Prithvi Legha, MD

Very happy with my experience with Dr. Legha and his team. It took me almost two years to settle on going through with my surgery and once I made the decision, Dr. Legha and his team walked me through the process and made sure I was ready for the big life changes ahead.
I’m 3 months out from surgery as of today and down 70lbs (this includes the initial weight loss from the liquid diet I did in prep for surgery)! I can’t believe it! I didn’t have any complications and I know that’s because I followed Dr. Legha’s careful instructions and it’s also due to Dr. Legha’s skill as a surgeon.
Surgery is not for everyone, but if you decide to do it, make sure you do your homework and find a skilled surgeon like Dr. Legha.

Prithvi Legha comes off a bit distant at first, but definitely warms up as you work with him. In my experience, his surgical skills have been very good, as have the staff at PAMF. As with all doctors, communication is key, and much of the responsibility is on the patient in the American health care system. So, ask as many questions as you can, and pay attention to what the doctor says.

It is now 2014 and I still have had no surgical issues related to by bypass surgery. Please remember that everyone is different and that your body may react to a procedure differently. I followed EVERY instruction to the letter from everyone involved, from Dr. Legha to the nutritionist. I went from a size ²⁶⁄₂₈ to a size ²⁄₄ which I have maintained for the last 4 years. Surgery is only a TOOL! I make daily decisions to eat right, exercise, take my vitamins, and drink my water. Please feel free to message me if you have any further questions.

One of the best surgeons in the Bay Area. He is skilled, knows what he is doing and uses the latest techniques when appropriate for maximum healing. Very impressed.

In April 2009 I had a colostomy to remove rectal cancer, performed by Dr Prithvi Legha. At the time, I was dealing with an oncologist, a nurse-​practitioner, and two gastro-​enterologists at PAMF in Mountain View. None of them suggested to me that I should look for a surgeon certified in colorectal surgery, probably because PAMF didn’t have such a surgeon on their staff so I would have had to go elsewhere. And I didn’t know enough to ask the question — I just accepted the surgeon to whom they assigned me: Dr Legha.
A stoma is supposed to stick out about ½″ to 1″, but the stoma that Dr Legha created was recessed, except when it prolapsed, which produced a wad of intestine outside my belly about the size and shape of a tennis ball. Because the stoma was usually recessed, it was impossible to get the skin barrier to seal properly around the stoma, which caused feces to leak out, scraping my skin and causing constant weeping and bleeding around the stoma.
In December 2009 I had a second surgery with Dr Legha to correct the problems with the stoma. This surgery was easier than the first one, as the work was done through the stoma and didn’t involve an abdominal incision. There were four problems that needed to be fixed. He fixed or improved two of them, made two of them worse, and caused two new problems. Instead of attaching the edge of the intestine to my skin, he attached it way down inside, creating a sort of moat around the stoma with about a half-​inch layer of cut skin showing all the way around. He anchored it at the bottom in such a way that it pulled the surrounding skin down into a funnel shape, so that the plastic barrier, which is flat, wouldn’t stay attached at all. And the prolapse, which had been intermittent, was now permanent, with a 3-​inch length of intestine hanging out. When I discussed this with Dr Legha, he said that if I need the rest of it fixed, I would need major abdominal surgery — which meant another long hospital stay and 6 more weeks of recovery.
I asked my oncologist for a referral to a colorectal surgeon but he refused; Dr Legha was uncooperative; so I asked my ostomy support group, several of whom recommended a particular doctor at Stanford. When I went to him for a consultation, he said he could fix the problems working through the stoma so I wouldn’t need major surgery and could avoid the long hospital stay & long recovery. After the surgery the doctor said he removed about 6 inches of extra intestine which, combined with the fact that Dr Legha had made the abdominal opening way too large, accounted for the prolapses. He said he fixed a small hernia, also caused by the too-​large opening. The stoma was a little flatter than I’d hoped, and the skin on the right side of it still dipped way down, but overall it was much improved.
Ten days later the stitches pulled out of the skin on the right-​hand side of the stoma. The ER doctor stitched it up but five days later the stitches pulled out again. The surgeon said we would have to leave it open because the too-​large opening was causing too much tension on the stitches in my skin. He said it would heal from the bottom up. A stoma nurse show me how to pack it, with a microbial gel at the bottom, then fill it up with healing powder, then cover it with a piece of sticky elastic stuff and apply the pouch barrier on top of that. So for the next 6 weeks I cleaned it out and re-​packed it every other day. I ended up with a stoma that was the right size and functioned properly for the first time since the original ostomy surgery, 18 months earlier, and my scraped, bleeding skin finally started to heal.
About a year later I developed a hernia about the size of a 4-​month pregnancy, because the too-​large-​opening made by Dr Legha included the opening in the abdominal wall, allowing a long section of intestine to slide out into the space between the abdominal wall and the skin. I had major surgery to correct this in April 2011. Recovery was very slow; I was completely out of commission for a month, and it took about three months to even start to get my stamina back.
A year and a half later the hernia recurred, so I am facing yet another major surgery and long recovery. I am completely broke due to the huge expenses and the long periods of being unable to work. Instead of one ostomy surgery, I’ve had four and am facing a fifth, due to Dr Legha’s work. Avoid this doctor at all costs.

dont waste your time with this doctor!