Online Telehealth Services

A good friend of mine in town in TX told me he had a tumor on the outside of his eye and that he was going to have major surgery soon in town.  I asked him if he wanted to get a second opinion as at the time, I knew an ophthalmologist to ask… he said no, but I called the acquaintance anyway and they said there is only one place to go… this would be the late 90s… a husband and wife team one who was an ophthalmologist specializing in oncology and the other an oncologist specializing in ophthalmology … my contact gave me their number and I called my friend and compelled him to call them… the ophthalmologist told my friend to go get a copy of his medical record and grab his wife and hop on a plane to come see him in the northeast. The local surgeon has done very few of these cases and was going to remove the side of his temple to access the tumor… fortunately, my friend did hop on a flight… the doctor in the northeast said he had done hundreds of these cases and perfected a technique that did not require removal of the temple to get to the eye… AND, the doctor said did your local physician in TX also look at the other eye?  (he had not)… the physician said you are only the second patient I have ever seen with this tumor, bilaterally!   I saw my friend and his wife at a function shortly thereafter… he and his wife hugged my wife and me.

My dad was a general surgeon in southern California (and WWII surgeon) and late in his career he was diagnosed with lymphoma and was scheduled for surgery to remove his spleen and several suspicious lymph nodes…this would be the early 80s and my dad was in his early 60s… He sought a second opinion from a hematologist at USC in Los Angeles…he looked at the studies and said he was not sure.  He said when he has questions, he sends patients to a chap at UCSD. My mom and dad I drove down to San Diego and my dad spent much of the day there…my dad said it was the best physical exam he had ever had…in the end, the physician said, I do not know what has caused your leukopenia but one thing I do know is that you do not have lymphoma….as you might imagine, a major surgery was avoided.

Hey Dr. Cooper I wanted to give you an update on my dad and thank you from the bottom of my heart. You were compassionate, loving, kind and listened on a day I was really, really scared. Dad is working really hard on cardiac rehab, his diet exercise and mental attitude … knowing that probably within the next year he’s going to have to have a full bypass like you said. My hope is that he will be in how much better physical and mental state to withstand the surgery. Thank you for taking my call and taking your time. The work that you are doing and the access to quality second opinions that you are creating is empowering. Your work is a giant step in the right direction of healing such a broken “healthcare” system. Thank you