WARNING: Dr Uyen CHU

[writegirl]

This is from a FB thread by a patient who could have been killed by Dr. Uyen Chu. I thought it warranted a warning because, apparently, this patient is not the only one who has found herself in dire condition after this surgeon completed WLS. The other issue is that the patient stated that the surgeon was not listening to her, was not responsive to her very dangerous complications. This is not okay. @DianaCox if I am posting this in the wrong place or this is not allowed to be posted, please remove with my apologies. I have no idea whether this physician is performing DS procedures, but she is performing laps, VSG, and apparently RnY with more than one complaint of a poor response to complications. Because the patient could have died in this case, I thought it warranted at least a heads up here. From the original poster. She posted a photo along with it, that I will not post to preserve her privacy, but the hematoma was the size of a baseball:

"I have survived. Doc removed a huge hematoma full of infection from my right belly near navel. It is left open to drain. I get wound vac tomorrow. I am pump up with fluids, nutrients. She finally listen to me, I could have died."

 

[writegirl]

This is from a review found by simple google search:

-Kelly in Lafayette, LA | Dec 28, 2015
She made mistakes involving my surgery. It was terrible, and so was the way I was treated. I would 'strongly urge' (to say the least) someone to reconsider choosing her. Run now, before you can't because you've been under her knife!

 

[DianaCox]

If this is the surgeon in Louisiana, yes she is doing DSs - Jeremy Villamarette was one of her victims. He had severe complications.

 

[southernlady]

@DianaCox if I am posting this in the wrong place or this is not allowed to be posted, please remove with my apologies.

@writegirl I'm the one who makes that decision, not Diana. She is a very valued member but did not want anything to do with being in charge,

There is very little I won't allow. Links to other forums who don't allow us to post on their site with our link is one of the few rules. Spam links are another. And when posting articles or things like that, credit to the originator is required. (esp news articles). Anything political or religious (esp if it can develop into a heated argument) is relegated to Rants and Raves because that is the only forum that will not show up in a google search.

 

[writegirl]

@writegirl I'm the one who makes that decision, not Diana. She is a very valued member but did not want anything to do with being in charge,

There is very little I won't allow. Links to other forums who don't allow us to post on their site with our link is one of the few rules. Spam links are another. And when posting articles or things like that, credit to the originator is required. (esp news articles). Anything political or religious (esp if it can develop into a heated argument) is relegated to Rants and Raves because that is the only forum that will not show up in a google search.

Thank you for clarifying @southernlady--please forgive the misunderstanding. For whatever reason, I thought that there were multiple owner/Admins on this site (Diana, Larra, and you). I honestly don't even know why I thought that, perhaps because you three seem to work as a team in every way that feels like a partnership to me.

I assumed that crediting the originator in this case would be bad form as I did not want to invade this patient's privacy by using her name. However, now that @DianaCox has confirmed that the surgeon in question has, indeed, some history of being dangerous, I am really glad that I posted this warning here. Should this information be cross posted to the DS board (the surgeon's list) or somewhere thereabouts?

I'm glad that you are committed to crediting the origin of articles posted etc. I'm a PhD in English and crediting authorship is near and dear to my heart. But to further clarify, do you mean credit where you found the article? That could become a mess of process depending on whether or not that originator wants to be credited on a board to which they are not a member. I hope I posted the OP the right way.

 

[writegirl]

If this is the surgeon in Louisiana, yes she is doing DSs - Jeremy Villamarette was one of her victims. He had severe complications.

Yes, she is the same surgeon. Her attitude about the complications scares the heck out of me for her unsuspecting patients. We put our trust in our surgeons and to think of a patient being ignored when or if a complication arises horrifies me.

 

[southernlady]

But to further clarify, do you mean credit where you found the article? That could become a mess of process depending on whether or not that originator wants to be credited on a board to which they are not a member.

Most of what we quote are published articles. And I let people use their best judgement.

 

[KathrynK]

How is a patient supposed to know if a surgeon is competent? Two things might be an indication of skill: how many surgeries does the surgeon perform over year (as higher volume is linked to lower death death rates) and being recognized by the American Society of Bariatric and Metabolic surgery (ASBMS). The percentage of surgeries that are laparoscopic versus those that are open is also a sign of surgical skill. I got my surgeon through a referral from my internist, who I thought would know who had a good reputation among doctors and surgeons in the area. Bariatric Centers of Excellence also have more skilled surgeons.

People die in this surgery. It is rare for good surgeons, but if a patient has risk factors like previous blood clot, hypertension, superobesity, etc, even good surgeons have deaths.
--Some fatalities are more linked to surgical skill like anastomotic problems, bleeding, and bowel obstruction--those that occur at the surgical site.
--Skill isn't as related to problems outside the operative site like infection and embolism, except that these occur at a higher rate with longer operating times and a longer duration of general anesthesia.
--Laparoscopic surgery has fewer deaths than open surgery and revisions carry more risk.

I checked Dr Chu's malpractice history and it seems she has not paid a malpractice claim, but that can be that she settles out of court.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1300625#t=article

 

[writegirl]

I'm not questioning her skill, necessarily. I am; however, deeply alarmed by her attitude toward post-operative complications. A surgeon can be greatly skilled at performing a procedure, but if they suck at being a human being who listens to their patients when a problem arises, as far as I am concerned that is just as deadly (if not more so) as a surgeon who is less skilled in the OR.