Closing of the Surgical Weight Control Program at Mercy

Just received this today and wanted to pass it on..... Dear Patients, Thank you for choosing to be a part of our bariatric program at Mercy Health Center. It has been our pleasure to help guide you through this life changing process. Your courage and stamina have been a source of great encouragement to us. We are writing today to inform you of the closing of the Surgical Weight Control Program at Mercy. As you may know, there is an increasing number of provider insurance companies that will no longer be offering a bariatric benefit. The surgeons and Mercy have together made the decision to discontinue the program at Mercy. Over the last few months, we have been reducing our intake of patients, bringing us to the point today of closing out the program for new patients. Our office will be open until November 19, 2004. During this time we will continue to find physicians and programs in the area and refer any request for bariatric surgery that may come our way. Dr. Thomas and Dr. Totoro will continue to care for you in a follow-up capacity. Mercy will continue to sponsor the monthly support group meetings through April 7, 2005. We look forward to seeing all of you in the coming months and sharing in your successes. We also thank you for all of your kind words and numerous referrals of friends, relatives, and coworkers. It has been a privilege to care for you and your needs in winning the battle against obesity. You are an inspiration to us as you reach your individual weight goals and discontinue so many of your pre-surgery medications. We wish each of you the best as you continue on your personal journey to freedom from the chains of obesity. If there is any way Mercy can serve you in the future, please don't hesitate to call.

Mark, I don't think I've ever met you at a Mercy meeting... Are you going to be able to make it to any of the few remaining meetings? Lori

How dissappointing....I just wish the medical and insurance communities would understand more fully the benefits of this surgery. Its just so sad that anyone who needs it cannot have it and that hospital bariatric centers are closing.............

This is horrible!!!! I agreee with Traci.... I just wnat to welcome anyone who is a part of the Mercy Support Group to come to any of the New Beginnings Meetings & join us online in our yahoo group....... WE are now an OH Chapter & learned great things in training & at the OH Convention in LA.....We would love to share them with you. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Becky

This is unfortunate. My obgyn recommended Dr. Thomas as who he felt was the finest surgeon, period, in Oklahoma. He said Totoro bailed because of malpractice and Thomas did not want to do the program alone. He also said that because they do so many surgeries they could have easily paid the malpractr**** insurance. I called even though I knew the program would be ending because he recommended him so much. I was very annoyed, to be honest, when they said I weighed too much for him to do surgery. I weighed 281 and I thought this was absurd. I know of people they operated on that were over 400 pounds! My surgery went flawlessly with my surgeon at St. Anthony, but I was very disappointed in how I was treated when I called Mercy. It's a shame such a fine hospital is not offering these life-saving surgeries for people.