Horror story. My daughter was a 22 week preemie born in 2000. She weighed 1 pound 3 ounces, was on…read moreoxygen for 3 years, and survived, thanks to a great neonneonatal and preemie team with Doctors (Manginello, Grazzi, Giuliano, Jeshion, Duncan, Onyeije, Velchec, Benson), and the host of NICU nursing, pulmonary and radiology supportat at Lenox Hill Hospital & Valley Hospital she is alive and thriving today. However, once under the care of Tenafly Pediatrics, she started having migraines. Eventually I found out that the migraines were a symptom of a slow growing congenital brain tumor. My daughter was frequently seen by Dr. Sugarman of Tenafly Pediatrics, yet neither of us were taken seriously about the smptoms which progressed through her early teen years. She suffered from vomiting, nausea, dizziness while walking, and hyper stimulation with agitation in sunlight or strong artificial light. Dr. Sugarman finally referred her to a neurologist, Dr. Heilbronerer. Over time both doctors began treating me with disdain and increasing frustration: the last time we saw Dr. Sugarmam, she scoffed at me and chastised me about telling my daughter to cover up as we went out into the winter weather because I mentioned it was "phenumonia weather". I was shocked and insulted by her ignorance in taking my statement so literally. For the first time, I allowed myself to question her character, if she was racist and/ or classist, or assumed her Harvard BA out ranked me, but I have an MA from Stanford...which she probably did not know. Noerheless I followed up on the referral to Dr. Heilbroner (the neurologist referred by Dr. Sugarman Tenafly Pediatrics), and he REFUSED to see my daughter who arrived to her appointment in pain and distress, and in spite of the fact that I had a note from the school nurse stating she needed to be seen ASAP due to excessive vomiting of clear liquid in school. At the time, my husband and I were divorcing. Doctor Heilbronner refused to examine my daughter because, as he stated, her father told him not to. I left the office feeling like someone had aimed a shotgun at my daughter's temple. Over time, her symptoms worsened and became more frequent. An audiologist finally recommended that I immediately take her to Hackensack ER if the symptoms worsened. I did, and Her tumor was quickly diagnosed as a Clival Chirdoma, and It had to be removed ASAP. Because it was rare, the surgical team searched for a specialist who had removed this type of tumor. While in ER, I was called by a neurologist at NYU who questioned me as to "why" I refused Dr. Sugarmam's referral to take my daughter to NYU. I explained to the NYU doctor that I had absolutely NO idea of a referral being made by Dr. Sugarman. Furthermore, my daughter could not be moved as she was being prepped for emergency surgery. There was a pause of silence on the phone, then that compassionate doctor apologized to me. He apologized for, "bothering" me, and said they (NYU Neurology) had no idea that Clival Chordoma was her diagnosis, and NYU did not specialize in removing this tumor. He asked my pardon, and wished all the best in her surgery.
Dr. Sugarman never returned to the hospital to talk with me about my daughter. Fortunately, the tumor was removed by a great team of specialists from Hackensack and Morrtistown: Doctors Kaptin, Thompson, Mazzola and Benson removed the tumor in its entirety. Four years later, when my daughter was 16 and I fully engaged in helping her survive this tumor while working full-time, her dad gained full custody, based on false claims that I had Munchsusens by procxy, and that it was I who was making our daughter ill. In spite of my daughter having had a congenital brain tumor removed, Dr. Sugarman almost immediately fed life into the accusations against me in order to cover her medical neglect of my daughter's health condition. She went as far to try to brain wash my daughter by calling her and telling her, "Your Mother was bad to you." I was with my daughter, with the phone on speaker. Hearing Dr. Sugarman say this was horrifying, shocking, and devastaing. It was clear that she did this to cover up for having missed the signs of the tumor.
Dr. Sugarman took advantage of her position as a physician in order to hide the 13 years I had reported my daughter's tumor symptoms to her. It has been 10 years since the tumor was removed, and we are both still healing from the psychological pain and devastation caused by Dr. Sugarman.
Assigned blame is one of the greatest pains that any parent could experience. Dr. Sugarman used the court to hide her mistake, having missed the signs of a growing tumor in my daughter's brain. I could not prepare for court and had no money to pay lawyers. What I did have was God, the determination to help her heal, and the strength to stand up for her medical rights against a doctor who falsely assigned blame to me to cover her misdiagnoses.