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Although Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis has moved on from the Pats, he is at the center of a high-profile malpractice case that will go to trial next month – and Pats QB Tom Brady will be a star witness.
During his stint as the Pats' offensive coordinator, Weis decided to have gastric bypass surgery in 2002. Weis was a big fella and didn't like how he looked. There's even a blog out there named Charlie Weis Ate My Baby. It's a funny name, but ouch!
Weis saw the gastric-bypass procedure as a last resort, only he didn't realize how "last resort" it would be.
Gastric bypass surgeries are fraught with risk. There's a reason Gothamist gave a post on weight-loss surgeries the title "When All Else Fails." But Weis nearly died after his operation, and he filed suit against the two Mass General doctors who performed the bypass, Charles Ferguson and Richard Hodin. Hodin's website lists him as a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Tom Brady will be part of the trial because he visited Weis and saw Weis' condition first-hand. And it never hurts to have famous people as character witnesses. Obviously, this will be a tough case to pinpoint because no one can say for sure if the problem had to do with Weis' health or with the doctors' abilities. Then again, it won't be that tough if jurors are blinded by Tom Brady's star power.
Image of how a gastric bypass works from the NIH. More information on these surgeries are available at the NIH.
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Dr. Hodin performed two abdominal surgeries on me, and he is terrific. I wouldn't go to anyone but him in the future, and I think Weis is just sour grapes. Even I know that gastric bypass is a risky surgery.
I agree with the other commenter. Everyone knows going in that this is an extremely perilous procedure, and always presents a potential threat to your life. I've known someone who went through it and turned out okay. It's definitely not an operation that should be undertaken lightly. Those Pats are among the most litigous folks out there, aren't they? And Mass. is even more litigous than Calif.!