THE CONTENDER

I had a number of Thoracic Surgeons on the list given me by Dr. VJ.  It is hard to go wrong with world renowned Dr. David Jones of Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on the list but there also were Doctors from Sentara Norfolk General, the Medical College of Virginia, University of Virginia Medical School and other various surgeons.
Not having ever known someone with lung cancer, getting a referral seemed out of the question, so where else does one turn?  I know!  Google, of course.  I really became overwhelmed and decided the best that I could do was to narrow my list down to two surgeons.  One would use Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) and the other would use the DaVinci Robotic method, the two monikers for thoracic surgery these days.  As an aside, I have watched too many of those car commercials that use robots and frankly, I just did not like the idea on one working on my both parts, particularly an organ as important as a lung!  While my husband would surely have put me on the airplane to New York, straight away, I was not sure that I wanted to go that far.  I felt that it might be best to have my surgery done close to home and therefore have the support of my local family and friends.

Dr. Joseph Newton from Sentara was in number one position, my early runner, if you will. Sentara Healthcare is the local group of hospitals, so a sort of comfort in the familiar and in thinking that I would have family nearby.  In my Google search I came across these transcripts from a live webinar: http://www.or-live.com/transcripts/2007/seh_1958_657.pdf.  Twelve pages of mumbo jumbo to a novice like me, yet it left me feeling assured that Dr. Newton was an expert at VATS and the Surgeon for me!

BUT...big but here!  I surely needed more than just one consultation.  My research led me to Dr. Dipin Gupta. Dr. Gupta was with Cardiothoracic Surgical Associates located in Richmond, VA; however as of this writing he is with MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, MD.  Dr. Gupta was the DaVinci Robot guru and yes, he thought that robot "sexy"!  While I found that just a little disturbing, one could not help but warm up to Dr. Gupta.  I left his office knowing that he was who I wanted to do my surgery.

My husband never fully gave up hope on Dr. Jones ( a UVA alum, just like my Husband), had conversations with him and also sent him my records to review.  I  believe that Dr. Jones felt that I had a pretty straightforward diagnosis and surgery and felt that I was in good hands here locally.  With his blessing, my Doctor of choice was Dr. Gupta.
I feel as if I made a great decision, as between Dr. Gupta and his associates, I believe that I had the best of care.

Be Brave,
Lynne