Richard's Posts

My point in an earlier post. Standards have dropped in medical school and everyplace else. Should we start asking to see their grades before surgery. Of course if everyone gets an A to not hurt feelings it becomes everyone gets a trophy mentality. I recall years ago, checking out the list on the coaches door to see who made the cut after try outs. Yes, there were a few dejected faces. Thats life.

I can say truthfully that i have had 6 knee operations since 1967. All cartilage removal. In every case i was asked multiple times before anesthesia what leg was about to be scoped. Before i was put down for the count, they also x’ed my knee with a magic marker. I did however, wake up in the middle of a knee surgery years ago and could plainly hear the surgical crew talking about a weekend bar b q. As soon as i said , hello, i’m awake, i was given an extra jolt of sleepy drugs in the i.v. And that was all i recall. I did not recall it until months later. I also tried to back out of my mitral valve surgery while being shaved. I was semi sedated. I recall the nurse saying too late. I’m glad they did it.

That's a pretty interesting story. I assume you didn't recall any pain when waking up during knee surgery. Interesting that they shaved you after(!) being put down. I had 4 procedures so far in different hospitals and 4 different doctors and shaving was always done before they gave me the meds to put me down. One shaving resulted in some slight bleeding. I think it is one of the wires that is sticking out which creates a hard bump and so they cut the skin there when shaving.

I think its natural to want the most experienced. I learned a bit more by reading the clinical notes to my AVR surgery at Cleveland Clinic. My surgeon only replaced my valve. A fellow in the program at CC opened and closed and assisted. She probably has that down as an AVR procedure. I remember seeing her but she wasn't introduced. For all I know, maybe she actually put the valve in with my surgeon assisting her. The end result was great. I now have this valve that will eventually wear out and I will need to have it replaced. I feel more comfortable going back to a high volume center than going to my local hospital. My local hospital only put in 9 aortic valves in 2025. CC put in over 1,000. I'll go back even though it might be a fellow or new surgeon as I know there is a very experienced surgeon in the room. Thanks Dr. Michael Tong and your fellow, Dr. Sophie Wei Wei Gao.

Another thought to consider is getting an opinion from nurses that worked with the surgeon, if you can. I actually was fortunate enough to know 3 nurses who worked with my surgeon about 10 years apart and they all raved about him and how happy they were that I chose him. Plus, my husband and I gave lots of prayers on the decision.

A critical question during the discussion with the surgeon is to ask who will do the actual procedure. My brother-in-law (BIL) is a pretty famous robotic surgeon (not heart but women's cancer) and he also talked to the surgeons I considered. He advised me that you are better off getting surgery done at a smaller hospital rather than a large, famous hospital because at the smaller hospital you have a higher chance that the head surgeon is actually doing the main/crucial part of the surgery. For my second surgery, I chose Dr. Castro who did the surgery himself. I considered a famous surgeon at Stanford but besides the doctor having his nose high up and providing little information, based on his comments he probably would not have done the surgery himself. Another comment from my BIL was that you get the most information from nurses at the hospital. It's not easy to get a hold of them, though. I met one in the parking lot and got a few minutes to talk to her. You can also see which surgeon did what in the surgery report. Of course, you will only see that after(!) the surgery but it gives some insight on who did what.