Danielle Ciaramitaro

Review of Brotman Medical Center

Unfortunately for the amazing staff that I worked ...

Unfortunately for the amazing staff that I worked with at this hospital, the overall rating greatly underscores how fabulous they are!! After a gastric sleeve procedure done by a different surgeon and hospital in 10/2018, I suffered extreme pain and subsequent additional injuries from surgical complications (stricture of the stomach from surgery and a perforated esophagus from EGD). I had spent months without being able to eat by mouth and had almost lost all hope. I was recommended by a friend to see Dr Joseph Naim who is a barbaric surgeon and genius!! He was able to convert my sleeve to a gastric bypass in 9/2019. The surgery was flawless and the hospital was not only clean, spacious, and tentative to my needs, but the nurses were very kind and compassionate. Now I wish that my surgical problems were over but my digestive tract (which had been rerouted from gastric pouch to my intestines) were already prone to ulcers. Dr Naim and his team kept close watch on me and continued to monitor my health. Being an overachiever myself, it s no wonder that my ulcer worked hard and was able to erode the back wall of the gastric pouch. This was only through my bad luck, because Dr Naim and his wonderful NP Carolyn Taylor appropriately prescribed the medication that should have taken care of my ulcer. I had taken several CT scans with contrast and everything came back normal. So when my ulcer bled through my stomach and ruptured my splenic artery in 2/2020 it was a shock to everyone! I was lucky to survive the abdominal bleed out and with my husband and mother by my side me I awoke after emergency surgery, my very first phone call was to Dr Naim: During that surgery my pouch had to be removed (full gastrectomy) and so my follow up was with those surgeons since February. I was shocked and excited to have Emilia, Dr Naim s Dietician, call me this Sept 2020 just to check on my well-being and dietary health. I explained to her that my stomach was removed and eating by mouth was limited to only yogurt and protein shakes: I had been getting all my nutrition through an IV in my arm (TPN). This long term method of IV food was becoming a hazard and causing damage to my liver. Emilia was like an Angel and from that moment she started studying my chart to understand my anatomy and see how she could help. Now this kindness and working so diligently is all being done for a patient she had never even met!!! We spent several hours on the phone (word wide pandemic Covid-19) and Emilia gave me all kinds of dietary recommendations that would be more tolerable for my anatomy. I had been suffering from February through September with intolerable heart burn and indigestion that really prevented me from doing anything, wok, sleep, eat, somedays I couldn t even shower the pain was so bad. But after speaking with Emilia I found out that what I had been doing, high calories and high fat due to my small amount of food I could eat, were actually making my indigestion worse! So long story, but the happy ending is that through SCH, Dr Joseph -Naim, NP Carolyn Taylor, and dietitian Emelia Janeke, I am now off the IV food and eating everything by mouth. They really care about their patients and saved my life! 5 stars!