After having done over 2 years of research on bariatric surgery, and months worth on my surgeon options- I found myself very impressed with Dr. Ramos Kelly's qualifications and experience. I verified all the information on his work experience and education (this is essential, as anyone can claim a great professional track record on the internet!). My surgery went great, the staff at his hospital checked on me virtually every hour and were extremely detailed. Beyond all that, I felt cared about. Dr. Kelly visited me at the hotel with his wife and Sara (personal coordinator) early because I was doing great and wanted to take off a day early.

I was happy to refer a good friend who confided her desire to have WLS, I'm so glad my research and experience could allow my friend to have the best WLS ever (in my opinion!) with an extremely skilled surgeon.

A couple weeks ago, ALM called her up and told her that after much deliberation and meeting, that they decided they would no longer be coordinating for Dr. Kelly. Normally, a professional break up wouldn't be alarming- these relationships can go sour all the time, and clearly from some of the things we see on the board, coordinators and coordination services can get quite competitive to downright nasty (not accusing ALM or anyone in particular of that). I'll just say, the honesty track record with coordination services does not seem to always be spotless.

The concerning part is that they indicated their choice to no longer work with Dr. Kelly was due to a safety/practice issue. This struck me as odd- they continued to work with him after his first lost patient in August of 2011, and some of their other Dr.'s they coordinate for don't have the experience or positive track record Dr. Kelly does. I have been operated on by Dr. Kelly merely 2 months ago myself, and though my recovery has gone better than anticipated, I am very concerned if there is something unsafe about the surgery that was done on my new stomach.

They urged my friend to book with a different surgeon with them, but told her she had the option of getting her deposit back if she chose to stay with Dr. Kelly, but that they would not be able to book her with him in good conscience due to an undisclosed safety concern. After talking to me, I told her I didn't want her to wonder what (if any) the safety concern was, and I thought it would be wise to go with one of there other surgeons (Dr. Garcia is who she chose, seems to be a great choice).

Obviously, it can deeply cut into a coordinators business to no longer coordinate for one of your most popular surgeons (dare I say, Dr. Kelly may be the most popular!), I would assume to cut into the $ of your business during this economy, the safety concerns must be quite significant, or the relationship went extremely sour somehow.

I'd like answers. I was operated on by Dr. Kelly not too long ago, and I hope "safety concerns" are merely just something they have chosen to say to assure that they keep the patients they've already booked with him to move to a different surgeon of theirs. I don't want to worry.

My friend pressed them for information, but they made it pretty clear they could only say it was a safety concern and that they wanted to encourage her to book with another surgeon.

My gut tells me my surgery went fine, that Dr. Kelly is a good person and extremely skilled- we have so many happy patients that post on here as it is. At the same time, I don't think a major coordinator like ALM would mislead patients, this would be a detriment to their business as so many of their patients chat on boards like this.

I'm completely thrilled with my surgery, and the concerns are nothing that should trouble us now that we're fine.

Garcia seems to check out well, I'm happy for her to go to him, and he's at florence Hospital which is a big bonus.

I think ultimately if Dr. Kelly is truly ever not a good choice, he wouldn't be working at a place like Florence/Oasis of Hope.

I'd be happy to discuss things with you privately, feel free to PM me!

I was sleeved by Dr Kelly 12/28/11 and had a great experience. No pain, no nausea. Excellent care. I used Florence hospital and stayed at the Lucerna hotel after.

I think the issue is with the coordinators. I'm sure they don't like the fact that he is scheduling his own surgeries and taking money out of their pockets!

I think it is sad that his reputation is being questioned.

JJtex, when you say Dr Kelly is scheduling his own surgeries, do you mean you went through Trish, or just directly with Dr Kelly himself by writing his email? Did you ever speak to him by phone before flying to Tijuana? Congrats on being sleeved!! It's great to hear you had a good experience. I had a wonderful experience with Dr Kelly too, but at that time going direct through Dr Kelly wasn't an option. I LOVED Trish!! She did everything for me, brought me everything I needed and even went hunting for my sleeve sisters companions when we thought they should have been back one evening. She spent her own time looking for them and driving my sleeve sisters all over Tijuana. She and Dr Kelly both were phenomenal! I couldn't have been happier.

