Dr Alejandro Lopez Of ALO Bariatrics: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Doctor
An Interview With Jake Frankel
Be patient. Success can be for the long haul. It wasn’t easy to achieve the goals I achieved. It took a long time and effort to create my company with the characteristics and qualities I wanted, but I kept pushing myself until it became a reality.
As a part of my series about healthcare leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Alejandro Lopez.
Over the last 12 years, Dr. Alejandro Lopez has performed over 7,000 successful bariatric surgeries, affecting his patients’ lives in a positive fashion. In fact, bringing smiles to his patients’ faces is his greatest reward. His far-reaching knowledge of laparoscopic surgery and his expertise in the operating room for bariatric procedures, including laparoscopic gastric bypass and adjustable gastric banding (Lap-Band®), have been grounds for him to receive numerous awards for his work in bariatric surgery.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?
I am Alejandro López-Ortega, MD, and FACS, a General Surgeon who has specialized in Bariatric Surgery for 14 years. I received my medical degree in the City of Guadalajara, at the most prestigious university in Medicine in Mexico at that time. I have been passionate about medicine since my childhood and have always been interested in the wonders of the human body, I decided to become a doctor at the age of 10 and took it not only as my goal in life but as my way of life, by being humanistic and always caring for others.
When I entered medical school, I realized that my vocation was in surgery, learning about the inside of the human body, and being able to solve diseases with my hands. As I continued my education in treating gastric diseases, I realized my interest in a subspecialty focused on both treatment and prevention of diseases, called Bariatric Surgery. This became my new focus since this was how I could not only treat diseases but I could also prevent them and treat a problem that is currently a pandemic, which is obesity.
I went to conferences and hospitals around the world to learn about novelty techniques that were being proposed at that time, techniques that saved a lot of recovery time and implied less pain for the patient, which was the laparoscopy technique.
In my personal life, my family is what feeds my spirit and gives me strength during difficult times and in those surgeries that have been quite a challenge. With the intention of offering the best quality to my patients in bariatric surgery procedures, I created ALO Bariatrics with the idea of being at the forefront and being able to provide our patients with a full-service experience with the safety they seek.
In my free moments, enjoying the day with my wife and daughters fills me with joy. Starting the day with exercise and a cup of coffee gives me energy.
Among my favorite activities are diving, which I have the pleasure of practicing with my family, going up the mountain, and skiing. The life of a doctor and a surgeon is full of effort and constant struggle to help our patients, but more than anything, it is full of passion for life itself.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
Since I was little I wanted to be a doctor, then specifically a surgeon. I always liked my job, but something that changed my life in the beginning was the first feedback I received from a patient. Before his bariatric surgery, he had a metabolic syndrome, as well as back and knee pain. Eight months after his procedure, I received his email with a picture of him with his sons in the mountains, telling me how happy he was skiing with his sons after 10 years. Now he is able to enjoy life as he wants and share amazing moments with his family. From that moment, I understood how important my job is and how much I love what I do.
Every day I see stories that my previous patients share with me on our media platforms or via my personal email. They share with me their personal experiences in everyday life, such as being able to walk or run with their kids, recovering their jobs, swimming, skying, and improving their healthy lives. This makes me full of energy and motivates me to keep traveling to different cities to perform bariatric surgeries.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
13 years ago I had a patient from Canada who came in for duodenal switch (DS) surgery. He was 54 years old, with a 70 BMI, diabetes, and high blood pressure. He was a very difficult patient. Males are usually more difficult anatomically than women. After 2 hours of performing the first step of the surgery, which is a sleeve and duodenal dissection, as well as removing scar tissue from previous cholecystectomy from the duodenum area, I finally decided to end the surgery in a one anastomosis DS. I felt my heart broken because I couldn’t end the full duodenal switch surgery. For me, it was a failure in my career. The patient had a good recovery and was discharged without any complications, but he was disappointed with me. After days of research, I found case reports like my patient’s case, promoting a new technique for anatomically difficult patients. Now this technique is known as a SADIS and was recently approved by the FDA as a Nobel technique. Medicine is like this in many cases when it comes to discovering something that you weren’t looking for.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?
