Dr. Levi was the Primary Care Physician for my granddad, mom, sister, & me. We saw her when she was…read morelocated on Tyler Street...then at an office complex...then in a suite at a private hospital. She was mine from 97-09, & helped ruin my life, body, & brain, as I knew d/t her cavalier practice of medicine & profound, callous disregard for my welfare, health, & life.
I cannot even begin to put into words the pain this woman has caused family members, most especially myself. She is not a healer. She just wants to make a profit off of her patients by drugging them and practicing outside of her scope of practice-morally if not legally, too. In the years that my family used her as a PCP, we noticed that she had a hard time keeping PA's, NP's, nurses, and even office staff. In retrospect, we've wondered if they left for moral reasons. In the years that I was under her care, she usually out-sourced me to her PA or NP on staff at the time. I don't know if I ever saw for annual follow ups the same person twice.
None of my family use her anymore and have moved on to other clinics with more conscientious doctors who conduct full, thorough patient histories and order diagnostic tests. In other words, they're prudent and don't push drugs. (She had my g-father on statins long after concerns about their safety. A new MD changed his drug regime.)
After seeking true solutions elsewhere, I was given a clean bill of health but only after leaving her medical care, so I presume Dr. Levi gave me a false if not bogus diagnosis in 2001. I don't even take medicine anymore (except for Motrin PM) after having taken her mind & body-altering drugs for 6 years! All those years that I was "sick," I never had health insurance so I paid cash for her office visits & the meds. She's ask me if I felt better & I'd say no & then she's ask me why I thought I felt the same--as if I were the doctor. That was the extent of our patient-doctor interactions. She never even suggested I try a different drug or just wean myself off since it wasn't working and making me WORSE! (Couldn't she see herself during that 1st follow-up that I was deteriorating before her very eyes?)
W/o health insurance, I became her CASH COW while struggling just to function, believing her diagnosis & marrying the drug. I WAS TOO SEDATED 2 KNOW I WAS SEDATED! She put the quality of my life and even my very life at risk in exchange for financial gain. This is evidenced by the fact that she gives priority to the PHARMACEUTICAL REPS who walk into her clinic. She makes her pre-scheduled patients wait up to over an hour before showing up to her own appointment. Furthermore, she has an entire closet full of FREE psychotropic drug samples in her office & she uses grocery bags to pass out drugs to her patients. She is neither a psychiatrist nor a sleep doctor mind you.
By the time I got legal counsel about what she had done & NOT done (proper patient history, diagnosing procedures, ordering tests, proper follow-up, understanding what she is prescribing), the statute of limitations had already passed and I was not able to sue her (ie, her insurance) for medical malpractice. However, I do have copies of my medical records, which are really sparse & cryptic (like one sentence per follow up visit), and not thorough at all. Whatever happened to collecting patient history and taking detailed medical notes? How bout taking B4 & after photos?
When I have consulted other MD's about Dr. Levi their jaws drop when I explain the situation. They've said she prescribed very a-typical meds (& @ 75 mg instead of the starting dose @ 37.5 mg) that are risky and required observation in a hosp environment and that she didn't properly prescribe the meds in the way they were intended, as if she didn't understand what she was doing--or just didn't give a damn.
What does this tell you?
She prescribed the drug to me 1 week prior to my moving out of state for a summer season job. She told me to call her if I had any problems. Malpractice much? In fact, my very first follow up appointment was 4 long mos later and I was much worse than when I initially consulted her re: insomnia.
No comprehensive patient history. No comprehensive family history. No objective observation. No comprehensive phone consultations. No specific, open-ended Q's from her 2 me, fam, friends about changes in daily routine, job, social life, diet, grades, housing, etc. No referral 2 a specialist. Nada. She simply doubled my dose @ the 1st follow-up appt 150 mg which made me a zombie. I spent days asleep in bed afterward & dropped out of LSU as a result of the subsequent sedative effects.
Although I should count my lucky stars that I'm still alive, honestly, I struggle nearly daily with the pain & regret of having lost out on so much of myself and my life (12 yrs) as a direct result of going 2 this woman I so blindly trusted for HELP of all things.
Effexor = permanent brain damage & is similar to MDMA= Ecstasy Lite! Google it!
