Richard B. on BirdEye a year ago
09/09/2019, 15:05 PM
My experience with Coastal Orthopedics was just this side of horrific. I had been a patient there for over 15 years, mostly dealing with my arthritic knees. For that entire time I had never had an issue with my care and treatment. In the late winter of 2017 I began suffering extreme pain in the quad region of my left leg. I was given an appointment with Dr. Timothy Roberts who scheduled an MRI and a followup appointment. The MRI showed bulging discs and an extreme stenosis and impingement of the nerve group on my lower left side. He recommended fusion surgery which we were unable to schedule until I brought my AIC levels down.
The surgery took place on November 7th of 2017, taking 8 hours, and I was placed in a rehab facility to heal. I kept experiencing intense pain and was remanded back to the hospital. Dr. Roberts seemed to feel that as long as my incision was healing well that everything was fine, ignoring the intense pain I was experiencing. He continued this "bedside manner" for the entirety of my association with him. Two other specialists were called in to consult on my case and recommended a revision surgery to remove a screw that they felt might be causing problems. I decided to have Dr. Roberts perform the surgery since he was familiar with the work that had already been performed. My revision surgery took place on December 7th and I was placed in another rehab facility.
My condition took a radical downturn just before Christmas and I awoke the Saturday before Christmas to find that I could perform none of the physical therapy that I had done just two days earlier. My condition worsened and my sister came down from Maryland to be my medical advocate. She took one look at me and demanded that I be returned to the hospital. She saved my life. I was examined by a neurologist, who called in an infectious disease specialist and I was diagnosed with BACTERIAL MENINGITIS. I had a brain bleed and almost died. After two weeks of an intense regimen of antibiotics, I finally began to recover and was placed in an exceptional hospital/rehab facility called HealthSouth, where I made rapid progress. I finally returned home on February 22, after almost 4 months of hell.
About a month after I returned home i had a followup appointment scheduled with Dr. Roberts. I received a call from Coastal Orthopedics cancelling the appointment. When I tried to reschedule I was informed that DR. ROBERTS HAD LEFT THE PRACTICE. They had no idea where he had gone or if he was still practicing medicine.
My back and leg have continued to worsen and now I have to use a cane again. My condition is much worse than it was before the operation and these people have done almost nothing to alleviate my suffering. There are some even worse events that I experienced under the care of Coastal Orthopedics, but for the sake of brevity, I will end my account here. Suffice it to say that they no longer have anything to do with my healthcare. Don't go anywhere near these people. "First do no harm" seems have been replaced by an oath of hypocrisy.