Did not like this doctor at all.
I trusted the reviews on Google and went in because my daughter was having some difficulty breathing from what I thought was from our cat. I tried to explain how it all began and he only listened to respond. He would interrupt me and speak over me ontop of not being able to understand a single word he said due to his heavy accent and how fast he spoke to us. I told him she usually starts sneezing when she gets our cat and that his is pretty recent. I told him I think it's pet dander triggering an allergic reaction because she said she felt like she was breathing through a straw and she was wheezing. I told him I think it could be asthma because her dad had it briefly when he was a child and it later cleared up. His response was " did he have asthma yes or no? Did he have asthma yes or no?" I said "just for a few months" and he said "there is not just 'having' asthma. Asthma can be many things and can happen from physical exercise so you can't just say 'she has asthma'". My gut told me all she needed was an inhaler to subside the allergic reaction and to just have it incase our cat triggered the reaction again. But after listening to her chest, he then insisted we purchase a nebulizer and prescription to which I agreed ONLY if it was covered 100% by insurance and he assured me it was. I ended up getting a $70.00 bill in the mail for this piece of equipment that we NEVER used. The staff apologized and told me to return it and they would call the billing company and take care of it. When I returned it they rejected it because it was already paid for from the insurance and said we own it now. We will never use this nor was it what we needed. Then he told us he needed blood work done and a chest xray and we could go to the ER because the lab was there. At this point, I'm now starting to get scared because of what he had apparently heard in her chest that would call for blood work (that I was still on the fence about). Because of the his visable fear and exaggerated concern toward my daughter and the urgency he pressed on us, she went into a panic on the way to the ER thinking there was really something really life threateningly wrong with her. She cried the whole way which caused her breathing to worsen and create more phlegm in her sinuses.
When we got into the ER, they ended up just admitting her and giving her a breathing treatment and a chest xray because she was struggling so much (this escaped so quickly). Once the ER doctor assessed her for a few hours, he pulled me aside saying she threw herself into a panic attack that caused her difficult breathing to worsen. He found NOTHING in her chest causing the difficulty breathing and had numerous respiratory therapists in the hospital listen to her chest over a 4 hour period. He then called back the pediatrician and told him he did not feel my daughter needed any blood work. When he returned after the phone call, the ER doctor told me the pediatrician was adamant about getting blood work and shook his head in disagreement and left it up to me. At that point, I was completely through with the opinions of this pediatrician. From the moment we met him, the entire experience seemed like "charge the most you can" situation.
What ended up being the problem was an minor allergic reaction to our cat (exactly what I thought from the beginning) that escalated to a panic attack because of the pediatricians reaction and demand for bloodwork and a chest xray that freaked my daughter out. The ER doctor gave us an emergency inhaler (just like I thought) just incase the allergy happened again, which it didn't. A $300 ER visit later, a $70 nebulizer bill and $50 chest xray bills, here we are....all hype for nothing that could have been fixed from an inhaler. Is it better to be save than sorry? Absolutely. But HOW you portray your concern as a professional, especially dealing with CHILDREN, has lasting impressions on people that they end up have post traumatic stress later on in life.
Never have I ever gone through an experience like this with a pediatrician. I don't think anything was handled professionally. Miscommunications, extreme diagnosis, escalation to an emergency situation- it all could have been avoided and handled much better. I hope other parents have better experiences. We will never be back. read more
