Stanford Health Care

Before a Stanford bone marrow biopsy I viewed the procedure on many YouTube videos. Patients from various locations described it as "excruciating pain", so fear and anxiety were in high gear. But it wasn't at all the case at Stanford. Nurse Practitioner Cheryl Pasannisi kindly listened to my fears and assured me "excruciating" was not necessary. She explained the procedure in detail. And before every single step during the biopsy she told me in advance what she was going to do before she did it. In total there were only two minimally sharp sensations that wouldn't really qualify as pain. She performed the biopsy like a medical Michelangelo in that her "brushstrokes" were astonishingly careful, caring, and masterful. She has my forever gratitude. Her assistant, Alissa, created all the needed blood sample slides and was kind, competent, and wonderful as well.

Heather di Marco

Dr. Michael Dake, former head of the Cardiovascular Group at Stanford, upon a post-procedure nect day follow up, told us when asked point blank (I'm curious this is new can you show me?) with the post-op image on screen in his office, showing  the cervical region he had just put 4 stents inside the Internal Jugular Veins, 3 left 1 right, why cant see one on right? Eyeballs lying?)

I saw THREE, "that's just an artifact" he said, "it's still there" (LIE), me very newbie on exact medical terms in August of 2009, but it took little to simply note on the MRI capture he had up, showing 3 stents in Left IJV. *only*

As well it should but didn't see anything on the Right side, I distinctly recall as my friend and I sat in his office after traveling 500 miles for a procedure for us MS patients, him saying it was nothing, THEN doing a followup procedure with an IVUS. The same vein he apparently didn't know the Stent had slipped, dropped down through heart and is now PERMANENTLY lodged in pulmonary artery, to remove is IMPOSSIBLE NOW, and he knew nothing about it? No one will believe that because it is smack dab in the radiology reports, which seem to have been "massaged" to appear "golly gee what happened here?" in medical codespeak. Way for the pros to tell each other, ya done messed up , unless you or anyone else actually believes someone with his stature and.experience , creating MRI protocols, inventing stents, cracking chests yet was absolutely caught off guard by THE biggest danger we faced during all of that, the most dangerous tool ever invented by the medical community: a Dr. Without caring in his heart. We are guinea pigs in his personal lab experiment.

And those stents caused permanent ACC nerve damage which affects me to this day, but HERE'S THE KICKER! Now cant lift BOTH arms, this is an ongoing thing, and I know tne other guys already sued and won, seeing that this has NEW injuries being discovered as a result from old insult to the ACC nerve, which HAS been confirmed on UT.

If I cant get some sort of satisfaction from Stanord U medical center (and could have *easily* jumped on the previous lawsuit, but dont care as much about $, Dr. Dake done us not just wrong, he was NEGLIGENT against the Hippocrstic Oath, "unless interferes with golf session", and chose a COVER UP as opposed to REMOVING the untoward stent. It was EASILY removed immediately.

Even the freaking radiogy report notes it is missing, shortly after implantation. So, minus any kind of monetary compensation for DECADES lof pain and suffer I endure on a daily basis, and has permanently disabled me (SS file is 1k pages), new stuff 100 related to *just* accessory nerve damage alone,.which that nerve gets damaged via sugery (ding), or accident, extremely rare and neuro was shocked when we.scanned recently, and this slow moving train wreck will probs kill me someday.
But as long as Dake.gets his comfy no-show job at ASU now, all is well, wouldnt want chaffed hands So my proposal is simple, And something that I am very good at namely composition and writing after 20 edits. Then sleep then edit. And I plan on telling the entire story, start to finish top to bottom side to side, kept ALL the receipts, reports you name it, but in the end can easily PROVE within a court of law exactly what he knew, and when he knew it.

Ask the other chaps that settled, there is definitely a there there, and discovered af an early age just how.powerful the written word is, and I look forward to.talking about the person that died too, one I personally chatted with before her fateful procedure was followed by death. (Note: did not ascribe partiality there so don't read into it!) This will be a way to FINALLY tell my story, but from a factual,.scientific basis, and I look forward to illuminating the WHOLE story, because there's more than *just that one* misplaced stent. Lives were ruined Dr. Dake, CVG at SMC.

I posted this procedure online in 2009, this was at the time of implantation, using fluoroscopy images, .dicom files, tons of work.
Yet when perusing follow up reports,
Stent on the right side IJV was nicely put as :not viewed.

Bs because Dake was an IR,.a.heart surgeon who I also invented stents, and a research fellow and you just let your Dr. Good old Boy skate off to cush ASU.job, and ZERO repercussions for that lying pos.
He lied in 2016 when I called.his.peraonal cell after 7 years,.thinking the.stent dislodged after incidental chest xray! That's it! That's the discovery Dr. Dake, thanks to you and Standord for allowing such a criminal minded person to run amok unimpeded, as people died.and were seriously injured, including myself
That's your legacy here insofar as SMC is.concerned,.what a black.eye.
Had to split up too long

My wife & I have had the misfortune of dealing with Stanford, for 16 years.
Osteoperosis, anemia, chronic pain (allodynia), finally completely missed total kidney failure.
I'd say, based on our experiences, if something is misdiagnosed (often), a rude staff member doesn't know their job/how to access "My Health", or they nearly kill someone; it is the patient's fault and they will be banned from access to their facility, one way or another.

1) During one of my visits, I discovered that I could list my meds on "My Health". At the beginning of my appointment, although nothing had changed, I told the completely ignorant rude staff member, that my current list was on "My Health". "Not sufficient, write it done of this printed paper, and correct duplicates and name changes, while you are here." To which I replieid, look at My Health and you will see my list. Immediate temper tantrum. Supervisor comes in, and goes through the same routine, adding that they aren't trained to use "My Health".
Doctor comes in, also doesn't know how to access "My Health", and labels me a hostile patient. My fault, get out.

