Anthony Terracina Bariatric Surgeon MD, FACS

I was very impressed with Dr. Terracina from the start. He seemed both knowledgeable and humble. The staff has been delightful. They all seem to enjoy their work.
Nothing negative to report about WLSC yet.

Excellent, conscientious surgeon.

The office and Dr. Terracina have been great throughout!

Dr Terracina seems to really enjoy his work with helping obese people lose weight. He moved here from Florida where he already had a thriving practice so he would be able to continue doing wls without the constrains from Insurance companies that were cropping up in Florida. DR. Terracinna seems to be a very calm and patient person. I was put at ease by his demenor and was not afraid to ask all my questions I wanted answers to. He answered everyone's questions at he seminar and explained the wls procedure . recovery and aftercare. I like the fact that DR.Terracinna doesnt requore his patients to do a 2 wek liquid diet(only day before surgery)or the bowel prep.Also with him you dont go home with a drain tube unless he feels you really need one. Dr. Terracinna seems to be an experienced and knowlegeable bariactic surgeon.

Dr. Terracina is the greatest. Answered all my questions.The office staff is the best there is, always there to help in any way possible.The after care is structured with a lot of support. Dr. Terracina is a very good surgeron and his bedside manner is great. He is cute also. I would recomend him 100%.

I went to a seminar given by Dr. Terracina on October 5, 2004. (Dr. Clark was there too!) He seemed really nice and was very informative. He had no experience in performing that Adjustable Lap-Band surgery, but performed many other types of weight loss surgery in Florida and now in Virginia. I felt kind of weird about that but I he said he would have another surgeon there with him for the first three surgeries. I was hoping to be one of the first three but I was denied by Sentara Optima Health HMO because no rider was purchased by the employer. Everyone in his office is fantastic! They are really easy to speak to especially Tracey, Sean and Cat. (sorry if I spelled it incorrectly) I would definetly recommend his office.

My first impression was competent and informative.
My impression has remained constant.
He has the staff to really help through the mental, physical and paperwork aspects of WLS.
I was surprised by an additional charge for the program that had not been announced until the very end of the intro session. I would have preferred not to be blindsided by that.
Aftercare is very important to Dr. Terracina and his partner Dr. Clark.
They had an extensive and pretty much perfect pre-op education program that help a lot when I was post-op. Very good support and they have experts on staff so answers are quick.
He addressed the risks of surgery accurately and clearly but also showed how his statistics are much better than average.
Overall, I would recommend Dr. Terracina and WLSC.
Bedside manner was fine, patient and informative. Surgical competence, well I can't see inside but I'm feeling better every day, so I guess he's good!
The once complaint I had was with the nursing care at the Careplex in Hampton was inpersonal and inattentive. I had to call for anything, no one ever came in unless something beeped or it was time to check my vitals. I felt like whatever I needed was someone else's job and I was really imposing on their orderly progression of task performance to ask for anything.

Dr. Terracina was very caring and informative. He answered all our questions and was extremely helpful. The office staff was really on their toes. I needed to have my insurance approved within 2 weeks of my 1st visit and they did it! They scheduled all my appointments quickly and kept me informed.


I can't say enough good things about Dr. Terracina. He made me feel so comfortable through the entire procedure. His surgical competenance was awesome and what a great bedside manner. I can't wait to see him at my first appt.

My first impression of Dr. Terracina was that he was very knowledgeable. I attended the information session at Dr. Thomas Clark's Weight Loss Surgery Center in June 2003. I was told that Dr. Terracina was a new surgeon from Florida and an expert in the Lap Band procedure. I was impressed with the fact that he had performed over 500 procedures. He was able to answer all of our questions and explain the procedure very clearly.

The office staff was a little more intimidating, especially when they started talking about insurance. This is the part that scared me the most. At the time I had Anthem HMO and I was told by the office staff that I didn't have a chance at getting approval with Anthem HMO. I was immediately disheartened and went home feeling rather hopeless.

I have been overweight since childhood and was always rejected by my cousins and school peers because of my weight. Both my parents were morbidly obese and had Type II diabetes and high blood pressure. When I was a teenager, I was sick of the teasing and rejection so I went on a very low fat diet and used exercise tapes. My teen weight dropped from 180 lbs to 125 in less than a year. College stress brought my weight back up to 170 lbs and continued to fluctuate between 160 and 190 lbs into adulthood.

When I got marriedin 1999, I managed to control my weight at 160 lbs with chronic exercise. But just barely, if I stopped exercising, the weight went up. Then something tragic happened that sent me spiralling into obesity in 2001 - I develop degenerative bone disease in my spine. This was tragic because I was in constant pain and could no longer exercise. As a result, my weight ballooned up to 190 lbs, then 210 lbs, then 214 lbs and now 230 lbs on a 5 feet, 5 inch frame. This was all in a two year period. I became depressed because I could no longer exercise and I waa in chronic pain.

The rapid weight gain worsened my degenerative bone disease and I was recently diagnosed with ankylosing spondulitis (inflammation of the spine). I take a very expensive injection to control my spondulitis, but I was told by my rheumatologist that weight loss would ease some of the inflammation and improve my condition.

Over the past two years I have battled obesity related depression with diets such as Atkins, The Diet Center, The South Beach Diet, Jenny Craig (expensive), Low fat Diets, Protein Diets, Liquid Diets, Nutri System, Herbalife, Weight Watchers, Dr. Massey Weight Loss Clinic and Hypnosis. I could probably pay for the surgery if I had saved all of the money I've spent on diet plans.

This is my last hope. My current BMI is 39 (and rising). My co-mobidities include, degenerative bone disease, GERD, depression, high cholesterol, chest pains and family history of diabetes and high blood pressure. I am only 28 years old and I want my life back.

THE GOOD NEWS is that I am starting a new group insurance policy on November 1st, 2004: Trigon Keycare PPO. I hear that they are great to ork with and very supportive of approving weight loss surgery if it is medically necessary.

I have been calling Dr. Clark's office every month and bugging the Office Manager, Shaun to keep me on file for November. She is very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of insurance approval and the current legislation about insurance and weight loss surgery.

She invited me to come back in November to get weighed at their office and if my weight continues to increase, then they will move forward with my eligibility and insurance approval.

I will keep you posted in November about the status of my eligibility for surgery and insurance approval. I am excited.

I am a registered nurse at the hospital where Dr.Terricina was a surgeon. So I was able to see how he interacted with his patents. I also have several friends who he has performed bariactric surgery on and who have all givin him high praises.
During the time I had started attending his siminar and going to see the psycologist to prepare for the surgery Dr. Terricina moved to Newport News, VA. My husband works for the Department of Defence and he carries Blue Cross Blue Shield so we have a federal policy. I was accepted over the phone and recieved a letter from my insurance company telling me I was pre-approved for the surgery. I am not sure how I will work my aftercare program. I am a travel nurse and I live in differnt states throughout the year. I will be in Va on Monday the 9,10, & 11 of August for my pre-op classes. The staff have been very helpful with setting up time for my classes and helping with lodging arrangements while I am there for my surgery.