Tower Health Medical Group Weight Loss Surgery and Wellness Center Bariatric Center
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I can't say enough about my surgeon. I was impressed with him from day one and my respect and admiration for him and his staff has only grown. Every single person in his office is caring and considerate. He is a perfectionist and his record proves it as he as done close to 600 surgeries and has not lost 1 patient. He visited me in the hospital twice each day and his concern is genuine. He is a stickler about smoking. He absolutely will not operate on anyone if they currently smoke. HE also puts you through a LOT of pre cert testing (which I was grateful for). He and his staff are very big on aftercare. He called me the day after I came home from the hospital and saw me one week after the surgery. I have numerous ways to get hold of him and I have never had a phone call not returned within hours. I recommend him highly and would do it again in a second.
Dr. Tichansky and his staff was and is the greatest. Dr. T always had time to answer my questions. At your first visit you receive a large 3-hole notebook of information about your surgery, before, during, and after. We discused the risks involved with surgery, but he has a great record. He was very precautious. I had some lab results which were in the normal range but a little high he repeated the test until he was satisfied. While I was in the hospital, the staff were super. During surgery the entire staff took great care of my husband. You know how they like to worry. Dr. T's surgical skills and well as his bedside manner were great.
Well, my first impression was made before I even met Dr. Meilahn. Let me tell you, I learned to not let someone elses opinion influence my feelings. My oldest son has a friend who had her surgery by Dr. John
Meilahn. She praised him to the highest, except she said he is "cocky". I was so nervous before I met him thinking I am not gonna like him (because I had this impression of this young cocky Dr. who thinks he is the S***) and I have to not even think about that because I definitely want Dr. Meilahn to do my surgery if I am approved. He is the best in his field and I can't let opinions get in my way of a safe and healthy outcome.
Okay, to make a long story short. I met Dr. John Meilahn on June 24, 2005 at Temple Hospital in Philadelphia for my initial consult. I was so impressed by him, and his staff are excellent! Everyone so far are just so professionally serious about the gastric surgery.
(Unlike the first consult I had at Crozer Hospital in Chester, that's another story not worth talking about.)
And you know what I have concluded? Dr. John Meilahn is the S*** !!!
He is very serious about the surgery, very thorough, so confident, and his attitude is NOT cocky. What I saw was a man who is an expert in his surgical abilities who displays such a serious, positive confident demeanor. He makes no jokes. This is my life and I felt very sure of him right away. Everywhere I have been since my consult everyone is talking about this man. He is THE BEST! He is also the director of bariatric surgery at Temple. As of 6/24/05 Dr. Meilahn had done 513 surgeries with not one fatality. I've been hearing the death rate is 1 in 200. It seems to me Dr. Meilahn has exceeded the statistics, by more than double.
So I must say since I have met him I have no doubts and not a worry about the success of my surgery. I feel very priveledged and blessed to have Dr. Meilahn as my surgeon.
Thank you God.
And thank you Dina for finding him.
1 person found this helpful
Dr. Meilahn was wonderful, he really cares about his patients, and treats you like a human being.
He was very informative and seemed knowledgable about wls.
His staff was nice as could be.
He insisted that even when I was at goal, I still make my appointments for bloodwork and checkups.
He told me flat out the risks of the surgery.
The only thing I wish I could have had more help with, is the nutrition part.
I have nothing but good things to say about Dr. Meilahn and the members of his staff. From the first appointment through now (10 days post-op), he and his entire staff were caring and competent professionals. They are all very personable and answer questions as best they can and even tell you when they can't. Dr. Meilahn and Dr. Laurie White operated on me. I met them at the first appointment in February and saw them again at my pre-op appointment 5 days before surgery. While I was waiting to be taken in for surgery, both of them came in to see me. When I was wheeled into the operating room, the first one to greet me was Dr. White with her reassuring voice.
After surgery, there were a few disputes between Dr. Meilahn and staff at Temple Hospital. In each one, Dr. Meilahn (and his staff) came down on the side of my comfort.
I was operated on a Monday and discharged on Wednesday. On Saturday, Dr. Meilahn called me at home to make sure I was doing okay and asking specific questions about what I was feeling, blood sugars, etc.
Vicki Frain, Dr. Meilahn's nurse practitioner, is nothing short of marvelous. She helped me get preauth from my insurance company for the pre-op tests. She visited me in the recovery room and every day I was in the hospital. When I went in for my one week post-op appointment and she saw me, she gave a big smile and a thumbs-up, saying "you've made it through the first week, way to go!"
The doctor's office arranged the pre-authorization for the surgery from my insurance company. I didn't have to do anything but get the pre-op stuff to Dr. Meilahn.
The absolutely only negative thing I can say is that the phone system that Temple provides Vicki is one line. If she is on the phone, your call goes immediately to voice-mail. The system does not let Vicki know she has voice-mail so it could be the end of the day before she gets back to you if you aren't lucky enough to get her on the phone.
I would recommend Dr. Meilahn's office highly to anyone considering the surgery.
Dr. Myers and his staff are awesome! I felt completely educated about my surgery. I am now 4 weeks post op and down 31 lbs. Dr. Myers program is well described in his informtional seminars and it was well worth getting my life back.
