"I had been researching WLS for a very long time and was always afraid to do it, although I was a bit afraid of having surgery. I went to seminars at other hospitals and never had a good feeling about it, until I went to a seminar at Wyandotte Hospital with Dr. Hendrick. After that, my husband and I were both convinced he was the right surgeon for me. I immediately made an appt with his office and went a week later to meet with the dietician to start the process. I did everything that they specifically told me was required...I even went to a support meeting at his office prior. . Finally I had a surgery date of 5/11/11 for a vertical sleeve gastrectomy and I was soooo excited!!!!. I prepared with vitamins, protein shakes, diet, and set up my house for post op. My husband took a week off work to be with me post op and off we went on the morning of 5/11 to the hospital for surgery. I was weighed first, then prepped with two IV's, which were super painful because my nurse was having a hard time getting them right, but thankfully the CRNA came in and saved me and got them right in with no problem. I was given a heparin shot in my belly, the special socks put on my calves, spoke to the anestheisiologist who didn't have ANY questions and said I was a very healthy person! ( oh yea, BTW, I have no co-morbidities!!!) I was all ready to go into the OR and then Dr. Hendrick came in and looked at my chart and told me that I hadn't lost enough weight... that I had only lost 2 lbs and that I didn't listen to him and that I wasn't committed etc and that he didn't know if he was going to do the operation now!!!! He was very abrupt and rude and every time I tried to speak, he would cut me off. I had officially lost 6 lbs since I started at his office the very first day and the whole thing of this is THEY DID NOT TELL ME I HAD TO LOSE A SPECIFIC AMT OF WEIGHT OR HE WOULD NOT OPERATE!!!!!!! He had said in his first seminar that if you came on the morning of surgery and had gained weight - even 7 lbs - he would not operate that day. Or if you said you quit smoking and he didn't believe you that he would make you pee in a cup and if you were indeed still smoking, he would canc the surgery. He did say in the all day orientation/seminar to a group of us that you should be able to lose 15-20 lbs before surgery. BUT HE NEVER SAID YOU ABSOULUTELY HAD TOO. I did try to lose weight and had a few setbacks about a month before surgery, which then I ended up gaining a few pounds... but during the last week before surgery I totally and faithfully stuck to the full liquid and liquid diet and had lost 12 lbs. I tried to tell him this.. but he was just all mad and saying I didn't listen and at that point I just shut down and didn't want him operating on me. Even if I could talk him into it, how was I supposed to go in to surgery with him being mad and me being very upset??!. So I took that as a sign that I was not supposed to have the surgery. I just basically sat there shell shocked and my husband and daughter tried to talk to him and he was just acting so unbelieveably unprofessional, that I told them to nevermind trying. I told my husband in front of Dr. Hendrick that I wasn't going to BEG him to operate on me. Dr. Hendrick went out of our curtained area a couple times.. and came back once saying "if I don't do this today, are you saying you aren't going to have the surgery at all? Because you need this surgery!" I told him I wasn't saying that and I didn't know.... He said not doing the surgery that day was for my safety, but he never really gave me a medical reason why that was. So he left again, then came back and told me to go home and lose 6-8 lbs, that this was just a pot-hole in the road and come to his office on Friday to see him and he would re-schedule the surgery for 5-23 and he turned around and left. The nurse took out the IV's, handed me my clothes and I got dressed and we left. My husband and I were very, very upset over this, and the next day he called Dr. Hendricks office and told him I would not be returning and that we did not want to be billed ( nor should the insurance be) for the day before and the gal at the office just said talk to the hospital about that. Their office, nor Dr. Hendrick ever called me to discuss this. I guess they just wrote me off and do not want to take any responsibility for this at all. Another very disturbing thing was that he had ordered a sleep study and I do have sleep apnea and a week or so after the scheduled surgery, I met with the rep at Sleep Solutions called to say that there was a problem with getting me a different sleep mask, because they had called Dr. Hendrick's office and he would not change the prescription because he said I canc'd the surgery. So it would seem that he must not care enough about me in general, to write a new script so I could get a different mask so I can wear it for the sleep apnea. One simple change from a nasal mask to full facial mask.
This has been a totally traumatic experience that I don't think I will ever get over and still cannot believe happened. After coming home, I immediately looked though my binder that they gave me from his office and there was nothing anywhere that said you HAD to lose a speciific amount of weight. On the very LAST page is an Induction Diet and it says "Induction Diet to lose _____ lbs. IT IS BLANK!!!! IT DOES NOT SAY TO LOSE SPECIFIC LBS!!!! . There were a lot of people there with me that day and maybe they THNIK they told me that specifically, but they did not. I went in to see my primary doc a few days after that and she pulled out the letter that Dr. Hendrick wrote to her prior to surgery and it DID NOT say anywhere about me losing weight prior to surgery and she said she does often see that written by him for some of her patients and that he did not require that. I am still trying to recover over this unbelieveable experience.
Here's the main thing about this... IF losing a specific amount is MANDATORY, then there should be some protocol for making sure the patient is totally aware of the expectation - possibly signing a paper saying you understand this. And the patient should be REQUIRED to come into his office the day before surgery to be weighed to MAKE SURE. I have talked with other people who did have to lose weight prior to WLS, but I truly thought maybe this was because I didn't have any co-morbidities and they did. This should have not been handled like it was on the morning of surgery. My insurance company had to pay for a lot of tests etc, and I too had to pay many co -pays, also spent a lot of money on protein shakes and other things needed for my new lifestyle after surgery. . I really believed that I would finally lose this weight once and for all with the help of the surgery and I was totally committed, no matter if he thinks so or not. And now I sit here at square one, scared to death to even try again with another surgeon. It is really devastating.
This statement is strictly my personal experience and opinion and I am not saying that these things will happen with other people. I have previously read many good things about Dr. Hendrick, which is why I chose him. I am personally very sad that it turned out like this. I believe there was a mis-comminication error and unfortunately it was at my expense. "
