Patient
It has been over 1.5 years since my husband suffered a stroke during his heart bypass surgery that also put my husband into kidney failure and now requires dialysis 3 days a week not to mention my husband cannot void his bladder or eat solid foods and is bed ridden. Dr MacArthur gave my husband a 1% chance of a risk complication even though he has numerous health conditions when I questioned him on this i was told "I felt like that was the correct risk assessment " well funny how when using stanfords own in-house risk assessment program the risk assessment was a lot higher then 1 %. I also had recieved updates during the surgery from the nurse at different stages and at the end I was told everything went well and the Doctor was closing and come to find out that my husband's oxygen saturation had dropped during the surgery and was never told about this as I had to find this out sideways. I also was told by Doctor MacArthur had he had images of my husband's head he might not had done the surgery which was like a slap in the face to me because when my husband presented thru the ER I informed the ER physician that my husband had been recently seen at community hospital of monterey where imaging was done and I had instructed them to obtain his previous medical records with all imaging and come to find out that was not done. I asked Dr MacArthur why I was not present during his assessment and discussion with my husband and was told "well he didn't ask for you". I then fired back my husband doesn't understand medical terminology where as I do coming from veterinary medicine and I would have reiterated my wishes about previous medical records if Dr. MacArthur had included me in the conversation. I then asked dont you usually have the spouse or caregiver present during these discussions and was told yes but that was not done in our case. I also told Dr MacArthur during our meeting that I felt he could not see the forest thru the trees (so to say). For the past 17 month my husband has not been home until just recently. I have not been able to return back to veterinary medicine since my husband's surgery January 2nd 2024. This doctor has devastated our lives. I should also say that during my husband's subsequent numerous hospital stays one of UCSF cardiologist took the time to meet with me and discuss my husband's case. When I told the cardiologist that what I had considered the white ivory tower of human medicine has fallen from grace in my book and I actually think we would have received better care at a local community hospital. The Cardiologist then said to me verbatim that stanford likes to think of themselves as the ivory tower and that a 1% Risk complication assessment was absolutely ridiculous. So long story short if you are going to have a major surgery and the Doctor doesn't obtain previous medical records and does not include the spouse or caregiver in discussions with the patient. Please think long and hard is this the physician for you and dont be afraid to ask for second opinions. My husband's entering complaint was persistant abdominal pain so was this related to his coranry artery disease or his almost perforated gall bladder that had been missed? This part is now Directed directly at Dr John MacArthur, when you told me that day we sat down and met and had our meeting that you told me you felt confident in your self and the risk assessment of 1%. PLEASE KNOW THIS THAT YOU ARE A LEGEND IN YOUR OWN MIND AND I DONT KNOW HOW YOU CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT!!! To me in my opinion i consider this below the standard of care but I guess we will have to see what the outcome is from the medical board.