Our research brought us to Dr. Elliott and it is clear he and Dr. Lashgari have had success with many patients. Our experience however could not have been more disappointing.
Both Elliot and Lashgari present an image of confidence and professionalism. Don't buy it. Here is a factual account of our experience.
The regular examinations were inconsequential as it was a normal pregnancy. The doctors and staff seemed competent, friendly, and professional.
During a pre-inducement sonogram, it was clear the baby's head was cocked against the cervix. We have a snapshot showing this, in fact my wife and I even joked about it before labor. We wrongly assumed that it was not a problem since the doctors made no reference to it during the examination. It later became clear Dr. Elliott or Lashgari never saw the sonogram.
My wife went into labor about midnight on a Monday evening. Dr. Elliot was paged but according to hospital staff, the page was not returned after several attempts. This was not a problem since labor was just starting, although I'm not sure what would have happened if there had been an emergency.
My wife went through an 18 hour labor with Dr's Elliot and Lashgari providing check-ups through about 3pm on Tuesday when my wife was about 9cm dilated. At about 5:30pm the nurse asked us if Dr. Elliott examined my wife before he left! He essentially abandoned us. The nurse, although very professional, was clearly shocked and assured us the on-duty doctor was an excellent physician (she was 100% right...always trust the nurses). By this point however my wife was in tears and thankfully the nurse was able to offer comfort.
This is the good part of the story. Dr. Julien Martinez took over and quickly recognized the baby's head was cocked and a C-section would be required. Since he was new to the scene, he suggested we wait an hour to be sure since at that point the baby was not in danger. However, my wife's temperature quickly shot up and Dr. Martinez made the right call to rush into emergency surgery. The sad part of all of this is that a c-section should have been diagnosed early on avoiding 18 hours of difficult labor, but Dr. Elliott and Lashgari did not recognize the complication.
During surgery we were presented with another surprise. My wife had a fist-sized cyst on one of her ovaries. Dr. Martinez removed it successfully. It's still unclear to me how this was missed by the sonogram.
But wait, there's more. The follow-up examination at the hospital consisted of a "how are ya doing". They (the doctors) were not even aware she had a cyst until we asked about it, and they did not do any subsequent follow-up. Fortunately, Dr. Martinez did provide us with the results (benign) even though we were not his patient.
When it came time for discharge, the nurse mentioned she would get discharge orders by phone. The hospital staff and I joked about how Dr. Elliott can give a discharge without having done an examination.
Well, the lack of proper discharge meant we did not get the proper pain prescriptions. When my wife ran out of medicine, we had to raise hell to get an emergency prescription filled by phone (they were happy to discharge her by phone, but calling in a prescription was a different matter).
Fortunately, wife and baby are fine. But it pains me to think that my wife went through 18 hours of unnecessary labor, emotional distress when abandoned by her doctor and extreme pain due to lack of proper follow-up.
There were many heroes to this story. Dr. Martinez, the many nurses and caregivers, and Virginia Hospital Center performed extraordinarily and we are forever grateful to them. However, if you are considering Dr. Elliott or Dr. Lashgari, I would take a second look. read more