JJtex, when you say Dr Kelly is scheduling his own surgeries, do you mean you went through Trish, or just directly with Dr Kelly himself by writing his email? Did you ever speak to him by phone before flying to Tijuana? Congrats on being sleeved!! It's great to hear you had a good experience. I had a wonderful experience with Dr Kelly too, but at that time going direct through Dr Kelly wasn't an option. I LOVED Trish!! She did everything for me, brought me everything I needed and even went hunting for my sleeve sisters companions when we thought they should have been back one evening. She spent her own time looking for them and driving my sleeve sisters all over Tijuana. She and Dr Kelly both were phenomenal! I couldn't have been happier.

Hi Kelly!! So many of your posts encouraged me to look into Dr Kelly for my sleeve. Yes... I went directly thru him. I called a # I thought was for Trish, but Dr Kelly himself answered the phone. I communicated thru a lot of e-mails and as I got closer to my surgery date (12/28/11) Dr Kelly also called me.

I was hoping to meet Trish because I had read so many great things about her but honestly I was so happy that everything went so smoothly and I really enjoyed resting and reading that I forgot to ask Dr Kelly about meeting her!

He is a great doctor and other than being a slow loser I have no complaints!

I was originallly booked through Kelly through ALM. Then Sandy contacted me and said there were "issues" and they were no longer booking with him. I changed to Garcia, but then decided I wanted to go with my original choice, Kelly, for a few reasons. I contacted him through his email, and my surgery is scheduled for 3/15. I was not at all impressed by the service I received through ALM, and I did not want to go to Hospital MI.

Like anything else, you have to decide what works for you and what is the best decision. I am happy with my decision and looking forward to the surgery. Well as much as you can look forward to major surgery in a foreign country.

My s

I also was considering using Dr Kelly. I was so excited and bragging about doing my homework, to my family, and how great this docs reputation was. I loved that he had done a residency in LA, my home, and Kalamazoo, MI where my church has a sattellite. I thought it was a sign.

A month or so ago I received a call from Sandy. We talked for over an hour. I let her know that although she sounded concerned, honest and trustworthy, I didn't know her or if I could trust her. I called Trish's number myself that night. He answered the phone himself. I told him of my conversation with an alighterme coordinator. (I was unaware there were only two of them). He knew who I was speaking of right away. His words to me were, "they could've at least let me know. Okay, they want to play it that way... they weren't very good at representing me anyhow." I felt that that was a very unprofessional response. It bothered me and I didn't think I could use him. Then I considered how I had asked if he were a Christian, which is important to me, and he said he was. He said he prays with alll his patients. Then I reconsidered his words about the coordinators and just figured he was upset and just found out through me that he was no longer being represented. So I decided rather than start researching more docs, I would look for anything anywhere else negative about him. I didn't find much other than one or two things on here that people seemed to think was just a "coordinator's war." It made sense.

I didn't know how to schedule with him and was looking for a very good price, so I emailed him yesterday to find out how much it was going to cost and how to schedule with him and let him know of my concerns about what I was hearing. I didn't tell him we had previously talked on the phone. His response to me was that the coordinators were bitter because he "dumped them" because they were not concerned with patient care. This is not at all consistent with what he told me before. I had asked him to put my mind at ease about the rumors about patient safety and all he did was tear down the women who once coordinated all his surgeries. I wrote him back saying that I only wanted him to put my mind at ease about his reputation and skills, but he never mentioned it. I told him that although we all make mistakes, this was not how a Christian should run his business; with dishonest practices. He only talked badly about his former coordinators. He didn't defend his record. He lied. I am so disappointed. Now I need to start all over.

I just thought people should know.

I also was considering using Dr Kelly. I was so excited and bragging about doing my homework, to my family, and how great this docs reputation was. I loved that he had done a residency in LA, my home, and Kalamazoo, MI where my church has a sattellite. I thought it was a sign.

A month or so ago I received a call from Sandy. We talked for over an hour. I let her know that although she sounded concerned, honest and trustworthy, I didn't know her or if I could trust her. I called Trish's number myself that night. He answered the phone himself. I told him of my conversation with an alighterme coordinator. (I was unaware there were only two of them). He knew who I was speaking of right away. His words to me were, "they could've at least let me know. Okay, they want to play it that way... they weren't very good at representing me anyhow." I felt that that was a very unprofessional response. It bothered me and I didn't think I could use him. Then I considered how I had asked if he were a Christian, which is important to me, and he said he was. He said he prays with alll his patients. Then I reconsidered his words about the coordinators and just figured he was upset and just found out through me that he was no longer being represented. So I decided rather than start researching more docs, I would look for anything anywhere else negative about him. I didn't find much other than one or two things on here that people seemed to think was just a "coordinator's war." It made sense.

