Dr. Alfrey was my doctor when I was admitted into the hospital at Marin General. He was arrogant, unkind, he dismissed my pain and he misdiagnosed me. I had just undergone a massive surgery that I had to fly to Atlanta for. It took a team of very specialized surgeons to do the procedure. I believe because Dr. Alfrey wasn't the surgeon who did the procedure, he was annoyed to be dealing with me. It turns out I had a post surgery infection but instead of putting me on antibiotics, he sent me home and a week later I went septic.
While I was under his care in the hospital he was incredibly rude, condescending and dismissive. My surgery was extensive and complicated, yet Dr. Alfrey refused to read my medical reports even when I directly asked him to. Instead, without telling me, he took me all off all pain medicine only days after this extensive surgery. The entire nursing team and others were alarmed. They helped me request a transfer to another doctor. It was only at this point that Dr. Alfrey finally decided to read my medical history. He then sent me home and told me I was fine, when actually I had a serious infection. I ended up back in the hospital with even more serious complications. At that point I was septic, and spent another 2 weeks in the hospital and a month of home-care to fix the damage caused from dismissing me the first time I came in.
If you find yourself assigned to Dr. Alfrey, it's so important to know that his arrogance and callousness is an open secret. **All** of my nurses in the hospital shared with me that he has a reputation for being difficult and uncaring with patients. They also mentioned he has a reputation for his patients getting post-surgery infections!
Given his very senior position in the hospital, he must have some special surgical skills. But if you find yourself dealing with Dr. Alfrey, I think the question to ask is, --is he actually genuinely interested in your case? He's probably not going to care about you in a human way. And if he decides you aren't interesting (or if you are a woman and he decides you're hysterical), I believe you may get dangerously, dangerously bad care. Given my experience, I would run. It was very scary. I will never forget the terrifying feeling of being trapped under his care. I have never experienced anything like it and I've dealt with many doctors over the years given my condition. read more