Mr. David Harrison and the M6-L

[krossi201]

Also is Dr. Lauryssen willing to follow you when you return to states?

[afhstock]

-Krossi201
Yes, Dr. Lauryssen will follow up with any ADR patient if they had an international surgeon. He is very understanding of why patients go outside of the U.S. and I won't be surprised if he soon becomes an international doc for the M6.
I don't know the doc in N. Carolina but as for yourself, you have way more options as a cervical patient. Lots of great U.S. neurosurgeons like to work in the neck and outcomes with just about any ADR will be fabulous. It's the longterm of course. There's about 10 times less forces in the neck. If I had to stay in the U. S. I'd probably go with the Freedom or Bryan disc if promised in a trial (texas back inst comes to mind-dr. Zeeglar). Can't go that astray with the M6-C (id take it as first choice if done here) but that's a personal decision you'd have to make.

In regards to neurological monitoring, i'm embarrassed to say i haven't asked?! It's been so long a standard of care to have a running surface EMG/NCV that it slipped my mind? Thanks! Gotta ask but i don't doubt it. A lot of these docs go to international conferences and bounce ideas all the time.

Ttyl. Take care!

[walterwhite]

I would not recommend Mr David Harrison personally. The joke about spinal surgeons thinking they are gods is likely modelled on this man. He may or may not be a good surgeon but my impression having met him and been under his care is he's more interested in celebrity than patients. His secretary is his wife and she is the passive aggressive type. This duo was an unhappy experience for me and other doctors share this view when asked candidly. Back surgery rarely goes perfectly. It's at that point you want to be with a down to earth guy not a t***

[krossi201]

I saw Dr Lauryssen and liked him a lot!!! he thinks I have bad disc at C 3/4 also and too much kyphosis for most discs available to me as I am allergic to nickel. Two docs said the M6 has too much movement for my level of kyphosis and Bryan disc also bad for kyphosis. So I guess M6 is not for me. They felt the freedom disc or hybrid with freedom disc would be better choice because the plastic is stiffer and it has wedge shape which may help stabilize my kyphosis some! But best for kyphosis would be fusion alone but would have adjacent segment risk to deal with later. It makes it so hard to know what to do. Freedom disc is new and only available ineurope right now. Good luck on your quest. Keep me posted

[afhstock]

Walterwhite, I have to thoroughly disagree with you so far. I am on my hospital gurney next in line for my ADR with Mr. Harrison in the UK.
His bedside manners and professionalism are the best in class and rather 'top shelf.' He spent a significant amount of time pre-op explaining all surgical details, reviewing imaging and answering all my questions to make sure I was a good candidate. I'll let you know how the surgery goes but as far as my experience goes, you couldn't be further from the truth.

[walterwhite]

Hi Afhstock,


First off, I hope your operation has gone fantastically. You are probably now in the clouds with morphine. It will be some weeks before you can tell the result but I am sure Mr Harrison is a fine surgeon and has done a good job. My concern is about what happens if things go wrong. Will he be there. Only bad luck and time will tell and I hope for your sake you never need to find out and that in the case that you did, that it would be different n your case. For me however, my experience is negative.


I do acknowledge (especially when on the hospital guernsey about to go under the knife) a tremendous sense of loyalty to your surgeon. In fact it would be wholly irrational for you to feel otherwise at this juncture. I also am loyal to my surgeon but I really have tried hard to separate the quality of care and degree of compassion, from the outcome of the surgery. I have done this because I have already had one botched procedure. Psychologically I could not choose a surgeon that I did not believe would take care of me in the event things didn't work out well. I can somehow accept bad luck or bad healing but it would be a constant source of upset that the doctor that caused the problems just didn't care. That he was just too high up in the clouds to care about the bad cases. This is the way I feel about Mr Harrison. I don't want to delve into details but he acted with me like a cross between Tom Cruise's Maverick and David Brent from The Office. In my opinion, both his rude, nepotistic office culture and his own arrogant demeanour was drowning in self-importance. His primary concern from my viewpoint was his own celebrity status. I work in medical devices industry and I have seen the doctors at the top of their field and the way they bask in their own glow of celebrity. They publish to get plaudits. They attend conferences to be treated as VIPs. They have forgotten their roots and raison d'être. There was a moment in Mrs Thatchers 'reign' where she announced to the press that "we are grandparents" which was much lampooned and in many ways confirmed what most people thought... that she was once grewt but she had been in power too long and had let success get to her head and had forgotten the people she was meant to be fighting for. I saw exactly this attitude with Mr Harrison in EVERY interaction I had with him and his office. Not just once. But every single interation.


