How does one "find a good surgeon" ?

[rodi]

When my sister in law needed brain surgery she already was seeing the head of the neurosurgery department at the university she worked at. She wanted a second opinion and ended up with the top neurosurgeon in the city an hour away (again, University based teaching hospital.) In other words - she went for the top dogs at teaching universities.

When my brother was fighting his losing battle with cancer he was told that his case was too much for the local surgeons - but they referred him to the top specialist at the teaching hospital an hour south, in a bigger city. This gastro/gi/oncologist had a TERRIBLE bedside matter, but also had top residents studying under him who took excellent care of my brother. (Think "House" and his team.)

In both cases - the top doctors ended up being at teaching hospitals.

 

[swakyaby]

When my sister in law needed brain surgery she already was seeing the head of the neurosurgery department at the university she worked at. She wanted a second opinion and ended up with the top neurosurgeon in the city an hour away (again, University based teaching hospital.) In other words - she went for the top dogs at teaching universities.

When my brother was fighting his losing battle with cancer he was told that his case was too much for the local surgeons - but they referred him to the top specialist at the teaching hospital an hour south, in a bigger city. This gastro/gi/oncologist had a TERRIBLE bedside matter, but also had top residents studying under him who took excellent care of my brother. (Think "House" and his team.)

In both cases - the top doctors ended up being at teaching hospitals.

One thing about this that some don't realize is that in teaching hospitals, it is often surgical residents who are doing most of the actual surgery. The esteemed neurosurgeon will often appear at the start of surgery, leave for 45 minutes or so, reappear to check on the 2 residents' progress, ask them to call him/her when they reach an important point in the resection, leave, then return and scrub in on the most critical part, then finally leave as the residents begin closing. Not the most experienced hands are doing the bulk of the surgery. But with close enough supervision, everything usually goes well.