I would like to echo Erin's response, only I had surgery, not my husband. I too found Denver to be a great place for TOS surgery. I did my research and went to see Brantigan as he had the most TOS surgeries under his belt with positive outcomes. I also talked to Dr. Roos and he said yes, Brantigan was the Doc he would go to if he needed TOS surgery, so that sealed the deal.

Doc Brantigan does live 2 blocks from the hospital and one night my husband and I were walking past his house, (didn't know it was there) he called out to us and we sat on his porch and chatted away about everything but the my surgery the next morning. He also gave us his home number in case we needed anything, not just surgery stuff he said. He wasn't even on call then which we thought was really nice! (he was still with his partners at the time) It's funny that his number spells words at his office and his house. So funny! (won't say what they are as to respect his privacy)

He made us feel at ease and joked the whole time right up until I was going out in the OR. I even got to pick out what music I wanted to "hear" during surgery! Even though he did promise I would be totally out for it! But it was a "just in case" I wake up, he wanted me to hear something pleasant and not, "oh crap she woke up"! That's the way to have surgery! Laughing right up to "night night" time.

Part of it for me is that I trusted him from the get go, I didn't go in armed with loads of medical articles on TOS for goodness sake, he knows all of them and has written many of them anyway. In no way did I even question which way he was going to do the surgery, he was the doctor and I trusted him to do it the best way for my body structure.

He did ask me what kind of pain meds I needed afterwards. He said he would give me what ever I can take so I had Demerol post op IV for 2 days then extra strength Tylenol and Motrin after that. It was tough that first week but I don't do well on any type of pain med. I was in the hospital for a week because I had all 3 types, really bad and it was a long surgery.

PT was great too, Paula was wonderful, as was Jason. It didn't take long to get back my "old arms" and it feels great after all these years!

You have to remember, when you go see docs that are rated nationally and world wide for their particular type of medicine, you don't go in trying to teach them something that they already know, nor do you proceed to tell them how you want surgery done. That's mistrust and lack of confidence in the surgeon from the get go. Why go to them then?

I had a ton of questions for him and he answered all of them, albeit many with funny answers, but he did answer the ones that really mattered to me.

The professionalism of his office and the hospital staff was outstanding, which made for a wonderful recovery and a scary thing not so scary.

I hope this helps.

Erin, I hope your husband is doing well?

Take care!