Dr. Babak Mehrara says he respects his patients. I believe actions speak louder than words. If so, Dr Mehrara’s actions prove definitively that he, in fact, does not respect his patients. Of the 13 appointments I have had with Dr. Mehrara over the last four years, he was on time for exactly one of those. His tardiness ranges from 30 minutes to 2 1/2 hours with the average wait time being approximately 73 minutes after the scheduled appointment time. While waiting, no member of his staff will: (a) check to see if you require anything,or (b) manage your expectations as to when Dr. Mehrara might grace you with his presence. When Dr. Mehrara does show up, he never apologizes for being late or shows any appreciation for your patience. Additionally, he never knocks before entering the exam room - he just swans in. Taken together, Dr. Mehrara treats his patients more like nameless cattle in a pen than like clients or even human beings. If you expect his tardiness to be limited to the office you would be wrong. I was the first surgery of the day on 2 separate occasions. Both times he showed up for the pre-op consult well after the surgeries’ scheduled start time. The staff at the hospital joke about how he is never on time.
On the occasion he left me rotting in an examination room for 2 1/2 hours, he brought a colleague to this post-surgical examination. He not only refused to introduce or identify this individual – this stranger – he also refused to remove him from the exam room when I requested he do so. In fact, Dr. Mehrara said that we could either get on with the examination or he would come back later. Remember, I had already been waiting 2 1/2 hours past my scheduled appointment time for this guy to show up. I don’t know about anybody else, but I call that coercion and emotional blackmail.
As for his surgical skills, the first reconstruction resulted in one breast being significantly lower than the other and largely positioned under my left arm. I had to live like that for almost a year before he would agree to fix it. Even after the revision, that breast is still significantly lower than the other, and it is causing me not an insignificant amount of pain when I move certain ways. When this pain was brought up to Dr. Mehrara at the last appointment, I will, thankfully, ever have with the man, he dismissed my pain as phantom nerve pain, without considering the pain might be caused by the misplaced implant. Recently, I’ve seen a lot of articles about how doctors gaslight their female patients when they complain about pain. Such doctors routinely do not take the concerns of their patients seriously. I believe the Dr. Babak Mehrara is one of these.
Finally, a few days after my breast were amputated, one of Dr. Mehrara’s nurses laughed at my emotional distress when I described to her, my horror at seeing the mutilated remains where my breast had been. That nurse never apologized for her callous behavior, and when I tried to raise the issue with Dr. Mehrara, he didn’t want to hear it.
Again, actions speak louder than words. I stand by my initial assertion that Dr. Mehrara does not, in fact, respect his patients in any way shape or form as evidenced by his actions.