I have just been reading some of the horrible reviews on Dr. Robert Kistner, although I hate to even give this man the title of Doctor. He does not in anyway deserve that title. My only reason for writing this now is because I have read of two more bad reviews since my daughters surgery and I'm afraid that another person will be effected by this guy. It's my hope that someone will read this and spare themselves the trouble that we and so many others went through.
My daughter waited in at Mercy Gilbert ED for close to 9 hours with appendicitis before they even moved her to a room to wait longer for surgery. She went in at 9am, was diagnosed at 1:00pm by CT Scan, offered pain meds, which she refused and maybe that's why they didn't take her pain seriously, and then was moved to the "waiting area" for surgery at 6pm. By 8pm they told us she was going to go into surgery, then she was bumped three times for more urgent cases. She did not go into surgery until 11:45pm and we were told it would be a 45 mins procedure. 2 hours later we still had not heard a word and not one person came out to update us. I walked back myself to the OR area, which upset the nurses, to ask what was going on. They advised me someone would come out in a second. A nice young nurse came out to let me know that she was still in surgery but she was doing fine. Finally, 30 minutes later this unprofessional dr came out to talk to us. 1. he was rude as all get out. 2. he asked us if she had ever had her appendix taken out before?!?!?!? I'm not a doctor but...what??? How can someone have their appendix taken out more than once???? He proceeded to tell us that when he put the scope in all he saw was a stump where her appendix should be. He literally took out a pen and drew a picture of it on his scrub pant leg. He ended up having to take a small piece of her colon out because there was infection all around. He kept insisting to me and my daughters husband that she must have had her appendix "partially" removed previously in maybe another surgery. We told him that the only other surgeries she has had were three c-sections. He says (not knowing we work for and are personal friends with my daughters OB) well maybe he took it out during one of her c-sections and didn't tell you! Ummm NO! he most certainly did not!!! I also later found out that after surgery he had to take my daughter to radiology to make sure they didn't leave a sponge inside her because they were off count!!!! This is something he NEVER told us... to this day. Bottom line this guy is a liar. What happened was, because my daughter was bumped three times for more urgent appendectomies, her appendix burst, which required him to have to remove part of her colon because of the infection that spread after the appendix burst. We are not the type of people who would sue or cause a seen but we were not given the respect or the trust to just tell us the truth. Instead, he avoided us like the plaque that next couple of days and when he finally did come see her, my younger daughter heard him talking to the nurse outside the room saying "this mom thinks she knows something". YES MR. Kistner I do know a thing or two. I can usually smell a liar from a mile away. Again, we decided not to proceed with any kind of lawsuit because we know how this works, he documented in her chart ways to cover his ass. He has been doing this for a long time and hopefully this will help it from happening to someone else. One of the worst parts of all this, when we complained to the hospital and tried to file a complaint, we were told by the lady that maybe in the future we should "google" (her words exactly) the surgeon before we agree to surgery. Really?? I guess this is something I will be doing in the future because crazy me, I thought that hospitals hired competent surgeons to perform EMERGENCY SURGERIES so patients didn't have to worry and "google" the surgeon at midnight.
Stay away from "DR" Robert Kistner..... read more