There comes a point when a doctor's bedside manner is so offensive and his attitude is so rude and arrogant that he becomes ineffective as a physician. Dr. Platt is such a doctor and, I believe, such a person.
I had a pregnancy through surrogacy. We were expecting twins and he had been the surrogate's neo-natologist in her previous twin surrogate pregnancy. He was so rude that she was embarrassed. I didn't pay any attention -- and didn't care because the pregnancy was normal and basically he was irrelevant.
But for the second pregnancy there was a placentia previa, with the uterus down low by the cervix. Dr. Platt refused to speak to me at all -- tried to dismiss me and was so rude that it was unbelievable. Rudeness is one thing -- what made this so terrible was that the surrogate spoke little English and Dr. Platt didn't speak any Spanish. So the only way to really communicate would have been through me as I was the only person involved who is 100% bilingual. Dr. Platt got all excited, all impressed with his own brilliance and insight and decided that, not only was there placentia previa, there was placentia acretta -- which is much worse -- and, if you look it up in Wikipedia, most likely results in a very premature birth. Then, to add to the horror -- Dr. Platt decided that the fetus had a deformed heart or non-existing valve. And, can you imagine, all of this we gleaned through listening to the doctor arrogantly talking to himself and clucking to the surrogate who didn't understand a word while obstinately refusing to discuss this with us, the intended parents. He said he'd have to have an MRI but refused to order it. Meanwhile the clock was ticking -- which called our religious faith into question. On our own initiative with no thanks to Dr. Platt, we spent the following harrowing day at Children's Hospital with a neonatal cardiologist. That doctor was a prince of a man and completely disagreed with Dr. Platt about the baby's heart, explaining that the new, ultra-sensitive technology was just too hard to read for many doctors -- who also did not fully understand neonatal cardiological development. We insisted on replacing Dr. Platt with someone more competent and communicative. After we explained the situation and our angst to the new neo-natologist, that doctor brought in a whole new team to determine what was going on. Incredibly, the new doctor did a simple and much more thorough exam -- Dr. Platt had never even bothered to do a vaginal exam, only an ultrasound -- and, like the neo-natal cardiologist at Children's, the new doctor completely disagreed with Dr. Platt's diagnosis. As did his international team. The pregnancy from then on was normal. The baby was beautiful and is perfect in any way. Everything should be fine now -- but in retrospect, this doctor took years off my life in worry and misery. I was reluctant to write this -- but feel compelled to warn other expectant parents. This is a situation to avoid at all cost. read more