William Yates Bariatric Surgeon M.D., F.A.C.S.

i had my first meeting with dr yates on april 21 2001. my husband and i liked him very much. the next time i was suppose to see him was on july 2 after i had my pre-op tests. at this time i heard he was sick and had to reschedule my appointment with him. at this time i called from the hospital and scheduled my visit for july 14. i then get a call the friday before that to reschedule again. this is when i found out that dr.yates was closing his office. i was to have my surgery on july 20. the new start program got me together with dr ronald gaskins. i met him on july 19, had my surgery, on his day off, on july 20. he is a very nice and competent doctor. he always had time for me. always had time to answer
all of my husband and mine questions.

Dr Yates is a fine man, surgeon, witty and very honest. Do to his on changes he is closing his practice. I will miss him. His nurse was very patient and informitive, and all of his staff were kind and supportive.I didnt find anything unlikeable about him.If he would decide to open his practice again I feel he would still give his best. I recieved informative letters, giving me firm instructions of how to proceed with the changes I am going to have. The best part is the seminar, that is what made the decision to have the surgery for me. Being fat to me was riskier than having the surgery.

I attended a seminar here in Kansas City, in January 2001. At that time a presentation was given by Dr. Yates mostly that lasted over 2 hours. Along with having the benefit of receiving information from a patient and friend of mine, I was able to speak with Dr. Yates. I was very impressed with his ability to take the time and answer all question's presented in the seminar and my concerns after. My friend is following the aftercare, and this is an area that I was looking for. He was straight out with the risks of surgery, and also made me think about what the risks of not having surgery and how it would effect goals that I have set for myself.

He is real cool, young and professional. I made him my choice after visiting 3 other surgeons. I would recommend him to anyone.

07/01: I saw yates last in 6/01, everything is fine, he was quick and I was out of there in nothing flat. I still have noting to say bad about him. I also do not feel I will.

My surgeon was Dr. William Yates, St. Louis, MO. I absolutely loved him! He was confident, nice, kind, had a wonderful bedside manner. He smiles a lot. His face just LOOKS kind. He told me of risks more at the seminar I attended in my home town. I was appreciative to be able to have the surgeon himself there to answer questions. I thought that was very impressive. He was positive the whole time. He checked up on me following the surgery quite often. When he wasn't able to come and see me, the nurses would tell me that he had called. When I've seen him post-op, he's still positive. He had only up-building things to say. Unfortunately, I've heard that he's moving out of state. I do not know this for a fact, but it seems so. Now I am realy disappointed. I wanted him to do my tummy tuck and be there for my whole story. But he was great!

Would highly recommend Dr. Yates. He is only a couple years younger than I am so I felt very comfortable working with him. I had done a lot of research before meeting him, so I knew a great deal about the surgery and Dr. Yates. I didn't have a lot of questions so we didn't spend a lot of time talking the first visit. My surgery was the next morning. I bled a lot internally shortly after surgery and my counts got very low. Dr. Yates was there every day. Dr. Yates told me later that he was afraid for me because I wouldn't take a blood transfusion. But we worked through it using alternative treatments and everything turned out fine. He told me on my 6 week visit that I was doing better than some who had no complications. His right hand person, Cathy, was also awesome! She always returned my phone calls after I got home to answer questions. The only complaint I have is I wish Dr. Yates had acted a little quicker when my stomach was filling with blood. I thought I was going to explode! The pain was horrendous! But may have been a communication problem between nursing staff and doctor.

Dr. Yates is great. Friendly, down to earth. The offic staff was very nice, they gave me free samples and was very encourageing.
I heard there is a long wait to see him, i got right in, no problem!
Dr. yates already new that i new most of everything on surgey, sice my friend had him as a surgeron, he actually new me before we meet. lol
i give him a 10+

I was very impressed with Dr. Yates' knowledge,bedside manner, and his sense of humor. He is a very nice person, and a very skilfull surgeon. His office staff is very nice to talk to one the phone. They answer questions to the best of their knowledge. I have to give Cathy Hume kudos! She has not once failed to return a page, she is as knowledgeable as Dr. Yates and I should say he is very lucky to have her as his "right hand" She seems to know what he needs before he does.

My first impression of him was that he might be too young to know what he was doing but after talking with him one on one he was very intelligent and handsome (i don't know why that was important to me??)and I felt like he would be taking very good care of me.
He is not just a bariatric surgeon, he is also a general surgeon and a trauma surgeon. That is the main reason that I picked him.
I felt like if something would happen to go wrong in surgery that a trauma surgeon would know exactly what to do because they are trained in so many different things.
He has the nicest staff. They are all so very friendly and curteous. He just moved into his new office. Very nice.
I can honestly say that there was nothing that I didn't like about this Dr. I would not have let him do this drastic of a surgery on me if I didn't like something about him. I am very picky. In fact my surgery was scheduled for Dec. 11th 2001 and we drove all the way to Forrest Park Hospital in St. Louis. It was lightning and thunderstorming the whole way there. I got into my hospital gown and they were trying to get an IV in me and the nurse was having a hard time. I was so nervous that I started crying and after she couldn't get the IV in my arm after 30 minutes I told her I was going home.I was so disappointed in myself.
I called Dr. Yates the next day and made an appointment to see him. I was crying and I told him that I still wanted the surgery but I told him that everything seemed to be going wrong(or so I was thinking)that day. Now most Dr.'s would have told you to get lost for wasting their time, but he rescheduled me no problem and was very concerned about me. So on January 3rd I actually went through with it. I actually was thinking about jumping up and running again but they got the Iv in me this time and gave me some relaxation medicine but I have to tell you that I don't think it worked because even when the took me into the operating room I remember thinking "It's still not to late if I want to get out of here" lol. I was having a panic attack.
Finally they put me to sleep and then it was over. Boy am I glad of that! Dr. Yates was there to check on me at least once a day. My husband really liked him too. I think we both thought he was the best Dr. that we could have chosen.
He told me all the risks of surgery and they have a wonderful aftercare program.
I would rate him a 9 1/2 out of 10.
He is a great surgeon and he has good bedside manners. You can't get any better than that in my eyes.

I first saw Dr. Yates at a seminar for New Start at SouthPointe Hospital in St.Louis. Dr. Yates was the guest speaker. I was very impresseed with him. I also felt a good connection with him, this is importent for me.