Patient
**People Make Mistakes, But...** My mother was recently a patient of Dr. Michael Riley until last month and for several years prior. She was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AFIB) a few years ago and is now 82 years old. Initially, her treatment involved medication, but that did not correct the issue. The next protocol was stopping and restarting her heart through outpatient procedures, but it would revert to AFIB within months. She then underwent a couple of ablations, which only temporarily corrected the problem. Living with uncontrolled AFIB can severely impact one's quality of life. With no long-term success from treatments, she became almost sedentary, leading to many other health issues. In addition to AFIB, Dr. Riley and other physicians discovered that she had a hiatal hernia. When she inquired if it needed medical treatment, Dr. Riley advised that it did not unless it became problematic. With her AFIB uncontrolled, Dr. Riley referred her to a colleague for an assessment for an invasive two-part heart surgery, which had a greater than 50% success rate for permanently correcting AFIB. This surgery is risky and one of the most painful post-operative heart operations you can have. It was successful. The AFIB had reduced her abilities so much that she could barely walk 10 feet without needing to rest. We were all hopeful that correcting the AFIB would restore her ability to breathe properly and significantly improve her quality of life, but post-surgery, this was not the case. She was more out of breath than before and could not function normally. Our next step was to visit a pulmonologist to rule out lung capacity issues since the AFIB was now under control post-operation. At her initial appointment, the pulmonologist quickly identified the same hernia Dr. Riley had noted and advised that its massive size was pressing on her lungs and heart. This could have been the reason all previous heart procedures failed to correct her AFIB. The pulmonologist, Dr. Brion Locke from Piedmont, immediately referred her for hernia surgery. The hernia surgery was a success, and the hernia was completely corrected. The operation was not nearly as painful as the heart surgery. Post-operatively, Dr. Riley advised her to stop taking her blood pressure medication but to continue her AFIB medication (Sotalol). The lack of blood pressure medication caused her blood pressure to skyrocket, and she was kept on an AFIB medication she no longer needed. Her primary care doctor noted that she should never have been removed from her blood pressure medicine and should have been immediately taken off Sotalol once her heart surgery was deemed successful. She suffered unnecessarily for so long and was later advised that she likely never needed the heart surgery, only the hernia surgery to regain her quality of life, as she has now. At my mom's final appointment with Dr. Riley, he could not explain why he had not been alarmed by the size of her hernia in relation to her heart and lungs, despite seeing it on tests and during various heart procedures. He also had no defense when she pointed out that he had inappropriately taken her off her critically needed blood pressure medication while maintaining a drug regimen for an issue she no longer had. It is critical to ensure you are thoroughly educated about all possibilities regarding your health and to seek multiple opinions from different practitioners. Having a relative advocate for your healthcare can be invaluable. Doctors are not perfect and can make serious mistakes and hasty decisions based on limited knowledge or inattention. These inadequacies could cost you or your loved one their life. I am deeply grateful for Dr. Locke's dedication, education, and commitment to his patients. My mom now has the potential to live to see 100 or more, whereas less than a year ago, we only hoped she could overcome her hernia-induced heart problem. Clearly, Dr. Riley was not the best physician to manage my mom's care. I hope this is an isolated issue for everyone in his care today and in the future.