Patient
At first he seemed like a very nice doctor, who would listen. Upon my first visit he listened to my heart, and said that he believed he heard a murmur. He seemed fairly certain about it, and sent me for an echo test to try to catch it. When I returned he told me that nothing showed up on the echo test, and suddenly, he took it back, that there was no murmur. It was confusing, particularly because I was born with a heart murmur, and he had seemed so sure. After that, and a stress test we assumed wouldn't show anything (and didnt), he didnt seem to want to look further into what was going on. Heart palpitations that cause me to cough and my arms to go cold, at the age 23, didnt seem to concern him. In fact, he told me "sometimes we get anxious" when I asked him why my arms would go cold like that. -- This was deeply upsetting for many reasons. 1.) When these heart palpitations started, I was 12 years old, watching a Christmas movie with my family. Same thing happened, my arms went cold. There was no anxiety in my life at 12. I was happily enjoying a movie during the holiday season, and it continued after that. 2.) As someone who now does suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, I can honestly say, my arms have never gone cold nor have I experienced these palpitations during an anxiety attack, or anxiety inducing situations. This did not seem to convince him that it's not my anxiety. It's never happened while I was standing up, only ever when I'm laying down or sometimes sitting. This also didn't seemed to make him wonder if something might actually be wrong. I left his office that day feeling dismissed in my struggles. I felt invalidated, and was basically told that my problems are in my head. Today I had a cardiology appointment, recommended by my Rheumatologist, just to receive a script for a tilt table test (to test me for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)-- something I would have to go elsewhere to get done. I let office staff know why I'd be coming when I scheduled the appointment. Shouldn't be a long visit, just a quick conversation, and the printing of a paper. Unfortunately on my way there I ran into a construction detour and an issue with my GPS that made me 7 minutes late. Just Seven. When I arrived I was informed that I would have to reschedule, and that Dr. Mignella will not see me because "He is already behind today" and "He already took the next patient back" Which didnt seem to make sense since it had only been 7 minutes. Of course, he could've stuck me behind her if that was truthfully the case. So no, he wouldn't see me, not even for 5 minutes, which would have equaled 12 of what I assume was about 20 minutes from my appointment time slot. In that case I had a remaining 13 minutes, and only needed 5 of those to tell him what I needed, and who had sent me, but he refused. Office staff was fine. Can't kill the messenger I suppose. Though, she did seem very confused about the time, claiming (to my mother) that I was much later than what I actually was. A 10:45 appointment, when I had arrived at 10:52 and hastily entered the office, did not seem to compute. However, for the most part, she was simply just conveying what she had been told by Mignella. I've seen a lot of doctors, since I have been fighting to find a diagnosis for 5 years now, and am chronically ill. I've had a lot of encounters and bad doctors even, but Ronnie Mignella, by far, is one of the worst I've seen, right under the orthopedic surgeon who told me to "live with my pain." when it was later discovered I had a bad labral tear in my hip, but that's a whole different google review. My point here is, Dr. Mignella was dismissive, did not listen to my concerns, made me feel invalidated by blaming my mental health for my heart issues, does not hold understanding, and quit on me after 3 appointments. I'd give him 0 stars if I could.