2) After a miraculous recovery from Stanford's misdiagnosed kidney failure, received a blood transfusion, set at the highest rate of injection, while the nurse wandered off. Started to drown in fluid build up in the lungs. Staff and senior nurse completely panicked, failed to simply turn the flow off for a while and apply pressurized O2. But, call an ambulance, to take my wife a block down to Good Sam, where they quickly saved her life.
She is no longer welcome at Stanford. And, forced to pay retail for her osteoperosis meds, at $4K, every 8 weeks.

To continue would simply waste space. One star rating is as low as I can go.

Depends on the site. Some doctors are proactive and are willing to help. Almaden Family Physicians used to be that way but my recent experience was not all that.

The medical care, if you can get it, is good. The office experience is horrible, horrible, horrible. They are so bureaucratic that it is almost impossible to get care. I now think their schedulers deliberately try to limit who gets in. Administration has gotten the medical information wrong, so care is confusing. I've spent much time on the phone just trying to do some simple administrative things with them. This has caused great loss of time and energy, and caused stress and distress - I believe they harm your health as much as they might help.

My understanding is that in special circumstances, Stanford Medicine is able to do state of the art medicine. It was suggested to me years ago that as an academic medical center, Stanford would be able to deal with complex multidisciplinary problems that local doctors are unable to do. I was having a serious but very mysterious problem so I tried to get help at Standford based on their reputation and academic capabilities.

Over a period of more than 15 years of trying with many Stanford doctors, I have come to see they are comparable to Kaiser and about the same as local doctors. I have seen no evidence that they have any multidisciplinary approach and as far as I could tell, the specialist don't seem to talk with one another. I went to the Mayo Clinic Rochester and they do have a very thorough multidisciplinary team approach plus work and add referrals fast. I didn't see one specialist at Stanford that either said "don't know what to do" or locked onto an incorrect diagnosis and refused to even consider my suggestion a treatment wasn't working at all or was even right.

Some doctors I saw avoided helping me, some focused on a wrong diagnosis and treatment while another sent me to Psychiatry to offload me as possible crazy. Of course Psychiatry told me I wasn't crazy but rather fatigued and anxious in part due to my inability to get medical help.

I finally decided I needed to study physiology and how the autonomic system keeps us in balance myself. This is taught to every doctor in medical school and is like a 101 class and basic knowledge. After my 3rd sleep study, 2 at Stanford that said I was normal, a new doctor wanted me to try again. This is part because the previous sleep doctor I specifically asked had forgotten to order a CO2 monitor in my study. That mistake would have possibly caught the problem since it turned out to be hypo-tension ( very low blood pressure) during sleep. Once I learned basic respiration and cardiovascular regulation during sleep, it was obvious to find a way to check my blood pressure while sleeping. I was able to get a special cuff based Omron night blood pressure monitor, I discovered my blood pressure was dangerously low.

In retrospect, my explanation of body wide symptoms all related to sleep should have pointed to low blood pressure only while sleeping but not one Stanford doctors thought that far outside the box. None wanted to make referrals based on thinking about the problem and I kept being told to go for another sleep study when blood pressure is not monitored during sleep studies. Each doctor I saw was a dead end. None seemed to want to really listen. They all seemed to have their canned diagnosis and if they could fit you in they bailed. If they thought maybe you fit they put me on an expensive drug and just wouldn't listen when I said it wasn't helping for years.

That's only a partial list of specifics but I can say I didn't meet with one doctor at Stanford that seemed creative, curious or was willing to think outside their little specialty box. It pretty sad when a patient with a problem based on blood pressure ( a very basic thing) spends 15 years at Stanford dead ends and in the end does some serious studying has to find the problem himself. I also told this story to their President Entwhistle who just forwarded me to patient relations. They didn't seem to care about anything and encouraged me to go elsewhere. That's so sad.

I have had ongoing care from Dr. Kiashian, Dr. Hong and Dr. Goel all in different specialties. They have all been incredible in caring for me. Also during a surgery with Dr. Aaron Dawes, who is such a kind and skilled surgeon.

The Stanford doctors that I have seen made my previous doctors look like an absolute waste of time. I am very thankful to finally be treated by doctors that care and are eager to help their patients. Instead of some previous doctors who seemed burnt out with their jobs.

The cardiology clinic here also saved my Dad when he came into the ER with heart failure that was misdiagnosed at Dominican Hospital. Thank you Dr. Vagellos! He is doing great now.

It does take awhile to get an appointment sometimes but have them add you to the waiting list.

Beware - These guys are a bunch of crooks! Do not trust what they tell you regarding any billing or costs. I was assured multiple times that an annual physical was fully covered by my insurance and would cost me nothing out of pocket. I called their billing prior to the appt, confirmed at the desk sign in, confirmed with the doctor, AND confirmed again with the nurse drawing blood. All of them said annual physicals are fully covered by insurance. 3 months later I get a bill for almost $1K for a 10 minute physical and a blood test. This was on top of the $2K insurance paid.

Terrible communication. Twice, an urgent prescription of mine was denied refill and a reason was not given to me or my pharmacy. I had to reach out myself to get any answers, and even then was bounced around and given delayed responses that made my prescription even harder to get.

I love my Dr at Stanford Health Care, Emeryville. But the My Health patient application stinks!
1. 9 times out of 10 I get "our system is unavailable, please try back later".
2. When I start the site, I receive this message. "You are now logged out", even before I login!

Put some of those overrated Stanford geniuses to work fixing your website.