How do I find the best spinal surgery center on the east coast?

[Pster]

What I really need is a Consumer Reports of hospitals and surgeons!

I need to find a surgeon & spinal surgery hospital - outside of Orlando. How on earth do I go about doing that? I don't know who to ask. I don't know where to look online (other than the random searches we have done).

It's hard not going off a referral because I have a list of random doctor's but I know nothing about them other than what is printed online. I can't just pick a surgeon based on that - I need to know his background, if he's done this type of surgery before, if he's extremely good at what he does, etc etc.

Can anyone offer any help or direction as to how we go about this?:confused:

We are in Orlando and right now are researching Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. I would like to find out more about them - but, specifically, I want to find a surgeon at a reputable hospital that has done the type of spinal surgery dh needs.

thank you for any help!

[GVA]

Here's U.S. News and World Report's top neuro hospitals...

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/search.php?spec=ihqneur&

Finding specialists is tricky. We live in the D.C. Area and the doctor that really messed up DH was on one of the "Top Doctors" lists for this area. So is the doctor that truly did all he could to fix the bad doctor's work, and who pulled multiple all-nighters when DH was near death trying to figure out what was wrong. I sometimes think about how things would have turned out if we had started out with the second doctor.

We've sent DH's records to both Mayo and JHU to doctors that do phone consultations. In both cases, we contacted those institutions directly and when with their physician referral services to find these doctors. Once you get names, you can do more research online. In both cases the doctors at those hospitals advised us to do no more surgery (this was after six), so that did make us feel better about some of the D.C. area specialists we had seen who said the same.

[Kelli in TN]

What have I missed? What sort of surgery? I am so sorry I have somehow missed your posts.

[Pster]

thank you GVA! that will help us immensely!! this will be a great starting point - and then on to researching names!

Sorry you and dh had to go thru all that! - how awful! That is exactly what we are afraid of going thru. If a surgeon doesn't know what he's doing............and the sciatic nerve - yikes!

thank you for the help~

[Quiver0f10]

If I were looking for an east coast hospital, I would look in Boston.

[Pster]

Hi Kelly - I was going to pm you but couldn't!
To make a long story short - a neurologist found a tumor at his L4 vertebrae the end of Dec. They aren't totally sure but the *think* it is benign. Won't know for sure till they do a biopsy during surgery. Dh has been in a lot of pain - that has decreased a bit since having 2 pain shots.
As of his last MRI (last night) the tumor has not changed in size over the last 5-6 wks so he is headed to surgery. He's had pain which is increasing again and progressive numbness down his right leg. We are looking where to go and may wind up leaving the Orlando area and go to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. (family in PA)
Surgery will be tricky because the tumor is on the sciatic nerve.

think that kinda sums it up.....it's been a stressful ride but thank goodness we know where things are headed now....
:)

[sdWTMer]

Honestly, perhaps the best way is to get in yahoo groups or forums that discuss this type of thing. That's where you will get the truth on the whole thing. Just my two cents though! :-D

[sdWTMer]

I don't know if I gave you this link (http://www.38lemon.com) before or not. It is something that perhaps you should look at. This guy, David Welch, has had brain surgery at NYU 2 separate times. Just thought that I would pass this on to you.

I wish you well going on your journey! Hang in there!

Warmly,

[Volty]

Try Lost Island, I know a great spinal surgeon there who'll do it for free. ;)

[GVA]

thank you GVA! that will help us immensely!! this will be a great starting point - and then on to researching names!

Sorry you and dh had to go thru all that! - how awful! That is exactly what we are afraid of going thru. If a surgeon doesn't know what he's doing............and the sciatic nerve - yikes!

thank you for the help~

I truly hope (and pray) that the surgery will be successful and that you'll have a good experience with whatever doctor/hospital you pick. DH is headed for disability retirement sometime in the next few years if not sooner because of all our medical adventures, so I'm always quick to jump in when others are in similar situations.