This is a difficult review. The first time I saw Dr. Liem was in 2001.He looked at my MRI and said I needed surgery for a disc rupture and excruciating pain. He did the surgery two days later and my recovery was 100%. I considered him God.
The second time I saw him, in 2004, was for a nearly identical problem, same leg, unbelievable pain and burning, and the inability to move it properly. He sent me for an MRI and told me if I wanted surgery it would be the next day, otherwise he was going on vacation and would be back in three weeks. I asked his help in deciding but he said it was up to me, and added that I'd better make up my mind right away. I was too medicated to make any sort of decision so I asked him for his help; was there any downside to waiting three weeks, even if it didn't get better. He said no, if it still hurt when he got back he would operate.
Over the next three agonizing weeks the burning pain increased to where I could not even stand the room fan blowing on my leg, and the musculature degradation reached a point where I could not lift my leg to get it over the bathtub.
Three weeks later Liem returned and operated. However, as I found out later, the nerve had been permanently damaged by those three weeks of intense pressure on it. He blew it off, told me to go to pain management, and was done with me. It was like he had become a totally different person over the three years I had been his patient.
So I went to L.A., to an appointment at Cedars Sinai Center For Spine, with Dr. Robert Bray, one of the heads of the Center. Dr Bray, a world renowned neurosurgeon, told me that based on the symptoms and the horrible MRI picture I brought along, intervention should have been immediate. The damaged was a result of failing to operate immediately.
Liem may be a good surgeon, but it turned out his experience was lacking. He may have had good training, but the element of being able to ascertain when immediate surgery is critical versus when bed rest may improve the condition without surgery is a skill in itself, and with Liem it was completely lacking.
Fifteen years have passed; since then I have met several other folks in Honolulu with a 98% match in stories/experiences like mine. All in chronic, unimproved pain, all because he failed to intervene promptly.
I hope Liem is a better diagnostician than he was in 2004. I am still in level 8 pain on a good day, and still take opiates every four hours. I wish I had known enough about all of this, and gone to see Dr. Bray right away. Unfortunately some things have to be learned the hard way. Just be forewarned, and get a second opinion after you see Leon Liem. Preferably from someone at a large city like L.A, San Francisco, or Seattle, who has a very good reputation. I found Dr. Bray from a doctor in Honolulu who had been to see him, and it turned out a lot of doctors in Honolulu go to Dr. Bray. For what it's worth. read more