Martin Kurzer

Written by a patient at St John & St Elizabeth Hospital

I am en extremely nervous patient. After much debate I decided to have my umbilical hernia repaired. I did some research and decided to go privately to a hernia specialist and chose to speak to Mr Martin Kurzer. I initially spoke to him on the telephone and immediately liked his caring, realistic and professional attitude. Despite living in the North of England I decided to have the operation with Mr Kurzer. To save me the inconvenience of going to London twice, Mr Kurzer arranged to see me in the morning with a view to operating on me in the afternoon if I was happy with his approach. I found him extremely informative, honest and reassuring and he immediately gained my trust ( which, being very nervous of any procedure, is not easy!). I had my operation under local anaesthetic at about 2.30pm that afternoon. The staff at the hospital were all lovely including the Anaesthetist who had an equally reassuring, kind and professional approach. Throughout the operation I chatted to the Anaesthetist and I felt no pain. Under local you can feel some tugging and pushing but that's all. Mr Kurzer was fantastic, occasionally informing me of how it was going and ensuring that I was in no discomfort. The level of sedation that you may have is discussed fully with you before the operation. I returned to my room and had a sandwich and biscuits. Mr Kurzer came to see me and I left the hospital at about 6pm. I was prescribed painkillers to take with me. I stayed overnight in London and took some Paracetamol. I had no pain, just some discomfort. I returned back to Lancashire by car the following day. My recovery to date has been as follows: Day 1 - walked happily out of the hospital and returned to my hotel and had dinner in my room. did not need my prescribed painkillers, just Paracetamol. Day 2 - Walked about about half a mile around St Johns Wood before returning home. Tummy was swollen with some discomfort but no pain. Day 3 - Walked 1.5 miles . Day 4 - Walked 1.5 miles to my local village, had a coffee and walked home ( 3 miles in total). The swelling around my tummy was now visibly reduced. Day 7 - Removed dressing as instructed. Swelling virtually disappeared. Scar above my tummy button with a ridge ( which is totally normal for a while). Walked 5miles. Resumed driving. Day 30 ( current day) - scar healing nicely and ridge shrinking slowly. Pretty much back to normal, cycling and walking regularly. I intend to return to my Pilates class within the next 2 weeks. At no stage have I experienced pain or indeed felt ill. I have had some discomfort and you do have to be careful in the early days not to do too much. I adhered strictly to Mr Kurzer's advice. I can 100% recommend Mr Martin Kurzer as a surgeon. He removed a lot of my anxiety by being so patient, reassuring and contactable. He texted me on the morning after my operation to check I was ok and again 7 days later when I removed the dressing. He stressed that I could contact him directly at any point if I had any concerns. In addition he has a wealth of experience in hernia operations and I am delighted that I chose him to perform my repair. The hospital staff were also fantastic. Everyone I met including junior nurses and theatre staff were kind, friendly and reassuring. I would definitely recommend this hospital.

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Written by a patient at St John & St Elizabeth Hospital

I had my inguinal open mesh hernia surgery with Doctor Martin Kurzer on the 6th of April 2016. My recovery was as follow: 1-7 days: A good degree of pain and discomfort, started to go for small walks form day 4. 2-4 weeks: Gone back to work on day 9, and still experience a degree of pain, on a scale 1-10, I'd say 4. Especially in the evenings after a day at work. Pain would reach 6-7 and needed to lie down. 4-6 weeks: Notice some improvements and start to carry small weights, although some pain, scale 2-3 and a feeling of a foreign object still present. 6-12 weeks: Major improvements and pain is gradually reducing, some days I feel no pain or problems. I started to go to the Gym, and feel some burning sensation when exercising, although I noticed massive improvements by going to the gym. 12 weeks onwards: Still get the odd day with some pain and discomfort, however improvements are noticed day by day and these keep me positive. Before the surgery I thought that I would feel no pain after 4-6 weeks, on the contrary I started to feel back to a good level from the 12th week. So if you have this done, be prepared for a longer recovery time to avoid disappointment. I feel surgeon should prepare patients for a possible long term recovery. I was a bit worried to find out I was still suffering pain after week 6. Hope this can help.

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Written by a patient at St John & St Elizabeth Hospital

Review of my hernia operation – 20 January 2016 TripAdvisor has been an invaluable resource to me over recent years and I’m delighted there is now this facility relating to the medical profession; my experience of the medical profession over six decades has regrettably been varied. I had a hernia and decided it was not sensible to let it grow larger before being repaired, nor did I wish to put my life on hold for months, so decided to pay. This experience for me was the medical profession at its best. Having done quite a lot of research on the web I arranged to meet Martin Kurzer – the initial consultation was professional and friendly; he allowed ample time for me to ask my many questions. His answers were in laymen’s terms and he drew diagrams to aid my understanding. Whilst the hernia price of £1,995 is not the cheapest it is good to know that Hospital profits, a registered charity, help support St John’s Hospice caring for 3,000 terminally ill patients each year. I especially liked the fact that it was a single total price, there were no hidden or extra costs. (car parking nearby was £22 for a day) From my arrival at the hospital through to discharge everything was well timed; all staff were very friendly and very professional. Martin has been caring and supportive – even to the extent of texting me the morning after the operation to ask after my welfare. I believe it is important to have realistic expectations of the potential discomfort as it is not a trivial operation; if you want to know what is involved then I suggest watch a couple of real life operations on www.youtube.com. I took the medications as prescribed and had less discomfort and recovered faster than I'd expected. On the day after the op I walked about 200 metres; and on the 2nd day walked 500 metres, on the 3rd day about 800 metres. The wound has ached from time to time, perhaps caused by me trying to do too much too soon (it’s now 4 days after the op), but I’ve not had any pain at all. I have no hesitation in recommending both Martin Kurzer and the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth for a hernia repair. Chris M – Studham, Bedfordshire

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Written by a patient at St John & St Elizabeth Hospital

Being a very nervous patient I found Dr Kurzer to be very pleasant and reassuring answering all my questions and concerns putting me totally at ease. He is very understanding and very experience in what he does. Had my surgery by him on 9th July all went exactly as he had told me. He also makes himself very contactable even after surgery he is keen to make sure you are doing well and continues to answer any concerns you may have he has a very caring attitude. I would 100% recommend Dr Kurzer to anyone looking for hernia surgery my operation has been very uneventful with very little pain or discomfort I had waited two years just wish I had it done earlier.

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