I didn't know how to schedule with him and was looking for a very good price, so I emailed him yesterday to find out how much it was going to cost and how to schedule with him and let him know of my concerns about what I was hearing. I didn't tell him we had previously talked on the phone. His response to me was that the coordinators were bitter because he "dumped them" because they were not concerned with patient care. This is not at all consistent with what he told me before. I had asked him to put my mind at ease about the rumors about patient safety and all he did was tear down the women who once coordinated all his surgeries. I wrote him back saying that I only wanted him to put my mind at ease about his reputation and skills, but he never mentioned it. I told him that although we all make mistakes, this was not how a Christian should run his business; with dishonest practices. He only talked badly about his former coordinators. He didn't defend his record. He lied. I am so disappointed. Now I need to start all over.

I just thought people should know.

Not to be rude, but everyone on this forum is aware of the ongoing discussion regarding Dr Kelly's former co-ordinators and himself. There is really nothing more to know. I'm not sure what kind of reassurance you're looking for other than the hundreds, possibly thousands, of former patients who post on this forum and GASTRIC SLEEVE regarding his professionalism, skill, bedside manner, etc. I just returned from being sleeved and I have no problems with my surgery. The pettiness that exists with his coordinators trying to sabatoge his practice is disgusting. His religion didn't pursuade me one way or the other. He is a very well-respected surgeon with alot of credentials.

Perhaps the conversation you had with Dr. Kelly didn't convince you that he is the right surgeon for you. Go with your gut. There are several other very good surgeons that might be a better match. Don't stress about the conversation you had with him or the goofy Sandy (I had the same conversation with her).

Google the other surgeons in Mexico and then check out what their patients say of them. That's the best referral of all.

Hope this helps.

Andrea,

Yes, people know about the fact that there are issues between the coordinators and Dr Kelly. Someone here was asking about him and I had personal conversations with him that show a completely different character than what those thousands of patients saw. When questioned, another side of him comes out. He may have a lot of experience, but his character, the one I have had recent personal experience with, seems shady and dishonest. You asked what more reassurance I want than to read testimonies of happy patients. I just wanted HIS reassurance. I was giving him a chance to respond. What I got was him lying and blaming the coordinators. The first time I spoke with him he told me that it would have been nice to know that his coordinators were no longer referring patients to him. He said, "well, if they wanna play it that way...they were no good at representing me anyhow." The email said, "they're just bitter because I dumped them." So what is it they stopped representing him or he dumped them? Why on earth would he say they were no good at representing him? If you look up his name on the internet, anywhere you see it and click on it, it leads you to alighterme.com. I have verified with two hospitals that he is no longer able to practice in them. Something is going on. I just think if someone has their concerns that they should be informed as well as possible. I responded to his email. I told him that we had spoken on the phone prior to the email and that his responses were contradictory. He addressed his response to: "Donna" if that's really your name and not a fake patient sent by the ladies. Later on he calls me by name with quotations around it.

I will not be going to him and that is disappointing to me because I have to start over, but I need character as well as skill. I don't want someone who I have personally caught lying to operate on me. I will be going with my gut. Dr Garcia sounds like a good choice and after speaking with both Sandy and Linda, I don't understand why you insult either of them. Sandy did not come off as "the goofy" as you call her. They both seemed very passionate about what they are doing, being WLS patients themselves. I felt really at ease the first time I spoke with Sandy. It was a very long conversation and it seemed like we connected. I almost felt guilty calling Dr Kelly in regards to what she said because she seemed so honest it felt like a betrayal. But I'm going to do all I can to get the truth. I spoke with LInda today and it was the same thing. These women are making money to coordinate surgeries. Is this what upsets you? They are nice people doing their job. Everyone expects that they will get paid for doing their job. After speaking with and email corresponding with Dr Kelly, I got a really bad feeling from him. I will be doing my research, starting over, and I'll say again, I just thought people should know.

Dr. Kelly did my surgery back in December. As I've said elsewhere, I thought that he and the nursing staff were very good. ALM was, in my experience, not good.

