Patient
Dr. Lackdawala ignored my symptoms, laughed in my face, and before the exam began, said that my referring doctor and I were wasting his time. He cheered that he "knew there was nothing wrong with [me]" when the test confirmed medication I'd been put on while waiting for the cardiology wait list to open, was working. That's what I thought was happening, until Dr. Lakdawala's bizarre and unprofessional behavior clued me in that he was not there to help. I would have walked out of there on the spot if my husband had not arrived to insist I complete the appointment (which he considers a mistake after witnessing Dr. Lackdawala's appalling behavior himself.) Dr. Lackdawala took down my history so inaccurately, that he either did not read/listen, or was cherry picking which parts would support his confirmation bias. He lied about what my test results & history indicate. He listed "palpitations" as my "chief concern" when it wasn't even on my list of concerns. My chief concern was feeling like my chest was being crushed followed by fainting & to follow up on an abnormal 12L ECG taken by another doctor. A troponin test a month+ after the episode means nothing. Lack of family history rule out only a tiny fraction of possibilities during differential, because the genetic form of the disease in question can mutate in offspring even if the parents don't have it. More people have the condition without a known genetic link than with. Dr. L claimed that having no family history definitively ruled it out. Then a relevant family history was discovered, on both sides of my family and he decided those don't count. Lackdawala seems to enjoy mind games. He offered to interpret home ECG tracings. When I accepted the offer, he told me he doesn't do that; he'll only look at 12 L ECG and he'd be happy to order it. When asked to order the ECG during my worst symptoms, he said no because the home ECG he looked at (which were already reviewed by a technician, GP, NP, a retired psychiatrist, and two different cardiologists and deemed abnormal) he claims are normal, therefore follow up isn't warranted. So, the home ECG weren't good enough to determine whether more testing was necessary, but ARE good enough to determine that more testing is NOT required. Was he deliberately bullying, or is he honestly not self-aware enough to realize what he's doing? I don't know which is worse.Internal inconsistency, poor methodology, and a superiority complex = a bad combination for a doctor who treats an extremely vulnerable population. Dr. Lackdawala may know less about the female reproductive system than 12-year-olds who recently took sex Ed. Scientists have been conducting robust studies on the female reproductive cycle's impact on the heart for a century. Women comprise 50+%of the population.There's no excuse for such ignorance. Why do women have worse cardiac outcomes than men? Gee whiz, some mystery that is. Dr. L gave dangerous advice, having no idea what was going on with my cardiac issues, let alone general health: struggle to keep food down consistently since December, bacterial infection causing abscesses all over my body, & food poisoning in March that lead to a hypoglycemic crisis. Dr. Lackdawala's taper advice: Stop heart medication with no taper time line, ignore all my symptoms because he assumes they will all be benign. Other doctors, nurses, and a social worker have gently opined, multiple times that Lackdawala is behaving unprofessionally, his advice is inappropriate, and I'm better off starting over with a different cardiologist. However, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I thought he may have a social communication disorder. I would have been happy to work with a disabled doctor so long as they were professionally competent, but unfortunately I think Dr. L is just arrogant & misogynistic. Women (or any person w/ complex health problems,) tread carefully. Especially if your case and his skill set mismatch. He shouldn't have taken my case. I know neither why he took my case nor what grudge he holds against me.