slowing down her weight loss and what did she do after her visit? She went out and got ice cream "to get back at him" but honestly she only deceived herself!! Cause the ice cream was gonna do her harm not him! Hello!  So you see she didn't learn anything.  Also he wrote to the group once and he did state that he was tough on us cause he wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing and that someday in the future we didn't have to repeat this process again. He wants us to learn from our mistake of dealing with issues with food and move beyond it. And so while I didn't like the treatment I understand his reasons. Furthermore I was more compliant in the beginning cause my goal was and is to never have to gain enough where I have to have a revision...and despite my best efforts of being good in the beginning I still slip and do the wrong thing... imagine if I had continued to let my bad habits continue. I would have failed more sooner than later. Believe me - I'm NOT making excuses for him because we expect to be treated with care especially from a medical person who is supposed to be nice but then if we are treated with tough love and still don't listen what can we expect if we are treated in a gentle way? Are we gonna listen?.  On that note...I'm not a parent but who do you think learns the lesson of life...a kid who learns things through bumps in the road or the kid who has it easy all the way? Are we tough on our kids sometimes when we know it may hurt us to punish them but we do it cause otherwise they'd never learn? Do you understand what I'm trying to say? I hope so. On a final note to your question is that you do the BEST you can and follow everything requested. Feel that you've done your best and be happy and satisfied with those results once you've achieved that then even if he's not happy you'll be happy cause it's YOU that has to live with those results now and beyond his visits.  Believe that what he says are suggestion..it is not law and don't let the words hurt your feelings as long as you know you're doing your best.  I don't get angry when I know people are talking about me and it's the truth...but I get angry if it's not the truth and I'm not given the opportunity to defend myself. So as long as you know the truth then be okay with it. Don't sweat the small stuff. By the way this is no expert advice. LOL

We wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't give tough love when it is warranted. Just my two cents.

Here is an interesting article on this topic from the ASBS:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/558433

HTH.

Kristin, that was an interesting article, but 1 death, 2 readmissions and 3 leaks in less than 300 patients done open, sure don't sound like good statistics to me.  I bet Dr. Kim's stats are better than that as well. Dr. Jawad, whose statistics I'm familiar with, has done over 2500 Lap RNYs and has 2 deaths!  If Dr. Jawad had as many deaths as in the article, he'd have 8-9 deaths at this point.  His stats are FAR below the statistics cited in the article and he does lap 98% of the time.  I'll put him up against an open surgeon for infection alone, any day of the week and yes, I might be a bit biased.  (grin)

I too was surprised with those published stats, and was surprised to see that it was from this year - not 30 years ago.