I would just put a word in for Swedish Hospital in Seattle and Dr. Cameron McDougall. McDougall specializes in – is at the forefront of – endovascular approaches. If you Google his name you can find 15 papers he had co-authored.
The entire Cherry Hill hospital is devoted to strokes and brain aneurysms. That’s all they do, day in and day out. The nursing staff was stellar. An extremely well-oiled machine. They have hotels nearby you can stay in if you are from out of town.
People in other parts of the country don’t know it, but Seattle has extremely good hospitals. Seattle was isolated from the rest of the country for a long time and has in general stayed away from the HMO approach.
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Charles, I just found this and my doc is McDougall. So glad to hear you liked him. I got his name from my college roommate’s dad who is a neurologist in Boston and asked the best endovascular surgeon he knows of in Boston who to see in Seattle. That doc told him he would go to McDougall if it were his daughter asking. Glad to hear I am in such good hands.
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I had a terrible experience at the hospital.
Abbycat70, I would be curious to hear about your experience.
I DID notice that these neurological hospitals are like no other. If you have what they deem is a “minor” problem, your case is going to be de-prioritized.
But as far as I can tell, neurological hospitals are unlike any other: every other case is a major emergency. Just in the day ward, the two three times I was there, one guy in the next room is having a seizure, the next guy’s aneurysm broke . . . I don’t know how they come in everyday. There is always an emergency.
Twice my neurosurgeon has had to cut short conversations with me because he gets pulled into emergency surgery. I think you have to expect that. I’m not sure there is any other way to handle these cases. They do strokes and aneurysm and that’s it. Both are are always emergencies.
I will also say that it’s always hard getting information out of any surgeon. They are not talkative people . . . I had do a lot of research on my own.
But I would be curious about your experience if you want to post here or privately.