"I have read very poor reviews of Hurley and was prepared for a bad experience. I am a healthcare professional and was planning that I'd likely have to take care of myself, but I was pleasantly suprised. I was cared for by float nurses and orientees but that didn't bother me a bit, they were all very good. I did refuse a few things (scheduled blood sugar checks) because I felt they were unneccessary, but I was convinced by two nurses to allow two of the four ordered. They offered good reasons to do them (which is what I was looking for) and I agreed. I and my roommate were awakened at 0400am for our labs to be drawn, but that is just the way surgical units work. Surgeons want their numbers before they round in the morning and the way to get those numbers is to have labs drawn that early. No problem.
I was having issues with a low heart rate and lots of ectopy (funny little beats) and was very fortunate that I had float nurses from Caridac ICU caring for me. They, like me, didn't really freak out at all about them. I knew it was okay, and fairly normal for me, and so did they. The regular Burn Unit (where I was housed) nurses were a little freaked out, so it truly was fortunate that the cards RN's were taking care of me. I guess I received some Atropine (to speed up my heart rate which got into the 30's) in the OR and when I asked my surgeon about it, he said that he hadn't known about it until after the case was done. I was glad that anesthesia (I had a CRNA student) too the inititive to intervene without interrupting the case. Impressive.
Though I was housed in the Burn Unit, I was bunked with another LapBand patient. I had read a review where someone was bunked with a burn patient and was hoping I wouldn't be. Only because they need to eat, eat, eat and me being NPO it would be hard to handle smelling a roommate's food.
Day two found me not seeing my nurse(s) until after 11:00am, but the Charge RN came in and took care of my needs. My nurse and her orientee (who just left the hospital where I work-and was a cardiac ICU nurse) had one other patient who was a big burn and those dressings can take hours. That was why I hadn't seen them. Again, someone else may have rated that as poor, but I understand the time needed for that level of care.
The only other negative I can think of was my poor husband didn't get to eat anything (we arrived at the hospital at about 6:50am) until after I got settled in my room at about 4:00pm. The communication was lacking after the surgeon came to chat with him and told him that he could probably see me in about an hour. No one ever called for him to see me post-op and when he asked the volunteers at the desk, they were unable to help.
One thing that did strike both my DH and I was that EVERYONE was SOOO nice at Hurley, from the personnel to the other families and patients. It was all in all a good experience and I would not hesitate encourage someone to go there for Bariatric Surgery (caveat: with Dr. Wagner)."
"I was very impressed with Dr. Wagner. Being in the healthcare profession myself, I had many pointed and possibly difficult questions for him at my pre-op consultation. He was so calm and composed, he sat right down and said, \"Okay, fire away, what do you want to know?\" I asked things like how many he's done, what his mortality stats are, what his infection and slip rates are, etc. He answered everything I put to him and then explained even more. He was very informative, I asked specifics about what surgical technique he uses and told him of my desire to not have staples (Hurley uses staples for wound closure), and he provided very good (medically sound) reasons why he prefers staples and backed it up with his almost non-existant infection rate. I saw him again in the hospital pre-op and he and I again went 'round about the staples and he won the rematch too, I have staples. :) But I understand why. rnI asked for and my husband received the box my band came in along with the booklet. When I saw Dr. Wagner the next day in my hospital room I asked if I was his first AP band, and he told me that I was the first AP at Hurley, period. We again discussed sugical technique and he told me about how AP placement is very similar to VG placement. I really love his honesty! rnI realize that Dr. Wagner hasn't done hundreds of bands (maybe 50 or so), and many folks want a surgeon who has done tons of them. I was very confident in my choice based on prolonged discussions with him about his laparoscopic experience and his comfort with discussing surgical techniques. He is a very experienced laparoscopic surgeon and is Director of the Surgical ICU, I knew I was in pretty good hands.rnrnThe only negative thing I can think of about Dr. Wagner can be easily attributed to the nature of surgery, my first consultation was scheduled for 12:30pm and I finally saw him at about 4:15pm. And he still sat down and chatted with me and covered everything I needed to know. I was also told that he had emergencies come up at the hospital that prevented him from even arriving at the Clinic until about 1:30pm and I wasn't the first person waiting for him. My surgery was scheduled for 9:00am and I didn't go in until almost 10:00am, but the first case took a bit longer. It happens. I can't complain too much."