As with many of my colleagues, the medical industry is always looking for new facts or improvements for the benefit of our patients. I’m always looking for new techniques to offer better and safer options. We are working on a new project to be able to access more people who need this type of surgery and help them achieve a healthier lifestyle.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am grateful to all my teachers who shared their passion for medicine and the responsibility to be better every day. Since the beginning, my mentor in surgery has always had a lot of confidence in me. He let me lead complex surgical procedures, which allowed me to realize how good I was at performing surgeries and working smoothly under pressure. This was very gratifying for me.
Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?
The Physician by Noah Gordon. When I read this book, I identified myself with the main character because of his passion for medicine and how he fought for his dream of becoming a good physician by traveling around to look for more knowledge.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
With over 10,0000 surgeries, I know the impact that access to this treatment brings to people. So we try to make these procedures accessible, affordable, and high quality to offer our patients a safe option to improve their lives. As a multidisciplinary team, we are also committed to serving and teaching new models of life by making healthy choices while eating and encouraging them to be more active. I’m also in a fellowship program where I can share my knowledge in bariatric surgery with other practicing doctors.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?
My life lesson has always been from my family. When I was a child, I saw my mom’s effort in her labor life, which taught me to fight for my dreams. Then followed by my wife and daughters watching them grow by my side, and my ALO family, including all of its members who are committed to work every day. It doesn’t matter if it is a holiday, weekend, or midnight, they are always there for all new and former patients who are looking for a new opportunity in life.
Can you share your top three “lifestyle tweaks” that will help people feel great?
Bariatric surgery is just a window that shows how beautiful life can be. But to be on the other side of this window, not be just a spectator and to really live life, you need to be committed every day. Eating healthy and going against the flow we see every day on television or social media. That means being active. A healthy life includes a daily exercise routine, always being on the move pushing to achieve all your goals, and very importantly, sharing experiences with your loved ones. The human body is an integration of many diverse things to live longer and stronger.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1. Be around people who inspire you to grow. Family and good friends, what else can you dream of? People around me help me and motivate me to keep going. And when these people share the same interests, you feel plenty and accompanied during the journey
2. Stick to your values and ideals. Many people give good advice, but others don’t lead you to the right path. So, I learned to follow my values to achieve my goals in my own ideal way.
3. Be patient. Success can be for the long haul. It wasn’t easy to achieve the goals I achieved. It took a long time and effort to create my company with the characteristics and qualities I wanted, but I kept pushing myself until it became a reality.
4. Be flexible. Something that no one expected is a pandemic. COVID made us all adopt new rules, and in the field, it is difficult to adapt, but with teamwork, we managed to continue doing our job in the best way.
5. Follow your instincts. During my journey, I had a lot of proposals or opinions, and of course, listening to the recommendations some people gave me helped me follow the right path. But in the end, it was my inner drive that took me where I needed to go.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
We are in the process of creating a program to bring access to bariatric surgery and teach the way to a healthier life. We called this program Togetherness. It is an educational program where we can all learn how to enjoy life together in a healthier way, with the objective of creating a community where we can support each other.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
There are many people who I admire for different reasons and on different levels, and each one has inspired me to achieve my goals. I consider Elon Musk to be a visionary person because of his enthusiasm for science developing novel things, and offering the world advanced technologies. He is on robotics, NASA, alternative energies, always seeking more alternatives to decrease pollution, alternatives for health treatments, etc. I think it would be interesting to talk with someone this visionary.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Certainly! They can find more about our work and patient stories on our website, ALObariatrics.com. We also have an active presence on various social media platforms where they can get regular updates.
Thank you so much for these wonderful insights!
