Uneducated dietician spreading negativaty about surgery

Ugh, I am so irritated right now. I just got a call from my mom who happens to work at the same place I do. Today we had 2 seperate training inservices, one for staff and one for managers on totally different subjects. I went to the manager one and my mom went to the staff one where a registered dietician came in to talk about nutrition to about 75 staff. Well she had a vendetta against gastric bypass (she openly stated she didn't think it was a good for anyone to have because it was life threatening) and proceeded to tell the group so many untruths and misconceptions about the surgery. She was saying that doctors in RI are just having anybody go through this life threatening procedure whether they need it or not, that it forever causes you to have serious problems eating healthy meals because you can never eat more than 1oz at a time. She was going on about doctors all over RI doing this surgery including at Landmark (we work in Woonsocket). She spewed some other garbage on the same lines. My mom got up and challenged her on what basis does this lady have knowledge of these issues since my mom has been with me through this whole thing and did a lot of research on her own before I had the surgery. Anyway this lady said she does nutritional evualuations for a gastric bypass surgeon but she didn't name who. I am so disgusted that my workplace actually paid this woman to come in and say this crap, especially since it isn't revealent to our line of work at all (we work in a day program for adults with developmental disabilities and none of them have or will be having this surgery). I am going to our human resource department tomorrow to find out who this lady was and who she works for and my mom is going to call them to file a complaint. It is so sad and discouraging to hear that people uneducated about gastric bypass in the medical profession are allowed to do this. I wonder how many people there were contemplating the surgery (I know atleast one was because we had tallked about it) and are now too scared to look into it because someone who should know about it said it was horrible. I can't tell you how much I wished I was there because I would have stood up and challenged her. Anyway, just needed to vent. Feel better now, but I still plan on pursuing this tomorrow. Megan

Hi Megan, First of all, thank your mom for all of us who's lives have been forever improved thanks to this surgery. Go get 'er. Shame on her. I know the nutritionist I saw was so positive and upbeat about how life changing and improving the surgery would be for me, she was really the one who helped sway my decision in the direction of having it. Thanks for letting us knw someone is out there standering our surgeons and our lives. Kriss J

Good for you and your mother for standing up to this woman and the falsehoods she was spreading. She should be reprimanded for it. She was there in a professional capacity and overstepped her bounds. The problem lies in her speaking to a subject for which she is not qualified. Her expertise is in nutrition, not medicine. If all she mentioned was that she has seen patients with nutritional deficiencies after GBS, that would be within her area. Health professionals need to be extra careful of the power the yeild when teaching. That was very irresponsible.

Debi: Very well said. Jackie