There's a huge difference between a doctor re-doing someone else's mistakes and a doctor re-doing surgery they originally did on a patient that formed adhesions or had a recurrence of symptoms. Doc Brantigan has done re-do's of many other docs TOS surgery including ones done in Denver by other docs. He did a redo on me too to HELP clean up adhesions and it helped a lot. No doc can tell how much will form or not, but not all docs will go back in to help clean it up, but Doc B does because he knows what he is doing. But many times more then not, the more you go back in the more adhesions it causes. But if something is hung up in it then releasing it would help somewhat.

If one has surgery and was screwed up by their doctor the last thing a patient should do is go back for more by the same doc. Often when patients that have had surgery done by another doctor and then go see Doc B because it dodn't work or whatever, the damage may be too much for even him to fix.

Do your homework before having any kind of surgery with any doctor for any reason. If a patient doesn't, especially for specialized conditions like this one, then the patient has to take some of the blame for the outcome. Doing a few surgeries or many of them is a HUGE FIRST CLUE as to the skill of the surgeon. When there are known top docs for TOS like in Denver, and there are a few there to choose from, most insurances WILL ok the patient to go out of the plan to get it done.

Insurance companies would rather have the patient have surgery done by someone who knows what they are doing then to have the patient cost the insurance company more money by having ongoing issues. It just takes a little bit to fight them.

If the outcome of the surgery depends on having a life back to be able to help support a family, one may have to spend a little money getting better care out of state in order to make more later on. It just takes fighting some insurance companies to do it.

I think we all need to remember that we are here to support each other and share information.

At some point, mentioning doctors names -pro or con- is going to create stress amongst the members.

Some some had good luck with some of the doctors and again some did not.
The scar tissue proves to be a very real obstacle that seems to vary by person and probably can't be predicted.

Warnings are good, as well as kudos, and both should be added to the Drs sticky.

I had no intention of bringing up the "Doctor" issue--and I'm sorry if anyone is upset. Someone asked and I told. Picking a doctor to do a major surgery like this is not always a personal decision. Most of the time Insurance Companies dictate who you can see--especially HMOs. My HMO tried to force me to use a different doctor for my re-do surgery and I had to fight them for 8 months to be able to go back to Dr. Brantigan. Dr. Brantigan went to bat for me --and we went after them from both ends. Yes, he did a re-do surgery on his own surgery--but it's not his fault that I developed scar tissue. A few months after my first surgery I caught a virus which caused violent coughing which I believe caused the scar tissue and actually caused my scalene muscle to attatch itself to my brachial plexus. I guess that I can blame my own body for that one. I admire him for hanging in there with me....

Triste--I didn't mean to hijack your thread....I just wanted to make sure that your eyes are open to how brutal lawsuits and the court system can get. You are talking about a medical malpractice suit--and I am talking about a lawsuit due to a car accident--which is over and done with. I am not the kind of person that would sue anyone--but the system requires that you sue the driver that caused the accident in order for Under Insured Motorist insurance coverage to kick in. I am not suing any Doctor. Sorry if anyone misunderstood. I agree with the poster who advised you to be careful about what you say---that is good advice for anyone who is involved in litigation. I was followed on a regular basis. I would bet that lawyers and insurance companies monitor these boards on a regular basis.....