Dr Delamater ?

[energyofhope]

My first surgery with him was for a Prodisc at L4-L5 that stopped moving (fused) and Delamarter said he saw a lot of facet arthritis there. He thought it was causing my terrible leg pain and back pain. As a solution, he fused me at L4-L5. 6-7 weeks into post-op I developed terrible pain in my left leg and was completely unable to walk or place weight on the left leg. Del. could provide no explanation or answers except to wait another year for fusion to be completely solid. I did, but the left leg remained much worse than before his surgery. Then, he said he would remove posterior hardware from my back and continue decompressing. And, that was my second surgery with him. I woke up after anesthesia with my left leg paralyzed. And then, they said the did not know what happened. (Are you kidding me?) As a later EMG, ordered by pain managment showed, they damaged my S1 nerve root resulting in numbness and terrible pain to much of my left leg and even greater problem with walking or sitting. Now, 15 months after my surgery, neurologists and pain management tell me they think the damage is probably permanent. The right leg and back pain are also worse than before his surgery. I am a very calm, nice and polite patient, and wanted to follow up on my condition with him several months after my surgery about the lack of progress in my condition, but he would not return my phone calls (although I can't say anything bad about Kevin and Sherry - his medical assistants who have told me they themselves can't understand his lack of response) I have not been able to get in touch with Del. in all this time despite many, many attempts.

In addition to absolutely abysmal surgical outcomes with him, I feel slighted and abandoned. This is the basis for my inability to recommend him in an earlier post.

[Gil Denis]

Hi All

I will NEVER have ADR until I see positive long term results.this is what I think at this point in my life.
Being a Spiney is truly a life style change.

The more education I gather the more I realize the spine doctors are more about making a buck rather than telling the patient the facts on their spine issues.

I just wish their was honest doctor patient relationship, not insurance lawyer patient relationship

All The Best

Gil

[fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Gil Denis

Hi All

The more education I gather the more I realize the spine doctors are more about making a buck rather than telling the patient the facts on their spine issues.

I just wish their was honest doctor patient relationship, not insurance lawyer patient relationship

Sadly I have to agree with this part. (not the no ADR part).
Unfortunately I have this creeping feeling also. But I do know one thing: There ARE some doctors who truly care that implant ADRs and feel good about it. They are hard to find.

I personally am at a struggle as to how many ADRs I would allow into my cervical spine. One doctor thinks I might need 4 (!!) I am not so sure I want to go there. I get the feeling one should not get more then 2 no matter what. This is my current "IMHO", today, meds and all. I might change my mind tomorrow, depending on pain level

[Maria]

After my 2nd spine surgery which failed and left me in horrendous burning pain all the way from my waist down my legs to my feet for 5 years.. I am very reluctant to have a 3rd spine surgery.

Part of my reason is what Energy wrote about in terms of lack of response or just a cold release from care after a failed surgery. Now certainly the surgeon at the time (Neurosurgeon) could have told me what he did during the surgery and how much disc was removed and so forth but he wouldn't discuss anything and he referred to his buddy an OSS for a 2nd opinion post op and that person practically told me I was crazy and made some absurd recommendations re my pain.

Dr.Delamarter is authorized to do my 3rd spine surgery if and when I should decide to have it however I had heard he was not that great at responding to failed surgical patients and that is something I must admit that furthered assisted me in deciding to hold off on the surgery with him.

When I was authorized to have surgery with him I found that I didn't care for his office staff's responses to me in terms of questions and just returning calls in a timely fashion.

I had seen another doctor in Dr.D's office before being authorized to see Dr.D and that surgeon was supposed to respond to some of my WC paperwork (to the state) in a certain time period~ he did not and my case was backlogged by 5 months due to that error so that didn't please me at all.. while I don't think it was his fault I do think the office was not running as efficiently as I would like and therefore my paperwork which was very important to me just got "lost" and/or not dealt with in a timely manner.

Dr.Delamarter has a wonderful surgical reputation and I could only hope that I would be a success should I choose to have surgery with him because it seems the successful patients fare extremely well with him even tho I had heard it was an effort to deal with the office. I guess they are extremely busy. That being said~ I'm most important to me so if my case cannot be taken very seriously that's my deciding factor re having surgery with someone.

I made an error the last time with my choice of surgeons as I didn't feel comfortable with him but WC had auth'd the surgery and I went along with the program so when the end result was a failure and literal nightmare ... well I had to deal with my decision/choice to have the surgery and the outcome.

This is not to say you wouldn't like Dr.D or that you shouldn't seek him out for an opinion because I think he's an excellent choice and perhaps the office is much better these days as I'm talking about 2006 experience. One thing for certain I'd recommend utilizing Mark's services if possible~ I think having Mark there makes everything flow much better or at least that has been my experience as Mark has accompanied me to at least 3 consultations and most importantly the 2nd surgical opinion for my WC case that really helped me to get surgery authorized (at the time I wanted to have it 3 years back/nearly 4).

Good luck Gil~ I applaud you for hanging in there and continuing to seek information and opinions. My post isn't met to deter you in any fashion, it's just my own personal experience.

[Gil Denis]

HI Maria

Thanks for your input .
Thank You Fuzzy and the rest,
I would use Mark and Still have not sent my info to the TBI.
I still am scared to death to make the wrong choice, I would like a real Doctor to be honest and not sugar coat my spine isssues and tell it like it is

All The Best and Thanks to All

Gil