I had laser surgery in February, 2012. I went there in agony, and left with just some soreness. I see myself getting my life back, more and more each day. I had Dr. **, although everyone was great. The institute ran like a well-oiled machine. I've never seen an organization that cared about every little detail. They took such good care of me, I hated to leave.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
My wife went in to the surgery center 8 Feb 2012 and as of today, she is back pain free. Great job!
On May 12, 2011, I received the patient package. The MRI staff noted abnormalities such as degenerative disc disease, bulge/herniation, spinal stenosis and facet disease in both lumbar and cervical. Lumbar surgery was on 6/22/11 and cervical surgery was on 6/27/11. Approximately two weeks after the lumbar surgery, I started to have excruciating electrifying pains down my left leg when I walked and could only walk with a walker. I did not have trouble walking before the surgery.
I contacted LSI and they scheduled an appointment for 7/29/2011. During the evaluation, the MRI staff had the look of death after reviewing my MRI. There was fluid in my spinal canal due to the lumbar surgery and I needed medical attention immediately. I was referred to a surgeon in another Tampa facility who was qualified to operate and evacuate the fluid. I was told LSI would walk me through the process, although I later found out my insurance was also billed for the emergency lumbar surgery on 8/5/11 and then again on 8/8/11.
After the surgery on 8/5/11 from the new surgeon, I got up to walk and the electrifying pain was now going down my right leg. The surgeon went back in and evacuated a blood clot from my spinal canal. The new surgeon fixed my torn nerve route which was the reason for spinal fluid in the spinal canal after my LSI lumbar surgery. Dr. Craig ** did both cervical and lumbar surgeries. I ended up on short-term disability from 8/5/2011 through 11/11/2011. After the surgeries, I was diagnosed with major depression and PTSD.
I was not able to return to work because of the surgeries and the new diagnosed conditions. I had to move out of my home in Florida and move in with family in Omaha. I can no longer work in my field of work and am having to look for an administrative job that is less stressful in order to work. I spoke with several attorneys and they would not take my case because I did not have permanent damage; the new surgeon fixed the issues. This is not what I call getting my life back and I would not recommend LSI.
I had their so-called surgery Nov 07. It was the worst nightmare of my life. I initially thought it helped but the steroids they injected during the surgery wore off quickly. I had to get on SSI disability. I had to take 30k out of my retirement for payment but was assured by LSI that my insurance, BCBS, would refund the entire amount because I had reached my out of pocket for the year.
After two years of fighting with the insurance company, I only received a little over 6k. LSI refused to reimburse anything after they assured me that I would be reimbursed. I regretfully told a friend of mine about them before I realized how I had been taken. His results were very similar to mine. He was forced to have a three level fusion after their operation. Bloomberg news recently did a story on them. I hope that it will start the ball rolling to expose them. Please take my advice and stay away from them.
I had surgery on 3-28-11. The surgery did absolutely nothing. I still have the same nerve damage and am in worse pain than when I went in about 4 months after my surgery. I spoke to a nurse about my symptoms. He said that he would send the report to Dr. ** and to this day, no one has contacted me. What doctor who just leaves a patient and doesn't follow up? The only follow up they're doing is to get insurance money from me plus the $11,000 out of pocket I paid up front. This institute in my opinion is a scam. There was only one day of relief and all they wanted was for me medicate. I lost my health insurance and never heard from them again.
I have nerve injury now as a result of my recent surgery. There is more pain than ever. Going to Tampa, Florida was the worst thing I could ever have done.
In December 2008, I was a patient at the Laser Spine Institute in Tampa. They (Dr. **) operated on a very large bulging disc. I will rate them a one because they did fix the problem. However, upon returning home, I developed a MRSA staph infection in the same disc that was operated on. Between December 2008 and February 2009, I underwent six more surgeries to get the infection out of me. It resulted in removing the disc and putting in a spacer--pins and rods. I do not remember much of this time due to the amount of drugs I was on and the depression that followed.
My health has continued to decline since then causing me to look into steps of taking medical disability again as I did, during the seven surgeries I had within two months. LSI is aware of my condition but they never contacted me regarding any type of re-imbursement of the $5,000 that I paid them out of pocket. The only correspondence I ever got from them was to fill out reports of periodic health and ability status. I have talked to several people looking into spine surgery and I will never recommend them. Any sort of contact from them would have helped. I would love to have an attorney contact me in this matter but since I live in KY, and this happened in FL, I had no luck finding any attorney who was interested. I believe that my statute of limitations has expired. I just want people to be cautious.
Dr. Craig Wolf performed both neck and back surgery on C5, C6, L4, L5, and S1 on July 10 2008. The surgery was down in Tampa, FL within 40 minutes both neck and back. Had an epidural same day after surgery because I knew it did not work. Company website false and very untrue, "Get your life back, contact us. Laser Spine Institute. Surgery failed. Have scar tissue and nerve damage down right leg into right foot. Can't work full time, part time and on lots of pain medicine and taking sleeping pills each night. On Long Term disability. Horrible pain, and need a good medical malpractice lawyer in Tampa, FL. Have lots of good supporting medical records, MRI, EMG, and treatments plus doctors that would testify with my case. Please contact me.'
