Which Doctor!?

[Irish 10]

I want to revise my band to a sleeve and have narrowed my doctors down to the following:

dr. Ponce de leon

Dr. Illan

Dr. Fernando Garcia

I am not concerned about price as I haven't even checked on that yet. My main concerns are skill at revisions since I don't want to wake up without a sleeve. Also, and I know I will get opinions on this :-) , but what size stomach does the doctor leave? I don't want leaks but I know I need good restriction. The only other thing I am concerned about is how they staple the stomach and what sort of overkill do they do? I like overkill when it comes to my stomach. LOL! Thanks for the help!

[sherry24184 253]

I was sleeved by Dr. Illan and LOVED the whole team. There are many that have been switched from band to sleeve. He is such a talented surgeon and his team is AMAZING Dr. Illan also will do skype calls with you to answer your questions. Go to bajabariatrics.com and ask Omar his coordinator. I have a blog as well if you'd like to read. It's been an amazing journey! Best wishes in your journey I'll PM you.

[atroglet 29]

I used Dr. Illan for my sleeve surgery. I had prior band surgery that went all wrong. (See my story). So when I had my sleeve my band was already gone. The doctor is amazing and I know has done many band to sleeve revisions. None have woken from anesthesia without a sleeve. I had a ton of scar tissue from my previous surgery and he cleaned it all up and did a wonderful job!

I would surely call the patient care coordinator (Omar) and talk with him about it. He can answer every question and you can even speak with Dr. Illan.

[2btrim 129]

I want to revise my band to a sleeve and have narrowed my doctors down to the following:

dr. Ponce de leon

Dr. Illan

Dr. Fernando Garcia

I am not concerned about price as I haven't even checked on that yet. My main concerns are skill at revisions since I don't want to wake up without a sleeve. Also, and I know I will get opinions on this :-) , but what size stomach does the doctor leave? I don't want leaks but I know I need good restriction. The only other thing I am concerned about is how they staple the stomach and what sort of overkill do they do? I like overkill when it comes to my stomach. LOL! Thanks for the help!

Hello there Irish, I completely understand your concerns and wanting to get the best surgeon you possibly can, we don't want to go through this surgery without having a really good restriction. On Nov. 20th of this year I had my gastric sleeve surgery done by Dr Illan Fraijo and it was absolutely the best decision I've ever made in my life. Dr Illan is a very skilled surgeon, as he does not only do bariatrics but is also first an emergency room trauma surgeon. I had special concerns about scar tissue due to a bad gallbladder surgery I had several years ago that resulted in exploratory surgery. Dr Illan's coordinator Omar Acosta was the only surgical coordinator out of several other companies that offered to set up a Skype call with Dr Illan, and let me just tell you after talking to him face to face and discussing my fears and concerns, I felt so at ease and confident that he was in fact the surgeon for me. It turned out I did indeed have a good bit of internal scar tissue that he had to work through but it was never a problem for him. He has had a great deal of experience with this and also with revisions. I will tell you this, if perhaps you wake up from surgery and you are not sleeved, it will only be because Dr Illan decided it was in your best interest to allow some healing to take place before proceeding with the sleeve. He is a very caring, compassionate, soft spoken person who has your best interest at heart. For the surgery he uses a gun that lays down a triple row of titanium staples and then he over stitches the entire staple line, making the chance of a leak slim to none. I remember him coming to my bed side and talking to me about my surgery and telling me that I was going to love my new stomach, that he had made it really small for me and that I would have really good restriction, which I most definitely do have. So far its been 6 weeks and I've lost 31 lbs, this is so amazing to me. I just cannot speak highly enough of his team at Baja Bariatrics and to top it all off, he has the BEST, I mean the ABSOLUTE BEST patient care coordinator with Omar Acosta. He will be there for you through the entire process and will make sure you are well taken care of from the beginning to the end. You have obviously given a lot of thought to this and the decision is one that only you can make but I can tell you from my own experience that choosing Dr Illan was the very best choice I could have ever made. If you have any more questions or just want to chat, send me a private message and I will be so glad to help you in any way I can. This surgery has truly been a gift for me and if I can help anybody by sharing my experience that is exactly what I'm going to do!

[UnzippingTheFatSuit 27]

I too used Dr. Garcia... Feb 26, 2013... I'm currently 105 pounds down! He and the other doctors were amazing. Nursing staff was excellent. Far better care then ive ever gotten in a US hospital! I would not hesitate to recommend him, and infact I do, to anyone who will listen! He was awesome, I couldn't be happier!

[Wendim 3]

Hello I used Dr Garcia and Ready 4 a Change

Dec 3 .... Down 32lbs .... Love my sleeve

After surgery I pulled something when I pulled myself up out of the bed causing a bleed

I passed out . They had to go back in and get all the blood clots out of my abdomen and 2 blood transfusions !!! Sooooo glad I went with Dr Garcia and was at a real hospital .... Because anything can happen .. And they took care of me great !!!!!

And by the way I'm a nurse in the US !!!!!

[Irish 10]

Wow! That's scary! I'm glad they were on top of things and fixed you up.

I appreciate all the responses! I was actually leaning toward Dr. PDL but now I am not so sure. I think last will be to call and see which one I feel most comfortable with. Want to get a decision made and go now! :-)

[Jmcp 14]

How did you choose??? I'm booked with dr Ponce for march 27th.

[rhw94123 115]

I found myself wondering who she chose, too