Dr. Joel Cook is arrogant and rude. He butchered my face. I went to him to have a very small basal cell carcinoma removed from my forehead. I requested a doctor who would do the Mohs procedure, even though the growth was very small. When he strode into the room he loudly told me that if I had gone to any other dermatologist at all, they would do a poor job of excising it. He cut a large, round hole in my forehead, even though the lesion was oval and not at all round. He burned it out very quickly, and when the path report came back that there was a little more to remove, he brusquely told me that he had gotten 60% of it, and with one more large slice, he cut a hole that was much larger than it needed to be. When I was called back the 2nd time, to be told that he had gotten it all, he practically shouted at me that "This will be EASY to close!" He took a photo of the huge hole, and twice more loudly asserted that it would be easy to close. I had a plastic surgeon do the repair at the downtown MUSC facility, under general anesthesia, the next day. She had to make a sliding flap and pull it up from the side of my face to try to close the defect. I have a garish scar in my eyebrow and forehead now. I spoke with an RN at MUSC who told me that the nurses don't like him - they call him "Dr. Quick" because he cuts wide and deep in order to get finished fast. That is the opposite of the point of doing the Mohs procedure, which should be to carefully remove as little tissue as possible at first, and keep cutting if the lab says there are still more cancer cells. Dr. Cook should not be allowed to do the Mohs procedure ever again. read more
