My story starts with a bad experience I had at my community hospital where I was left in the waiting room for 13 hours with breathing difficulties. I have severe COPD, emphysema and asthma. I am a 56 year old woman, I've had the disease 12 years. Once seen, I was in the hospital for 5 days so I was very sick. My regular doctor had moved, so now Enter Dr. Vikas Kamat: I admit I found Dr. Kamat online, but he was close to my home and by this time I had become very ill due to accidental inhalation of a broken vacuum bag. I got very sick very quick. I realized that I needed to go to the hospital but the thought of waiting the thirteen hours was not appealing. So I called my new physician Dr. Vikas Kamat and made an appointment to see him hoping that I could explain that this sort of thing happens to me and to please admit me to the hospital. I knew that all that I would need was a few days of hospital care. He refused. Not only did he refuse but he seemed to take immediate umbrage to the idea that I would even ask such a thing!! He then proceeded to tell me that hospitals were "terrible, carried disease and would only make me sicker" and that what I needed he could provide and that I would be "just fine" He gave me a script for prednisone steroids and also for antibiotics and sent me home. Three days later I was worse. I could barely take a few steps without having to stop and catch my breath. I was coughing terribly and there was a terrible pain in my back. But Dr. Kamat told me to come in for a prednisone shot. When I got there I tried to tell them that I believed that the only thing that would help me would be a few days in the hospital. The answer again was "no, the hospital is terrible and carries disease". He said I could back in two days for another prednisone shot, and when I told him that I was in terrible back pain from coughing and hadn't slept in 3 days he gave me a prescription for cough syrup with codeine in it. It didn't do a thing for me and the pain continued to grow as I continued to cough and suffer. I called the Dr. and told him that I needed something stronger if I needed to live with this pain. And let's be clear here, I have NEVER liked pain killers and did not want them ever, but I started feeling like I had no choice. This was a new Doctor and I wanted him to like me and I wanted to trust him and deep inside I was hoping he actually could keep me out the hospital, because let's face it, I didn't WANT to go to the hospital. I NEEDED to go to the hospital and I knew it, but still I stuck with him. Hoping against hope he could make me better. Instead he gave me hydrocodone. Did it make me feel better? HELL YEAH I was high as a kite!! I still couldn't breathe well but it just didn't seem to matter as much anymore. And then I ran out of them. Dr. Kamat gave me more and an appt. for pain mgmt. Please keep in mind that the pain I was experiencing could have been easily alleviated with a few days of intraveneous steroids and antibiotics instead of narcotics but Dr. Kamat no longer seemed to want to be right, instead he seemed to NEED to be right, to best me, to be better, smarter than me. So again, not being a doctor myself I let him have his way. Soon I was out of pain medication and my appointment for the pain clinic was still 15 days away. So I called Dr. Kamat's office on Wednesday late and asked if I could have a script until my pain appointment and I was told to call back tomorrow. So I called Thursday morning and told they would get back to me. They didn't. So I got up early and called Friday when they opened and was told that they couldn't get me a prescription until Monday. So I asked "oh are you closed?" and was told "oh no we're open until 3:30" So of course I asked "then why do I have to wait until Monday?" I was very afraid I'd have some sort of withdrawal or worse the pain would come back and would be terrible. So I put that to the person on the phone. She told me she would get back to me and hung up. Yes like that. And I wasn't rude, I was just concerned for myself at this point. Who wouldn't be? Well she never called back I called them and they did give me the script. But it made me so sick, that I said to hell with it and took myself to the horrible hospital. Where I waited TWENTY NINE hours in the emergency department! I'm sure now that Dr. Kamat was behind that. He put me on a heart healthy diet for the days I was in there, knowing I had no heart problems but the food would be bad and I'd have no coffee because he just COULD NOT be wrong. Even standing in my room three days later, ME, 100 percent better, he still refused to even entertain the idea that I may have been right all along. Instead he lectured me on what a bad person I was, how I had been "mean" to his staff and to find another Doctor. Congratulations Dr. Kamat, YOU didn't make me any better but you believe you were right, AND you were able to punish me and obviously that's all that mattered to you. read more