On Wednesday, my husband was sent to the local hospital because he was having servere pain in his left eye and blurred vision. After having about every test in the book done to find the cause of these problems, the ER doctor called Dr. Stoleru to see what to do next. The ER doctor came in and did a pressure check on his eyes. At this point his right eye was at 52 and his left at 41.
This is very high. We were then told that he has acute angle glaucoma and would need emergency special treatment within the next few hours or he would loose his sight very quickly. We were told that Dr. Stoleru was at Washington Hospital Center in DC and would be waiting for us to arrive. It would take us about an hour and a half to get there from where we were.
We arrived at the hospital about Midnight, we were escorted to the office where the was a note from Dr. Stoleru telling us to page a Dr. Segal. We did, he came down and did many eye tests on him, at this time his pressures had dropped to 8 in the left and 10 in the right. They were now at desirable levels. The doctor concored with another then called Dr. Stoleru. Dr. Stoleru told them to give us his number and have us call his office first thing in the morning. He also informed them to inform us that he would need a laser surgery the following day that would make a hole in the eyes to help keep the pressure down so that these attack would not happen again. They kept telling us how very important it was to do such.
We arrived home about 4am, the next morning the office opened at 9am, so I didn't sleep, so that I could make sure I'd call asap, as told. The woman on the phone was very rude and said she didn't know anything about my husband, so she gave the phone to a man that didn't have a clue. I explained everything that was said and what was on both discharge papers.
I was told that he was in surgery and would not be in the office, so he would page him to call us. 2 hours went by and we didn;t know what was going on, I called back, again the same speech. Finally about 2:30pm, we get a call. The man says that Dr. Stoleru couldn't fit my husband into surgery so he set him an appointment to come in the next morning. I asked that the doctor call us, I told him I was alittle confused since we were told that this could not wait. Needless to say, we never heard from this doctor.
The next morning we went to the appointment. There were NO seats avaliable, so we litterally had to sit on the floor in the hall way. Finally almost 2 hours later he's called back. The doctor spends 2 minutes with him. I try to ask questions, he tells me he won't answer me because I'm not the patient. Then he tell him that he's writting a script for him and gave him some ointmant to apply at night. All of a sudden he didn't want to do the surgery. I again asked, why now is there going to be no surgery when you've made it very clear that it had to be done asap. He ignores me. Then I said, "Well, since you've made it clear that because of the type of glaucoma he has, and now all of a sudden you don't want to do the surgery then I will..." He cuts me off, puts his hands on his hips and says, "What, you think your gonna hold me responsible?" I told him yes I would. He then says, I can't spend anymore time with you people, I have more important patients that I need to see. We got up and left.
Upon getting home, I look at the ointment he gave him, it expired April of 1997, no lie. And the worst part, it was used on someone else. Gross, huh? I went to fill his script. After having to go several places for it, the pharmacist asks me what this is prescribed for (they know us), I told her, Acute narrow-angle Glaucoma. She says, wait a minute, you'd better call your doctor back, I can't let your fill this for Glaucoma. So I get home really ticked off, left several messages with Dr. Stoleru's office, nothing. Then I look the script up, it's called TobraDex. All teh sites on this medication give the full information on this drug. They ALL say, that it is prescribed for many bacterial infections of the eyes. Then it has the medical precautions. It states to tell your doctor if you have any Glaucoma. It goes on to state that you can not take this medication having glaucoma, because it WILL make your condition worse.
So, the next morning I called his regular eye doctor. He couldn't believe this doctor never did the surgery, given the original pressures. He said that if my husband has another attack of glaucoma in the near future, he will probally lose most to all of his sight. He says this is the type of doctor that is in it for the money. I tell him oviously, but how does doing then and doing it later make a difference. He said that's easy enough to answer. If he would have done the surgery in the middle of the night Wed/Thurs, he would have gotten paid extra from the insurance company because it would be considered an "Emergency" Surgery. He won't get paid as much scheduling this surgery.By him desiding to wait, He's hoping that your husband ends up back in the ER needing the "emergency" surgery and also may be hoping that he'll need more than just this one.
Low and behold, his pressure is back up, and we told the hospital we don't care who they pull in for the surgery, but we don not want Dr. Stoleru. My husband has an appointment with another eye doctor on Tuesday, the one I've spoke with on the phone. The plan to schedule the surgery for later this week.
I am so upset by the negligence of this doctor that I will be turning his actions into the board. His regular doctor and his eye doctor said they would also be filing a report with the board. They won't know for certain until Tuesdays appointment, but he feels that there is a possibility that there may be so permament optic nerve damage. Amazining how doctors treat patients anymore, isn't it?
April
Waldorf, Maryland
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