Do not go near this surgeon unless you are doing a kindergarten level procedure. Anything that requires skills make him nervous that he might be woken up at 3 in the morning when he has surgery the next day and how inconvenient that would be (his words to me). I made an appointment to see Dr. Suzman, but they informed me that I would have to see a PA before I could see the doctor.
So, I made an appointment to see a PA, gave her all my medical information and history, nothing secret or undisclosed, had her do the exam (the doctor doesn't do an exam before surgery and he doesn't look at your file (also his statement)) and send in an application to the insurance company for approval. We received approval several weeks later and the office worked with me to find a time for surgery since I was retiring from my job in a few months and my insurance would change. The office staff was lovely and very helpful and they managed to find a date. We scheduled the surgery, I arranged for time off from work, I arranged for a dog walker to come for two weeks, since I wouldn't be able to walk her, I scheduled the pre-op exam and the pre-op covid test and they scheduled an appointment with the surgeon for the week before surgery.
I arrived at the office for the appointment with the doctor and he came in and started reading from a teleprompter (not really, but it was clearly a prepared speech). He said no aspirin, no advil, no aleve for a week before surgery. I spoke up and said that I was on Xarelto (a blood thinner). That stopped the prepared speech and he asked why and I told him it was for a pulmonary embolism. Then he said "oh, I didn't look at your file today, then he said, oh, I haven't seen your file at all." He asked about the history of the embolism and I told him that it had been caused, the vascular doctor believed, by a superficial vein, not a deep vein, and that vein had been ablated to remove the problem a few years ago.
Then he started hemming & hawing and telling me that he had done 10,000 surgeries (no wonder no one in West Med wanted to cross him) in his "little operating room" (his words) and he hadn't lost anyone yet, but if there were a problem because this was a long surgery and there was a lot of bleeding, that it might be 3 in the morning and he would be sleeping and he might have surgery the next morning and that it would be very inconvenient for him. He said that maybe it should be done in a hospital where I could stay overnight and if he couldn't do it, he would give me the names of some colleagues that I could contact. Then he said it was up to me, what did I want to do and I said that I was comfortable that the source of the embolism had been addressed and I wanted to go ahead. Then he said he wanted to talk to my hematologist (who is also a West Med doctor) and he would be right back. At that point he left the room and the coward didn't even have the nerve or courtesy to come back. He sent in the PA to tell me that he didn't want to do the surgery and she handed me a card and said he couldn't remember any colleagues names but just call anyone at the Montefiore Plastic Surgery group and anyone would be fine.
It is possible that this should be done in a hospital, but the fact that I originally went to his office, was examined by his staff, gave them my medical history, they applied to the insurance company for approval, waited weeks for insurance company approval, his office scheduled surgery, I scheduled doctor's visits and time off from work, when he never looked at my chart and then decided because of my history that he didn't want to do the surgery without an exam or consulting with the hematologist makes me realize that he operates something like a "chop shop" where the easiest nose jobs and implants appear to be his standards and he whips them in and out. It was too late to find someone else before my insurance changes and I can only hope that the new insurance will approve it. Wasting my time was clearly irrelevant compared to keeping his record clean.
And his only concern was that he might be woken at night. Stay far away if you have any self-respect and want a morally quality surgeon. I wrote letters to West Med, to the doctor and to patient relationship and after weeks I got a call from someone I had never dealt with in the surgeon's office (not from him mind you) saying she was sorry. read more
