I am an ophthalmologist myself and I developed an extremely complex strabismus/ocular muscle imbalance involving all possible dimensions--horizontal, vertical, and torsional/rotary. Dr. Velez performed 4 simultaneous (all at one operating room session) complex strabismus procedures and the results are absolutely spectacular. I have no tropia/manifest deviation when using my two eyes together in any dimension. My husband is also an ophthalmologist. As ophthalmologists ourselves, we know how difficult my case was and the result is truly amazing. In our medical training and then medical careers, we have obviously interacted with many thousands of physicians in all specialties, not just ophthalmology and not just pediatric ophthalmology/strabismus (Dr. Velez's specialty). Dr. Velez is among the very few most medically professionally impressive physicians that we have ever interacted with if not the very most impressive of all. He is obviously one of the best physicians in the world. He is extremely outstanding in all facets of care. His bedside manner is outstanding. He obtains one's history in an extremely thorough fashion and does so in a way to ensure that he truly understands the issue(s) and how such affects the patient in real life situations. His examinations are extremely comprehensive and thorough. He does his absolute best to duplicate the real-life situations in the exam room such that he understands exactly what is bothering the patient in real life (such as by having the patient's head and eyes be in the positions which are most bothersome in real life situations and doing whatever else it takes to understand how the issue(s) affect the patient and how to address them). After obtaining a history and exam, his ability to craft plans is unparalleled. My husband and I had researched the literature on my case quite extensively before meeting Dr. Velez. At the time of the exam, we discussed the scientific literature and Dr. Velez was extremely well versed in every single study that we mentioned. Furthermore, he not only extremely versed in each study, he had obviously already contemplated all of those studies extensively before meeting us. This was obvious because he expressed a deeply contemplated opinion on how each studies' suggestions (they were often involving various surgical options/techniques) should or should not be implemented in my case (some studies applied to similar but not to my exact situation and certain studies conflicted with each other but, as I conveyed above, Dr. Velez had already incorporated all of these studies into his knowledge base and had already concluded as to which situations they applied to and when to employ their suggestions, etc.). I can tell you that it is extraordinarily rare to find a physician who is not only so well versed on the scientific literature but who has spent so much time and effort to incorporate them into their medical decision-making process. Dr. Velez is always extremely focused not only on what is best for the patient in the short run but also the extreme long run meaning throughout their lives. Dr. Velez also uses super advanced surgical techniques. I wish that we could clone Dr. Velez and have every specialty in medicine have a Dr. Velez. If that were the case, although having a medical problem would still not be fun, life would be extraordinarily better because one would have complete confidence that no matter what type of illness or condition they developed, they would know that they would be able to have the problem addressed by a physician who could provide them the best care possible in the world today. Unfortunately, there is only one Dr. Velez but if you are having a pediatric ophthalmic and/or strabismus-related issue, you are lucky that the one Dr. Velez that there is specializes in that area and that you can see him as a patient. read more