It maybe that Mr Harrison was a brilliant man when he was younger. It maybe (although I am sure it's a long shot) that Mr Harrison has seen my feedback and it has come as a shock and he has recognised he must get back to grass roots. In which case (and this is just to argue the hypothetical that giving feedback is important) that you are the beneficiary of my earlier complaints.


Something I feel passionate about is that us spinal patients should stick together. Doctors stick together. So do lawyers. This is the one place I have found on the Internet (started by the Harrison I do respect) where we as patients get to support each other. Please don't shut me down. Even if you have had a good experience, this is what you should have. It doesn't cancel out my bad one which affected my life quite dramatically. I really do hope you have an amazing result but that shouldn't affect you from being objective. The outcome from your procedure is not related to your or my views on his bedside manner. Likewise, my surgeon Mr Lam was incredibly generous with his time and made me feel like I was seeing a real expert who card about patients. However, my surgery (now 8 weeks) hasn't gone amazing. I am still a while from knowing for sure but nothing will change that Mr Lam was a stand up guy. There is a risk that surgery won't work that well and I don't think it's fair to blame a surgeon for all of that.


However I made my comments irrespective of the surgical result, and from my personal perspective. I am quite a measured person and would never seek to rubbish someone who has made even a big mistake (as per my first surgeon who gave me an unnecessary Discectomy and started this whole process for me). My complaint about Harrison is the culture of his practice, his demeanour and nothing to do with surgery outcomes or decisions to do one thing or another. I will leave it to others to place a weighting on my comments after reading my other posts. I have done my bit to give feedback to the community that helped me find Mr Lam.


By the way... Sort of my last point... I presume from your relative assessment of Mr Harrisons bedside manner that you spoke to other surgeons. i met with about 5. The two who i met after seeing Harrison (thanks to this forum for showing me there were other choices) both asked me if i had seen anyone else. i said Harrison. They asked, quite bizarrely i thought, what i made of him and i said my view albeit much less candidly than here, so as not to professionally embarrass them - i said "we didnt gel that well" - and to my genuine surprise they both smiled in obvious agreement. One even muttered. "Yes he is a one isnt he". Make of this as you will. It's just my word. Perhaps the doctors meant something else. Or indeed perhaps they are jealous. I know doctors will stick together so I am not going to make libellous remarks. Just my opinion as facts I truly believe to be correct. Thank goodness for your first amendment which means I can legally express myself.


Good luck to you. I look forward to hearing your story in the 'outcome thread' which no doubt you will start soon. Please know that whatever happens, your only friends will be the fellow patients on this board. We will support you after the doctor has left the room. We need to count on each other. Can I count on you to at least give me the benefit of the doubt?


Best wishes,


Walter

[afhstock]

Hi Walterwhite,
I apologize. I did not mean to touch a nerve. And yes, everyone has a right to express their opinion. And I respect yours. Back surgery is a big deal and a true life changer for many. As you said, I am doped on morphine lol and yes, I'll report on my outcome in the correct forum. In short still way too early but there are lots of signs it has been mostly successfull, don't want to judge prematurely. Thank you for standing by others as I will stand by you. We're all in this sort of misery together and hoping to desperately get out. I have seen 6 ortho spine/neurosurgeons and I myself am a PA in pain medicine (go figure). Take care and see you on the surgical outcome forum.

[afhstock]

Krossi
I'm happy to hear you've narrowed down your options with calculated measures. I understand you're delaying surgery for now. Please keep us posted on your status. God speed.

[walterwhite]

Hi Afhstock. Enjoy the button! It's always a good sign to have a good sign. Assuming something like tingling gone in one leg. It's all good. You seem positive but guarded and I think that's the right approach. I've seen a few people who start out well but once they're off the painkillers it can be a different story. It's easy to be disappointed if you raise expectations. It's kind of academic now anyway :-) You have to do your exercises and don't overdo it. Stick to the program. Don't twist or bend. Walk often. If u check out my Outcome thread you can see I've written a few posts up to about week 5. I'm waiting for an appointment next week before I send my next update. I feel like I've hit a recovery plateau but it's hard to say if it's normal because of fusion part of the procedure which takes longer to heal.

All the best. Did you know the word morphine comes from the Greek Morpheus (nice one Matrix) meaning dreams.... Enjoy pain free. Peace.