Patient
Dr Van Hook did a valve replacement on my 90 year old mother and told us the procedure went well. They put in a temporary pacemaker due to my mom experiencing a heart block during the procedure. The plan was to keep her two days to monitor her but, to our surprise, Dr Van Hook released her a day after the surgery. Long story short, my mother had to return to the hospital 2 days later as the heart blocks, which is a temporary stoppage of the heart, continued. Although we did not know that was what was happening. After 4 hours in the emergency room, the hospital finally discovered what was happening. Dr Van Hook was consulted but did not offer any information, even when given a full description of the symptoms and that her heart rate was fluctuating, as to what could be happening. It wasn't until an attending nurse saw the heart readings on the monitor that they realized the problem. Another temporary pacemaker was installed, but due to it being a weekend no doctor was available to install a permanent one was available. Due to the placement of the pacemaker line my mom was unable to move from her bed for two days, a very painful experience for her. We asked Dr Van Hook to help with her situation, he offered that he would look into it but no relief came. Not only that my mom had to wait until late in the day on Tuesday to finally have her pacemaker installed. Dr. Van Hook did nothing to speed up the process to relieve her situation nor did he stop in to see my mom after the weekend. I cannot speak to Dr Van Hook's ability as a physician, however I can comment that his attention and compassion for his patients was severely lacking after his part of her treatment was done.