My husband wrote this about my experience with Dr. Fan and I vouch for every detail:…read more
On Oct 14 2021, Dr. Fan abandoned my wife after taking on her emergency ovarian torsion case, which required surgery ASAP, thereby introducing an unnecessary additional several hours of languishing in extreme pain on the gurney as her ovary suffocated, which directly led to her loss of the ovary. He disappeared from the hospital on us without notice let alone explanation, leaving us without an ObGyn on site for hours thereafter. He was dressed to the hilt, not properly for clinical care in my perception, and he left to make a non-clinical, but professionally important appointment (according to another doctor).
This is truly as simple and "movie bad guy" as it sounds. I'm not a psychologist, but I suppose he must at least have sociopathic tendencies, at least in certain circumstances, such as when a strong personal need conflicts with "just another patient."
My wife only endured the delay of a long transfer from another hospital because Dr. Fan had personally accepted her for the purpose of treating her diagnosed ovarian torsion, which requires immediate surgery in order to attempt to save the ovary. By subsequently abandoning her, he introduced several more hours of avoidable delay -- on top of making fruitless the long ambulance transfer meant to access his care.
His abandonment was morally equivalent to a serious act of violence, one that had a significant medical impact. If you're caught in the rapids of a river and I call out, "Don't worry, I'll save you 30 meters downstream -- no need to call for help from those others on the bank who can still hear you." But then I realize I have a haircut appointment, so you're on your own. Dr. Fan is a truly bad person.
That is, this wasn't human error as in typical medical malpractice. It wasn't accidental - it was a cold choice he made over the course of an hour or two, during which he never approached the patient's bed and, according to him, never even looked at her records. A plan for surgery or otherwise was never discussed.
I'm an extremely credible witness (former Columbia professor, etc.) and I urge you to contact me directly if you're even considering working with or being a patient of Dr. Fan. I'm easy to find (you can try LinkedIn or just google me -- my name, Eric Siegel, isn't too common and I'm the one who authored Predictive Analytics). I have a detailed write-up of the case, including documented proof of the timeline, and I would be glad to send it to you and/or discuss on a call. Here, Yelp only permits 5000 characters, so I'll fill that much with some more details.
An esteemed Ob/Gyn Elected as Chair of the Quality Committee for Southern California Permanente Medical Group (15 years -- I can name him on request) confirms that Dr. Fan's abandonment was below the standard of care and that, "more than likely," the avoidable delay impacted the viability of her ovary. He said, "When I see torsion, every minute counts... The probability that the ovary could be saved dropped every hour, and he passed her on - I'm sorry but that's bad."
Other doctors in the hospital who've also expressed concern and dismay over Dr. Fan's unexpected departure that day include the internist who was on the case for my wife's pain management during her (long) wait and the Ob/Gyn who eventually took over and performed the surgery.
Each minute with ovarian torsion and its extreme pain is an eternity and each minute delay contributes to the risk the suffocating organ will be lost, as was the case here.
