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Post surgery thoughts
WasInTN, Thanks for your writing on this subject. I wish Dr Towfigh and the other doctors plus patients put together a written list of questions to present to the surgeon you are interviewing to put in their hands.
Here are the questions I put forth to my first surgeon and hospital staff.
I was not referred and did enough research to ask for a general surgeon that preformed a lot of IH and specialized in hernia surgeries. They referred to a quote expert that did them all of the time. After my surgery I learned that is told to all patients and that the hospital assigns doctors to patient by doctor needing to fill their schedule not which doctor(s) are the best for the type of surgery.
When meeting with the doctor and staff three times before surgery I asked what I thought were the important questions, as follows. Some background on the the hospital. It is known as one of the best in the nation and has a huge budget to have potential patients already believing they are going to be seen and treated by world renowned surgeons. The doctors page listed IH as one of his specialties and he has over 20 years of experience. Found out afterward he was only licensed about 6 years before the 20 years was from when he graduated medical school.
My questions to doctor and staff and answers.
How many IH surgeries has he done. At this hospital all of the time and he stated he had done well over 1,000 of open IH.
Current training. Up on all current practices in IH
Who is going to perform the surgery. The doctor(he also stated that) resident will act as surgeon tech. and only assist. He could only state the mesh was inserted so tight it would never move.
What about surgical team. His person highly trained surgical team. Found out afterward the team was a circulating of medical staff.
What is there is a problem. We have one of the top post surgical hernia surgeons on staff. No one on staff
Recovery. 6-8 weeks fully recovered.
Complications and side effects. Seroma, infection, hematoma. Nothing about pain or loss testicle(2 previous surgeries in area?
Only licensed medical professionals in OR except for one resident. Looks like 2 medical students present.
How will do the gas. Highly experience licensed Doctor of GA. Found a fellow who had recently been doing nerve block injections.
How do you handle the 3 main nerves. Will locate and preserve. Only one nerve located and could not answer about the other two.
What type of mesh. I requested lightweight and doctor agreed. Only PMII ordered before surgery and was told the doctor had done so few he might not even know which mesh the hospital had on hand.
Will I be catheterized. No
I might have missed a couple but it is close. When I reviewed my medical records none of the questions and agreed treatment are noted or followed. Every question I asked I was not told the truth in order to obtain a consent. The doctor could never answer any of the questions about the surgery, afterward. I did post my first exam notes on this site if anyone wants to see them.
I should have asked why open surgery over lap. Found out he was a lap specialist, so was this for medical student and resident training doing open?
He recommended open and I found out later the best way for open is a local in stead of a general gas, I think Dr G does local. Why general?
Here is a couple scary things that are current with my original surgeon and hospital..
Surgeon. He has moved to another state. He is now promoting himself and as a hernia specialist. From the record I got in a complaint it looks like he had not done one hernia surgery between 2012 and 2015. BE CAREFUL.
The hospital I went to also claims a Hernia specialty clinic that does over 500 per year. They have listed about 10 surgeons basically their GS staff. So that makes about 50 per year per surgeon but in their resident recruitment page a resident exit survey on procedures it shows residents perform almost 90% of the surgeries while only assisting 10%. So if these figures are correct that means each doctor might do as many IH surgeries in a year what Dr. G does in a week or so. Also in this survey, it showed about 50 or types of surgeries. About half the resident never assisted in the type surgery before performing one. There goes what was it read, assist, do one.