Don't get faulked by Dr. Faulks and his residents!…read more
I went into the GW Hospital ER with a broken tibia and fibula. On the first visit, I apparently didn't meet with any orthopedics and recieved the worst fiberglass splint. The guy who put it on went all the way up above my knee, and he used 6 ace bandages and really stretched them really tight. I was discharged and just hours later my entire leg was in excrutiating pain.
I returned to the ER, 2nd visit, 2nd copay, 2nd time they get to bill my insurance and I have to pay a $150 copay. Enter the orthopedic residents. They removed the old splint and admitted it was the wrong type and too tight. They left my leg unsplinted for a while, and the pain went away on its own, but it didn't happen quickly. They put on a new plaster splint that fit great, and they said if I stayed overnight as an inpatient, Dr. Faulks could operate the next day.
I stayed the night, my surgery wasn't their highest priority over some of their other cases and it got pushed until around 5pm. I waited in relative comfort in my room, I fasted for 17 hours by the time I went into the OR. This was my first time meeting Dr. Faulks, it seems he has his residents meet with patients before/after surgery. He had never seen my leg, and he didn't bother to examine it before ordering general anesthesia.
Next thing I knew, I was waking up, and for some reason already had a sense something was wrong. There was swelling and fracture blisters that made it not possible to operate. Had he examined the leg ahead of time, it would have been apparent. I had a new cast on and I was told the blisters were removed and bandaged. They wheeled me back to my room, and the residents met me there.
At this point, I already knew something was wrong. My smallest toe was caught in the cast and I was being crushed, in addition, the cast was applying some amount of pressure to keep my foot at 90°, but rather than applying it across my foot, all the pressure was on the joint below my smallest toe. It seemed like perhaps they started the cast there and pulled everything against it. First it was tingling, then numb, and then painful. When I told the residents they gave me the same dismissive response that should be the motto of the orthopedics team there "it's a broken ankle so it's going to hurt". This is toxic because it completely ignores the fact that the pain isn't in my ankle, it's my toe, and it shifts the blame from them to me. I don't let doctors push me around though and explained that the pain wasn't in my ankle.
One of the residents said he needed to go into the OR but would return with a saw to loosen the cast. He was gone for hours and the pain became maddening. The nurse injected painkillers and gave me oxycodone, but it didn't really provide any relieve to this ongoing trauma. I finally took matters into my own hands and used a knife to free my toe from the cast. The nurse seemed kind of nervous about it at first, but then after she saw how it was wrapped in the incompetence of Dr. Faulks and his team, she began assisting and between the two of us we freed it.
Nearly 5 hours later the resident returned with a saw. He was not happy about the modifications to the cast. He cut both sides of it open to relieve pressure in general, but with no benefit to the area that was in pain. He refused to give me a new cast despite how poorly it fit.
This region is surrounded by talented award winning orthopedic surgeons from top universities. Dr. Faulks is not one of them. He graduated from the University of Nowhere and the certificate he got from it was probably the peak of his career. He's not on any of the Top Orthopedics in DC lists for good reason, he's not one of them. Unless you're interested in smug surgeons who are too busy to care about your surgery only to needlessly deliver recreational anesthesia, look elsewhere. You can't swing a dead cat in this city without hitting a top notch orthopedic. The only reason anyone would go to this guy is if they didn't do any research and took the easy option like I did, and let me tell you, it's not worth it. I'm still imprisoned in this terrible cast that probably some resident who just got out of medical school did her best on, and I've now got to find a new surgeon to clean up his mess. The next time you're looking for an orthopedic surgeon, don't get faulked by Dr. Faulks.