Recommend your doctor, please!

Hello and welcome to the MD forum!  

I had RNY with Dr. David Von Ruden at St. Agnes Hospital and he is a very experienced doctor with a wonderful staff.
He's a bit shy at first but he is compassionate, caring and will be there for you always.  I am 4 years out and he has always returned my calls and even given me his cell#  He even called my house during the weekend to find out how I was coming along after surgery.

Good luck with your decision.  Make sure to go to few different seminar and that will help you make your decision.  :)

Take care,

Cira

 I was torn between VSG and the lap band and finally the idea I'd be losing faster won out. I decided to do this a year ago, and picked Dr. Averbach because he did RouxEnY on two friends of mine, and they were very happy with the outcome.

The only dissent I have with all the praise for Dr. A is you have to be fanatical about follow-up. I had my appointment with Dr. A in Sept. 2010, and it took three months of trying to get an appointment with his nutritional team which you HAVE TO use. As I understand, one nutritionist was retiring, and two new ones were coming in, and I got caught in the crunch. I'm still a little upset that I could be a couple of months post-surgery at this point but instead I have to wait 10 more days. If they had let me use my own nutritionist, I could have avoided that.

I went to Dr. Long's presentation also (when I lived in Burtonsville), and she seemed nice but personal recommendations mean a lot to me. 

It also helps that Dr. A has never lost a patient. As a widow, I didn't want to orphan my kids.

my surgeon is dr peter liao at gbmc. he is a fantastic doc, his team is great, and he has such an organized program that you get your appointments with ease! dr liao is accessible, friendly, and very professional!

 I also highly recommend Dr. Liao at GBMC. I had lap RNY, but they do VSG. The program at GBMC is very thorough -- you definitely feel like you're in good hands, and I think the world of Dr. Liao. He is mild mannered, very accessible, and will answer all your questions. I never feel rushed when I see him, as is often the case when you see any doctor. (I've also heard great things about his practice partner, Dr. Mo, but I can't recommend him personally.)

I went with Dr. Christine Li at Sinai hospital in Baltimore. I looked at different Doctors and went to several seminars for about a year before I decided on a Doctor and a hospital. I liked Dr. Li and her program so much that I drive about an hour to see her. I am 6 weeks out of surgery (RNY) and know I made the right decision choosing Dr. Li, her staff, and Sinai Hospital. Check her out; you will have all the help and support you need from her and her staff.

The surgeon I've been planning to use is Dr. Schweitzer at Johns Hopkins Bayview. However, I'm on my third different insurance company in 3 years (company got bought, then I changed companies 3 weeks ago) and none of them have been willing to pay for my VSG. So, I'm now looking at other surgeon options as I'm clearly going to have to be self-pay. They want $17,500 up front - ouch!!

Sheri

I can't speak highly enough about Dr. Averbach. He is an excellent surgeon.

I spent months researching WLS surgeons.  Go to JHH Bariatric Surgery, Dr Michael Schweitzer web site! .  He has the lowest complication rate in Maryland.  He was the first surgeon to do WLS using the Laprascope. He's excellent.and I would recommend him without hesitation.   

 I am  less than two weeks out from my surgery, I chose Dr. Averbach. I am very happy with my choice. I had an initial consult back before Dr. Cynthia Long moved and frankly I kind of feel I got scammed by her practice. I paid a $600 consult fee before I got the letter she was moving. Dr. Averbach's office did not have that kind of fee. I paid for my co-pays and the appointments, but not an initial out of pocket payment like that. 

The St. Agnes Hospital team has center of excellence certification. They have a great team that is very familiar with WLS. I would recommend signing up for one of their seminars. 

David Von Rueden with St. Agnes.   He's great.   I had to have emergency surgery out of town two weeks ago, the bariatric surgeon there called him and he told them to go ahead and fix the perforated ulcer i had   and YET the next day he tracked me down in my hospital bed and spoke to me for a long while to make sure I was ok and understand WHY he made the choice not to transport me home for surgery....


I heart DVR!  the man gave me back my life.