R W, Santa Clara: Laparoscopic colon surgery's Story

A few weeks before my 79th birthday I began to experience a series of seemingly unrelated symptoms: insomnia, leg cramps, abdominal pain, diarrhea, , weight loss (about 5 pounds a month, without dieting or any new exercise), and chronic fatigue. There’s probably no “official” medical explanation for this, but it may be that my body was crying out for me to pay it some attention. As it turned out, what I had was a malignant tumor in the cecum area of the colon—near where my appendix used to be. This diagnosis resulted from a somewhat overdue colonoscopy. The gastroenterologist gave me a short list of surgeons, including Dr. Marc Zaré, who practices at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Gatos, CA. I believe in God, and I believe that meeting this doctor was an act of Divine mercy. Not only does Dr. Zaré have exceptional skill (with a sterling reputation among his peers and patients), but he has an uncommon level of humane interest in the people who need his services.

We had an extensive pre-op conference, in which he explained very clearly how he would approach a solution to my problem. He answered all my questions (and those of my wife, who asks plenty!) About 5 weeks ago he operated on me, using a laparoscopic technique. He had cautioned me that my tumor was large enough that a larger incision might be needed. Fortunately, it wasn’t, so healing time was much shorter than it would otherwise have been. During the operation he presented 32 surrounding lymph nodes to the attending pathologist. All that tissue was found to be “clean.” At his daily visits to the hospital, he was informative and encouraging, and spent a generous amount of his time. I was discharged four days later, and the speed and extent of recuperation at home has amazed my friends and family. I am very grateful to this man, and I suggest you consider meeting him if you ever find yourself needing an extraordinary surgeon in the Laparoscopic and Bariatric specialties.