The Alphaklinik

[Slackwater]

Originally posted by Nick:
(del.text) I spoke to Nicole, Drs. Zeegers' assistant about the article. She informed me that Dr. Dekkers has been let go and did not specify why. I am still on schedule for my surgery on 5/16/08 with Drs. Zeegers at the Alpha Klinik. It appears as if Drs. Zeegers and Dr. Dekkers had no business relationship whatsoever from the above posts and from my conversations with Nicole. I am moving forward with my C5-C6 Moci-C and possible removal of C6-C7 fusion and replacement with Mobi-C. Wish me luck; I'll post the outcome on the Surgical Outcome board.

Nick

Best wishes for you in the surgery with the Mobidisc-C and a smooth recovery. I really hope that goes well; there have to be a list of dependencies for the surgeons to think about changing Fusion to ADR at C6-C7. How long ago did you get the fusion at C6-7?

Renewed my passport last year, thinking AlphaKlinik, or Pro-Spine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Translator.live.com , http://www.windowslivetranslator.com , Dutch to English , http://www.feed24.com/go/52520220, reading a web posting dated May 7, 2008

There was a lawsuit filed against Dr. Dekkers. A Dutch patient had four (4) back operations, 60,000 Euro later and the patient remained in pain or worsened. I think several other Dutch patients joined the lawsuit. An "independent doctor" (radiologist?) reviewed Dr. Dekker's cases where stenosis was diagnosed (assume leading to surgery). The independent doctor did not confirm all the diagnosis. Lawsuits create "Expert Witnesses" in this country, paid for their opinon. Assume similar occurs in the Netherlands and Germany. The Expert Witness, identified as a doctor, stated "no stenosis" in seventeen (17?) cases where Dr. Dekker wrote "stenosis".

The article does not state how many other expert witnesses confirmed Dr. Dekkers findings. I am disappointed in the results both for the patients and Dr. Dekkers.

Dr. Toft, heads AlphaKlinik, said "unacceptable" in the web article. The article said Dr. Dekkers was dismissed.

Surgery does not have a guaranteed outcome; each of the four (4) surgeons I spoke with said the same. Surgery selection is based on a diagnosis. Patients rely on the diagnosis. Some aspects of the diagnosis are quantifiable, some possibly? subjective, like degrees of disc or facet degeneration. Surgical results for patients vary. We want "clinical results" in the correct segement, or better.

Patients on ADRSupport.org shared "legal" stories, like my own, where there was an Independent Medical Examination (IME) that was written in favor of the defendant or plaintiff. No big surprise; it's business, not necessarily justice in everyone's view.

Patients can speculate about lawsuits, what happened, who said what, complicated by not able to read Dutch, but ... this is not a great use of time. A couple of posts on ADRSupport.org refer to getting a couple of surgical opinons; this is a good idea.

Dr. Zeegers et al @ AlphaKlinik remain on my short list for surgery,


Slackwater
mva: 2-level lumbar surgical candidate

[Lisibug]

I went to Bertagnoli for my 3 cervical ADRs just over a year ago, but would also feel very comfortable going to Zeegers - he has an excellent reputation. I hope you're starting to feel a little more comfortable now. It's hard right before going for surgery in another country to have doubts!

[B13s]

There is a lawsuit against Dr. Dekkers and as result his medical license got revoked without possibility to appeal and his contract with Alphaklinik got terminated. There are no more details in the German press. Alphaklinik is really oriented more towards foreign patients - German state insurances do not pay for the treatment in this clinic at all, most of the private insurances (and only around 10% of German population have them) pay only part of it, and only some most expensive ones (costing 500-800 Euro/month per person) cover everything. Overall Alphaklinik has mixed reputation between German doctors - not sure why, maybe because of the simple competition, however I don't mention anymore that I went to Alphaklinik for consultation. Interesting thing that out of four different clinics I saw only one recommended ADR - and it was Alphaklinik, guess they need to cover cost for having such a posh place

[Don]

B13s,

Here is the email from my brother's friend,

"a good friend and colleague answered. the stenum hospital is not well known
in germany (ok it's far north when you come from freiburg). but their
webpage is typically to catch foreigners. my friend has worked in munich for
a long time, so he says alphaclinic is ok, but not very special.
he recommends a hospital in bielefeld (not too far away from julich).
webpage is only in german, but it looks very good. highest standard, not
moneydriven:"

So, for me he recommends the hospital in bielefeld. Both of the doctors in Germany that my brother talked to are surgeons, so I wondered who they would go to, that's when I recieved the not above...

this doesn't mean that I have less opinion of the Alphaklinik, but they are serving a market. As far as how I wieghed these surgeon's opinions, I feel doctors are often very conservative and very slow to try new devices and techniques, unless they are promotting the device or technique. Both of the surgeons I've seen here recomend fusion above ADR, and they say because it is unproven. Also, I can't go where ever I want to in Germany, I'd have to go someplace that would accept me.

thanks for the info.

Don

[Don]

Hmmm, I should've read my original post! I already had the quote there.

Bad back, now a old brain, what's next?

[B13s]

Don't get me wrong, I think Alphaklinik has a lot of experience since they do so many ADR's and it's less expensive compared to US, question is if you are the right patient for ADR - and this is where I have question mark regarding their approach that in most cases ADR is the way to go.

[Terry]

Originally posted by Don:
Hmmm, I should've read my original post! I already had the quote there.

Bad back, now a old brain, what's next?

Don't go there Don; You may not want to know.

Terry Newton

[FUZZDOG]

"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the he** happened."

can't remember the author....too old I guess..

Coll

[annapurna]

We've just finished up knee surgery at the Alpha Klinik and were told on the side that they are having problems but it's from poor press and ongoing fights between Toft, Deckers, and Hoogland. Effectively, if you're holding out, planning to use the Alpha Klinik at some indefinite future time, watch them carefully or else they'll close shop due to media pressure dropping the number of clients. The service we received was still good but the knee clinic was clearly less busy than we've seen for several years.