Question:
Info from previous pts. of Dr Shawn Garber, 488 Great Neck Rd, Great Neck NY

quality of care, hospital experience, his pain management,any infections, perferations, which of the two hospitals he operates from to use    — pat F. (posted on January 7, 2002)

January 7, 2002
Hi Pat, I wanted to let you know that Dr. Garber is a member of this site's database. If you go to the "find a doc" link at the top of any page and follow it, you will get to Dr. Garber's page. Included with this are the insurance companies that have paid for surgeries with him and also a list of member's names and comments about him. You will then have access to members' e-mail addresses and be able to write and ask them your specific questions. I have found this to be a more efficient way of getting your questions answered by a select group of members who may not see your question on the board. Here is his page http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/mdcomments.phtml?N=971746392 Hope this helps. Shelley
   — Shelley.

January 7, 2002
You can read comments about Dr. Garber (or any surgeon) by going into the "Surgeons" heading in the top menu. Many people have comments about him. I personally briefly considered him but chose not to. He seemed competent enough and he uses some of the best Long Island hospitals. I went with Dr. Lester Cooperstone from Syosset instead. He seemed equally competent and he doesn't send you to a preselected list of doctors chosen by him. A bonus turned out to be that his waiting time for the surgery was less than half of Dr. Garber.
   — Julie S.

January 7, 2002
I don't doubt Dr. Garber's surgical skill, however I would not personally reccomend him to anyone. He was my surgeon for several months, but I recently changed to Dr. I. Michael Leitman in the city and couldn't be happier. Dr. Leitman has a lot experience with both the RNY and VGB, he performs LAP or Open (a 4" mini-incision for open). He was sincere and affable and has a very competent office manager/insurance coordinator. Those are the things I was missing in Garber. Also, consult to surgery date turnaround seems to run about 2 months with Leitman at Lennox Hill - it was about 5 months for St. Johns with Garber and would have been 8 months for St. Francis. Had I not started out with Garber I ould have had this surgery 4 months ago. Although, I don't regret seeing all of those doctors and knowing exactly where my health stands...I do regret losing all that time.
   — PaulaM

January 7, 2002
Although you can find patients view on Dr. Garber on this site under doc listing I don't think anyone will say anything negative, but here they can speak anonymously, and that what I'm going to do. I change surgeon because Dr. Garber did not give me a definite date, every time I asked him she always said "it will take several months" What the hell is several months???? I feel he has too many patience and not enough time in the day to accomodate. His office staff always put you on hold only to come back with an "I don't know" answer, then they'll tell you they have to get back to you with an answer and they never call back. I change surgeon and got a date an month later, that was in July, had I waited on Dr. Garber it would have been a year. I wouldn't mind the wait but just give me a definite time when I would have my surgery so I can make arrangements . Good luck on getting a date....I never could. 4 mos post-op 75 pounds down.
   — [Anonymous]