First, their driver was really disorganized--his sister ended up picking me up from the airport, taking me to her house, then finally after 2 hours, taking me to the hotel in TJ, all because he couldn't get across the border into the US. Then he got his brother to take me back to the US afterward. Very unprofessional.

I also thought that their new "patient advocate" was a complete joke--she barely spent 5 minutes with me the entire time I was there. The two times that I called her from the hotel with questions, she rushed to get me off the phone.

Then there was the "nutritionist." She delivered her prepared speech with poor English, was obnoxiously patronizing, and the post-op diet she gave me was VERY wrong--I double-checked it with Dr. Kelly, and he said I should totally disregard it and use the one he gave me.

So, all that is just to say that I had a great experience w/ Dr. Kelly, a bad one with ALM. Of course, everyone's experience is different, and I don't claim that Dr. Kelly is perfect. Just my $0.02.

I was very mad when I heard about the things that were being said about Dr. Kelly. I believed he was a great surgeon and my sister and cousin, who had their surgery with him, also believed that. A Lighter Me was insinuating that there was a problem with Dr. Kelly regarding safety but did not elaborate. So I decided to look into these allegations myself so I could prove them wrong. I was shocked by what I found!

Besides doing surgery at florence, there are 3 other hospitals that I found where Dr. Kelly has performed surgery. I called all 3 of them. I called INT Hospital (01152-664-634-7408) and they told me that in no way is Dr. Kelly allowed to perform surgery in their hospital. They would not tell me why. I called Angeles Hospital (01152-664-635-1800). They also said that Dr. Kelly cannot perform surgeries there. Then I called Mi Doctor Hospital (800-969-1654 / they have a U.S. 800 number). I spoke directly to Dr. Tepperman who told me that he owns the hospital. He also said that Dr. Kelly is not welcome in his hospital any longer!

I spoke to the person that was at Florence Hospital with her daughter that had surgery with Dr. Kelly when that patient died back in June. Here is the link of what was discussed on one of the forums, http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/20830-two-people-dying-recently-in-mexico-on-the-operating-table/page__hl__%20kelly%20%20died__st__20

This woman’s daughter had surgery first then the girl that died had her surgery next. She said when they went looking for Debbie, Dr. Kelly told them that she had a complication and was transported to another hospital from Florence. He didn’t tell them what hospital. Then they said he finally admitted that she died in surgery. He told them she had a pulmonary embolism. Trish later came in and told them that the patient went into shock and had bled to death. The woman called Debbie’s family when she returned home and they told her that Debbie died after bleeding to death from a nicked artery.

I don’t know much about pulmonary embolisms but I thought that if that happened it would take a little while. Doesn’t a blood clot have to form, then break off and travel to the lungs? How can that happen immediately while the patient is on the table?

I checked this site and cannot find Dr. Kelly’s license. http://www.cedulapro...Avanzada.action

I also researched A Lighter Me and found that they have been in business for 7 years and they are members of the BBB with no complaints. I don’t know if that means they completely tell the truth, but I just thought I would mention this because I looked into it.

I don’t know if anyone will find the full truth. Several people didn’t want to give me details, but I am not going to recommend Dr. Kelly anymore since I have found these things. There are other doctor’s that don’t have this kind of doubt attached to them.

Here are the phone numbers for the hospitals that I called.

INT Hospital 01152-664-634-7408

Hospital MI Doctor 800-969-1654

Hospital Angeles 01152-664-635-1800

How would any of you feel if you found out that someone was deliberately trying to take food out of your family's mouth by spreading rumors about your career? A career that you have spent years and years training and educating yourself in? I dont think that would make any of you very happy and especially when everyone keeps asking you the same questions over and over and over again. ALM didnt even have the balls to tell Dr. Kelly to his face! They just started moving patients to Dr. Garcia and he had NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON!! CLASSY!!! And I know this first hand because I spoke to Dr. Kelly personally when all this started back at the beginning of January.

I dont blame Dr. Kelly a bit for being offended and changing his attitude or even being rude. He has worked damn hard to become the surgeon that he is today, I researched the hell out of him before I made the decision to go with him.... His credentials and record speaks for itself and I am sure he is tired of hearing all the bullshit that A Lighter Me is spreading.... I easily found his license #2006280 and verified it at www.cedulaprofesional.sep.gob.mx/cedula/indexAvanzada.action so GottaGo, get a grip.

