I have a friend who has finally given up and wants to have the surgery. Need to find a very good surgeon she can go to. She said the closest to where she lives that she thinks might have big hospitals/a good surgeon would include:

Reno, NV
Sacremento, CA
or possibly San Fran, CA

Can anyone make any recommendations? Thanks!

Hi,

Without an ounce of hesitation, we highly highly recommened Dr. Julio Garcia-Aguilar at UCSF in San Fran. In the pictures of Mark's surgeries below you can see both Mark's recovery story, and also you can see the hospital rooms, etc. Simply put, he is brilliant, kind, gentle, well respected - he is now Chief of Colorectal Cancer at UCSF (I believe). The nurses were excellent, the facility was organized and compassionate. It is a teaching hospital, but we liked that part of it b/c only 1 of his 3rd residents interacts with you.

If needed there was another jpoucher who just went to Dr. Garcia-Aguilar, we can ask them how their recovery is going. Mark recovered at his family home right outside Sacremento, and he was fine with the 2 hour commute once he was out of the hosipital. The only thing was the Dr. kept him a day longer since he was going to be 2 hours away, just a precaution.

Also, at UCSF is Dr. Uma Mahadevan, she is a GI and is excellent.

If you need any details, feel free to ask or PM.

Megan

Thank you both!

I also have a recommendation for you, well a couple. My surgion is Dr. J. Peter Zegarra in Sacramento. he has been nothing but great to me. I would even recommend the other Doctors in the same office. Dr. Jeanne Yu is great as well. Just PM me if you would like more information.

Thanks!

Hey,

I was just sitting here in anticipation of my final surgery (take down) this friday June 6th and saw your blog and felt compelled to say something. I would, hands down, select Dr. Julio Garcia-Aguilar from UCSF as your surgeon. I am not only saying this because he literally saved my life, but he is the most knowledgeable doctor for UC and Crohns disease in the business. I personally know people who have flown from the east coast to see him. The post from "Mark & Megan" is correct, he is chief of colorectal surgery at UCSF. Once again, without hesitation, Aguilar is the best choice.


Sincerely,

Jordan

Because of poor pediatric GI care, we left a Sacramento hospital for UCSF when my son's surgery became imminent; I would recommmend that facility over anything in Sacramento, if for no other reason than that they do many more procedures and see a greater variety of critical cases there. I don't have any first-hand information about Dr. Garcia-Aguilar, but have heard nothing but good things about him.

Dr. Fazio did my pouch revision. Told me to see Dr. Garcia-Aguilar if I had surgical emergency in SF.

I have not seen him, but will go to him next year for scope instead of Cleveland.

If you are willing to travel to Los Angeles. I reccomend the surgeon who operated on me:
Dr. Johnathan Sack, UCLA.
You will see a lot of listings for surgeons at Cedars Sinai. They are good but it is more of wharehouse. Dr. Sack has fantastic bedside manner, is always very patient in answering all your questions and concerns and an excellent surgeon.