I contacted Dr. Kollmorgen for an independent 2nd opinion. I had previously had bilateral hip scopes in L.A. with a diffrent surgeon. Dr. Kollmorgen went out of his way to accommodate me, since I was out-of-state.
First, I emailed Dr. Kollmorgen my reports. We set up a phone consult to discuss what his findings were. In that call he was brutally honest. This was something I was looking for. An honest second opinion. Not influenced by the original surgeon's name, or whom he trained under.
I explained to Dr. Kollmorgen I had MRAs scheduled, and he offered to review those images as well. I couldn't met with him when I traveled back to L.A. for the MRAs on both hips. Are schedules conflicted. But, I did send the images to him afterward. Dr. Kollmorgen gave me his opinion. In the coming weeks I would email him questions because of just confusion. Dr. Kollmorgen went out of his way to respond.
Finally, I arranged to fly back to California from Michigan in April 2019. Dr. Kollmorgen arranged to have a CT Scan of both hips to check version issues, and give me the finally overall picture.
I was pleasantly shocked with his compassion. Dr. Kollmorgen was to fly out to speak at a conference the day we met. So, he actually came in to met with me on a non-clinic day. Which he had to arrange with his department head to get 1 exam room for a few hours. I am so thankful to the department head for giving the green light. Dr. Kollmorgen spent 1hr and 40mins with me. Taking an entire history prior to surgery, the surgery itself, and the post op care and rehab. I realized how genuine his attitude was toward patient care was, when he enquired how I was actually doing. Pain wise, mentally, emotionally. I've been to enough Orthopedic surgeons, since age 9 about my hips, to know that very few actaully care enough about a patient to ask how they are doing.
The finally outcome wasn't the best news. But, Dr. Kollmorgen has bent over backwards to email me back and discuss my fears of moving forward with surgery. He has even called me since we've met.
There are a lot of orthopedic hip surgeons who do this surgery, who shouldn't be doing it. Unfortunately, I know this first hand. But, what is promoted is the ones who train and train to do the hip scopes, PAO/DFO, and revision surgeries correctly. Those are few and inbetween. They strive for greatness with their training and patient care everyday.
Dr. Kollmorgen will be the first to say his field has come a long way. But, Dr. Kollmorgen will also be the first to say that the field still has a way to go.
For me, I have spoken personally with a PAO patient of his who is doing good. A Bilateral Hip Scope Revision patient who is doing fantastic as well. It's wonderfully to connect with patients of his that needed hope and found it with his surgical skills.
I'm hoping to delay surgery until June 2020. I feel it's important to be mentally prepared for Bilateral Hip Revision Surgeries, and PAOs. My outcome from the originally surgery done by a surgeon has been horrible. I'm in constant pain!
Dr. Kollmorgen has been supportive of my decision not to jump into another surgery asap. He has supported my choice to have another surgeon do PRP injections in each hip to help with pain control in order to delay. He has show me courtesy and respect by acknowledging my stress, fears, and anxiety over this situation, and even additional surgeries.
So much so, as someone from Michigan, I'm willing to overlook the fact he is originally born and raised a Buckeye
He by far is a great person and surgeon. Well, worth the travel to Fresno, California for an evaluation. I hope to be able to update in the future and tell everyone about my success and how great he was during the surgery process, and even post operatively. read more