Patient
Awful experience. Dr. Burns treated our attempt to seek heart health care as a big joke. If your situation isn't currently dire, our experience is that Abbott doctors feel like you don't belong in their clinic. My husband was made fun of, brushed off, and medically gaslighted. I wouldn't recommend going to see this doctor unless I was at imminent risk of dying - even then, it might be better to die around someone who shows some empathy, rather than to attempt to get help from this cold doctor in your last minutes on earth. My husband has had multiple family members die at a young age due to heart issues, little else is known about why they died. Abbott Heart Hospital offers a clinic that encourages you to come in if you have this type of family history, so they can do research and you can try to avoid dying at a young age, the way your family members did. We called and requested for him to be seen in that clinic and were told we had to see one of their regular cardiologists first. What a nightmare! Dr. Burns was pompous and condescending, one of the most deplorable doctors I have met (and that is saying something because I have 4 disabled kids, so I have met A LOT of doctors). His demeanor was smug and condescending, he talked down to us the entire appointment. He made it VERY clear that my husband's situation wasn't worth his time. My husband has difficulty expressing himself, especially to doctors (white coat syndrome), and he asked me to help him explain to the doctor why we were there. The doctor immediately started making fun of him and asked, "is she running the appointment," he shamed my husband and made him feel like the doctor saw this as him being whipped as opposed to being someone who is just intimidated by doctors. Doctors like this are the reason people fear going to the doctor. This was medical gaslighting at its best. This doctor had no interest in hearing what we had to say, or in letting my husband be a part of his own care, let alone allowing him to express his needs or having help to do so. The doctor knew from our paperwork why we were there but took the appointment down a different path (which included telling us the reasons we didn't need to be wasting his time). After that he said he had a plan (which was to send my husband packing). Then after thoroughly emasculating my husband, he smiled and in a definitive way, he rhetorically said something to the effect of "so we have a plan" then looked at us to see if he was going to be challenged. I told him that I didn't agree, and that I wasn't impressed with him or Abbott. He seemed surprised to hear this. I reminded him we weren't there to see him, that scheduling forced us to start with him before we could go over to the genetic provider, I clarified that my husband met the criteria that the genetic clinic was looking for and that some people need support to talk to a doctor because they have trouble talking to doctors in general, and my husband likes to downplay his situation. I told him we wanted to be proactive about his health, rather than waiting for my husband to drop dead like his relatives. Despite all of this, the doctor didn't apologize for his unconscionable, deplorable, disgusting behavior. He said he was sorry that I was upset, rather than being sorry for his behavior. Talk about an empty apology. This doctor should be ashamed of himself!