Beemen Khalil Bariatric Surgeon M.D., M.S.
First off, please note this review is NOT about his surgical skills of which I have no knowledge. He seems to be a very competent and experienced doctor from other reviews. This review is strictly about his bedside manner when I went to him for a second opinion.
I had a LapBand by Dr. John Feng in September of 2010 (he is a GREAT guy btw - see my review of him). It did NOT work and finally, after two and a half years, I was at my wits end, incredibly discouraged, and had no hope left in me. I went to Dr. Khalil for a second opinion re a revision. I was sobbing in his office (and I'm not the kinda girl who cries - am very stoic and straight forward - military kid - so this was highly unlike me). As soon as we started talking it was IMMEDIATELY apparent that he would not even consider doing a revision for me. He hardly acknowledged that I was EXTREMELY upset (see above), and never once in ANY way tried to calm me down and help me - he offered no alternatives! We went on like this with him telling me all the reasons he won't do it, blah blah blah... but here's the real kicker: (and yes, he ACTUALLY said this), "Studies show that if you fail at one weight loss surgery you'll fail at another one". HUH? Did I just hear right?? Why, WHY would you tell that to someone who is so upset because you have lost ALL hope (AGAIN)... and are thinking that maybe, just MAYBE there might be SOMEONE out there who can help you??? Why would you hurt someone so much? This is a DOCTOR? His comment utterly destroyed me -- I left feeling even MORE hopeless, feeling a complete failure, and almost suicidal as it now seemed that I would always be fat and unhealthy. Needless to say, I went elsewhere AND yes, I found a surgeon (GREAT guy, again) who was appalled that another doctor would say this to a distressed patient. So, as I said, while I am guessing he is a very skilled surgeon, and maybe a likeable guy in many other ways, IMO a person who treats a patient this way is NOT someone I'd ever consider as my doctor.
To those of you who've had him and liked him - I am happy for you. But since this was such a large transgression on his part, I felt it should be shared.