Dr. John Meilahn reminds me of Dr Kildare, if any of you are old enough to remember him. He was very thorough and I could tell he is the best....as I have been told by many. The one question he forgot to ask me but found me, in the waiting room, was did I smoke. I was not going to lie....to much depends on this so I explained I had just quit. He looked me stright in the eyes and repeated twice," I do no nor will I ever operate on anyone who smokes" And you could tell by eye expression and tone of voice he means business. IF I can not thank Dr. M for anything else...he pushed me over the edge,, kind of how bad do you want this..... I haven't picked up a cigerate since. I will tell you all more once I am post op.
Yeh!!!! Dr. M is the bomb...I have had no problems and doing great thanks to The Temple Team and Dr John Meilahn's brillance..lol
I absolutely loved him from the minute he walked in the door.
He did nothing but impress me the more he talked. He didn't sugarcoat things but his bedside manner was excellent.
The office staff knew what they were doing and were friendly.
There was nothing I didn't like about him!
Future patients of his are extremely lucky. He is an awesome doctor and I wouldn't trust anyone else.
There is a structured aftercare program and they want you to attend meetings afterward. Taking vitamins and not overdoing it was discussed.
Like I said, he's awesome. I've met quite a few surgeons in my day and there was only one in Minnesota I'd recommend and Dr Meilahn is the first competent, friendly surgeon I've met in Philly. I know I am in good hands!
He is super at both - he knows what he is doing, has had no deaths, a very rare incident of leakage, and his bedside manner is absolutely fantastic. It was like talking to a friend and not a surgeon!
I'm psyched!!! :)
I cannot honestly say that my first impressions of Dr. Meilahn gave me the warm fuzzies about having the surgery. He does however come across as knowledgable, serious, direct, and detail-oriented. He will go over everything with you regardless of any prior consultations that you have had or research that you have done. And, he made me have 90% of my tests redone from another surgeon to confirm and evaluate any risk to his satisfaction and to get Temple clearances. After my first visit, he absolutely convinced me that either my prior tests were wrong or I was a walking and breathing miracle with my heart condition, because I was still mobile (working and chasing after 2 children) and not on oxygen. He also stresses aftercare and makes you sign his explanations and risk assessment and results in one form or another after about 3 of your office visits prior to the surgery. Also, on surgery day and during your hospital visit, he drives most of the nurses nuts with his demands and doesn't come across with the best bedside manner, except a little seemingly practiced pat on the hand for some reassurance that you have made the right decision in his visit before the anestesiologists start the process. HOWEVER, in hindsight, he is the MOST CARING and DEDICATED surgeon/doctor I have ever met with a wonderful track record. Even most of the other hospital staff that he drives crazy will not dispute that he is one of the best and sing his praises and what he lacks in bedside manner, his assistants, nurses in the bariatric ward and most of his office staff make up for that. I was in the hospital during the New Year holiday and he showed up there everyday more than once, even in the middle of the night and made sure the skelton staff at all hours followed his patient care instructions and even moved me from the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (which he put me there right after the surgery to make sure I would be monitored for cardic complications...which I had NONE OF...) to the bariatric ward at 1am because the nurses there were babying me too much and he wanted me doing more laps more frequently. He does not tolerate any staff who does not follow his protocol and anything that causes the patient additional pain or stress. (Even after laying in pain 45 minutes too long waiting on the Upper GI x-ray table the day after the surgery, even I felt sorry for doctor who administered the test (who kept getting personal cellphone calls and interrupting the procedure BEFORE Dr. Meilahn walked in to see what the delays were) and the staff he was strongly admonishing in the hallway. Less than 5 minutes later I was going into another x-ray room where the table worked and he was right there himself making sure I was OK and helping me move and he stood there and waited for the results to make sure they were OK and that I could go back to ICU). I even heard him and could see that he respects the hospital employees that show competance. And, he DOES warm-up significantly during your visits after the surgery and even smiled and laughed a couple of times with me. It's easy to come to realize that he takes great pride in his work and success and goes to great lengths to ensure that you will have no complications (even calling you at home in your first days home and as needed and trust me, he is a busy, busy guy). In dealing with him, just learn: 1) Keep an open mind about his personality and don't argue: he will get what he wants with you and your care and all the staff. 2) Don't joke or be non-serious with him about anything related to the surgery. 3) He is one of the best surgeons and he and his assistants (his surgical/office assistant is so warm and nice, but also professional) have your best interest at heart. 4) Follow the aftercare instructions, he and his staff check (including bloodwork) and seem to try to trick you into giving you the wrong answer so that they can lecture you on doing or not something that was not written in the red book (trust me I have that thing memorized and followed it and their class training diligently and I got lectured twice so far). 5) You don't have to marry the guy and I would rather have a surgeon who is to quote a nurse "socially autistic" and a GREAT SURGEON rather than has a great, warm personality and is not a great surgeon. However, now I see that Dr. Meilahn is caring and simply has his own way of showing how much he cares. He is a 9.9 out of 10 in terms of a surgeon and person.