Isnt it funny how Linda and Sandy from ALighterMe didnt mind standing next to Dr. Kelly at his induction into FACS last year (www.prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8910330.htm) Do all of you understand how elite that group of surgeons really is and for him to be recognized speaks volumes!! He was an awesome surgeon back then and ALM didnt mind putting that all over his credentials on their website at the time.... so what happened? I will tell you what happened, JEALOUSY.. ALM didnt like the fact that Dr. Kelly was still working with Trish (the other woman!! Oh, my!!!) and she was giving his patients what ALM couldnt, PERSONAL ATTENTION!!!

Gottago, you really need get off these boards. We all know that you are Sandy or Linda or one of their trolls and trying to drum up more business for Dr. Garcia. Why dont you GO DO YOUR JOB and really go out and market Dr. Garcia and build his business and reputation instead of trying to ruin an excellent surgeon's reputation and wasting all this time on these boards?

Give Dr. Garcia what he is paying you for.. representation of his skills! Not a smear campaign against another doctor!

This most likely all about business. However, if there is a safety concern stated, then can you check with the Medical Board that he is licensed under? That would clearly give you more answers. Also, it is unprofessional to take days off work because your patient is doing well. That's a red alarm to me.

If you have already had surgery with this Dr. and are doing just fine, then your ok, no problems, nothing to worry about.

Right, ALM didn't mind continuing to book for Dr Kelly long after the incident in June that everyone is now bringing back up again. Suddenly they can't in good conscious refer potential patients to Dr Kelly. They were more than happy to endorse him as long as it benefited them in some way. They were happy to try to associate their current Dr with Dr Kelly by saying he was trained under him, which he wasn't. They were happy to let people think Dr Kelly and this other Dr was associated together as a team, which they were not. They were happy to use Dr Kellys name with other Dr until they got this Dr's name out on these forums and build up a clientele, anyone who's been around these boards any length of time knows that Dr Garcia just showed up on these boards a few months ago. I'm not saying anything bad about him, because I know nothing about him other than the fact that I've been on these weight loss surgery boards for 7 yrs and I am just now seeing his name. So if it were me personally, no I wouldn't use a Dr that just appeared on the scene. I wouldn't know if that meant that he had just started doing the VSG or what. It would make me think that is the case, and I preferred someone with a lot of experience. Dr Kelly still has an extremely good complication rate for the number of procedures that he has performed, and drudging up incidents from the past to continue to try discredit a Surgeon, or his patient coordinator is ridiculous. I had hoped now that ALM isn't working with Dr Kelly that the drama and BS would die down and we wouldn't have to see folks like GOTTAGO posting this kind of nonsense on the board. Speaking of, I encourage anyone that is in research mode of these Dr's to please look at the content of members such as GOTTAGO and you will find that all their posts are either discrediting Dr Kelly or promoting ALM. They aren't here to seek or offer support for anyone on their weight loss journey. It's apparent they are working for ALM or the surgeon or hospital he uses. Go to GOTTAGO's profile, click on content, and you'll see what I mean. Don't take anyone else's word on anything, not even mine. Do your own research. If you don't feel comfortable with Dr Kelly for whatever reason, then by all means DON'T have surgery with him. But why try to manipulate other people and their decision unless you have some kind of ulterior motive. Why spend all your time trying to talk people out of a surgeon. Let's hear about who you ended up choosing and what YOUR EXPERIENCE with a different Dr is, that is what we are all suppose to be doing.

Well said Kelly! Thanks!!

If there are genuine issues and concerns about Dr. Kelly, the truth will eventually become quite apparent. If patients continually go to him, have a great experience at the hospital and with him, this situation will likely mellow out.

I loved my experience with Dr. Kelly back in November, but at the same time I accept it is possible there are legitimate issues that are the cause of ALM and a few other patient coordinator companies not working with him.

It's fairly simple to fact check and see if what gottago is saying is correct- I am not going to do it, simply because I have had my surgery and I'm happy with it. I am really happy with the quality of care I received. My friend who I initially referred to Dr. Kelly is now booked with Dr. Garcia instead, and I think that she is in good hands. I would not want to see someone cancel surgery with any surgeon based on speculation or fear of rumors- if you're booked with Dr. Kelly I would absolutely research his license, call those hospitals, and try to get ahold of him yourself even.