C. Daniel Procter, M.D., FACS., brings more than thirty years of experience performing bariatric surgeries with specialties in critical care and peripheral vascular surgery. He earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta in 1978 and trained in general surgery at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. Serving at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Dr. Procter became Chief of Trauma and Emergency Surgical Services, Co-director of Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Co-director of Critical Care Fellowship.
In 1986, having been chosen for a Fellowship in Peripheral Vascular Surgery, Dr. Procter spent a year at the prestigious Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Minnesota. He moved on a year later to Wright Patterson USAF Medical Center in Ohio to become Chief of Peripheral Vascular Surgery, Chief of General Surgery, and Director of Surgical Intensive Care.
In 1990, Dr. Procter moved into private practice, returning to Georgia a few years later and opening his own practice — Obesity Solutions — in 2000. In addition to performing more than 3,000 bariatric surgeries in his career, he became the first Medical Director of Bariatric Surgery at Northeast Georgia Medical Center, serving for seven years.
He holds certifications in General Surgery, Peripheral Vascular Surgery, and Phlebology and holds licensure in six states. Published in multiple journals, Dr. Procter has also won numerous awards, including two as a teacher of surgery.
The Satisfaction of Long-term Patient Relationships
For Dr. Procter, though, the most gratifying part of his work is the special long-term relationships developed with his patients at ObesitySolutions. He finds intense gratification in seeing their lives change in such a dramatic and positive fashion through weight loss surgery.
"We get to develop a personal relationship with our patients, so it's different from other surgeries. This feeling for patients is something you can't train into bariatric surgeons. This is just something you've got to have," Procter says. He adds, "We have cured more diabetes and more hypertension than all the medical doctors [treating these conditions]."
When you hear Dr. Procter talk about his patients, it's difficult to distinguish who gets more out of their weight loss success. "These people come out of the operating room with a smile on their face, and we get to see them back for months and months and years and years with a smile on their face. What could be better than that?"
Trained by the First RNY Bypass Surgeon
Dr. Dan Procter learned to do the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery in the 1970’s when training with the eminent Dr. Ward O. Griffen at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. Dr. Griffen originally modified the loop gastric bypass to devise the now highly effective Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
There were very few centers treating morbid obesity with surgery at that time, putting Dr. Procter and Dr. Griffen in high demand nationally. They drew patients from around the country and performed three to five gastric bypass operations every day.
Although the gastric bypass operation has again improved as medical knowledge has expanded — this time to make the stomach pouch smaller — his ground-breaking exposure to the first RNY procedure heightened his commitment and his skills in this specialty.
• To read a complete listing of Dr. Procter's training, publications, and professional memberships, please see his curriculum vitae.
• To here what Dr. Procter's patients have to say, click here.