Dr Lisa Medvetz

[Amey]

Dr Lisa Medvetz is starting a bariatric surgery practice at Bingham Memorial Hospital in Blackfoot, Idaho. She is from Pennsylvania. All the reviews that I have found online day that she is very compassionate and skilled. I have been told repeatedly by the BMH bariatric center staff that she does do DS surgery. However.... I can't find a cotton picking thing in any of her bios or info on line about her doing DS. Soooo.... Has ANYONE heard of her?? Have any information? Good, bad, or otherwise?? I have an appt on the 8th and I will have a lot of questions.... Anything in particular that I should be asking besides Have you ever done this before? And Are you looking for a Guinea pig??

Yes... Dr Simper is still at the top of my list.... But they have had my paperwork for over a month.... I had to re-write their LOMN.... They have had the revision since last Thursday and they still haven't submitted it to insurance. This morning I was told that she is 're-working' the letter to make my ammendments as an attachment. I'm about as frustrated as I can be with her but I don't dare get pissy and pushy.

 

[DSRIGGS]

I would email my list of questions now and would ask:

1. Do you do the DS?
2. If so for how long, under whom did you train and how many have you done?
3. Do you do the VSG as well?
4. Do you do the SADI and if so I need a guarantee that you you do a DS on me and not the SADI unless I ask for the SADI
5. If so what type of DS do you do (Hess type where measure SBL and then do a 10/40% limb to SB ratios or a standard one size fits all AL & CC type DS)?
6. Do you measure the total Small Bowel length and then do the 10% of SBL for CC and 40% for the Alimentary Limb (Hess Method)?
7. If you don't do the Hess Method, why not?
8. What lengths do you make your CC and AL if you do standard?
9. What size sleeve do you make (personally I wanted the biggest possible because I don't believe in excess restriction..the switch is the part that does the heavy lifting for weight loss and keeping it off, IMO)
10. Do you do the procedure open, LAP or Robotic Lap?

That would be my suggestion.

FYI - A member and I had a discussion around how many DS procedures a surgeon has done on their own. We both said that to us that isn't a huge deal as long as they are known as good surgeons in general. Everybody has to learn and with 200,000 bariatric procedures done annually in the US we aren't going to have too many Dr K & Rabkin types who have done thousands....so again as long as the surgeon is a competent general surgeon, trained under a good DS Surgeon then I wouldn't be too hung up on the numbers of DS procedures performed. That is just my belief and of course you have to be comfortable with your ultimate decision because it is you living with it not me.

Take care

 

[Larra]

While I think that Scott has proposed some excellent questions, I think a surgeon who hasn't even met you would find this set of pre-consultation questions to be way over the top, in fact a big red flag, though of course that wouldn't be your intention. I think it would be appropriate to ask if she plans on doing the DS in her new practice, and if so, how many has she done in the past. All the other stuff, like about the Hess method and other very specific details, I would save for the consult. And about the VSG - anyone who does the DS also knows how to do sleeves, as sleeve is part of the DS, so no need to even ask about that.

And no, I've never heard of her, except through you. I very much doubt that she has much, if any, experience with the DS. But you will find the answer to that one way or another and let us know.

 

[Amey]

I'm going to add Scott's questions to my plethora of an interrogatories for the surgeon when I meet her. I don't want to scare her off by sending them now... And I want to see her face to see if she knows the answers or has to look them up. Knowledge is power! I'll let you all know how it goes