Mayo Clinic Reviews

People don’t go to Mayo because they are having a bad day, people go to Mayo because it is their last hope. The social workers are a joke. They preach respect and that they are there to support you and your family, meanwhile they are not supportive, instigate issues between medical staff and patients, and dropped us like a hot potato as soon as the surgery happened. They never followed up with me or gave me the opportunity to write a letter to the donor's family as they stated I could during the process. So grateful for the surgeon and nice hospital staff, but the before and after care teams are horrible. I would be happy to name names, but then my review wouldn’t get published.

She was in the hospital 3 1/2 weeks. She was now requiring oxygen, they were discharging her on 6L but MUST get your meds from our pharmacy and you have to go pick up the oxygen tanks from another company oh and we have a 4 hr drive home. Did I mention she got staph in her chest incision and had to have a wound vac too. Got home at 9:30pm opened up her meds… no **. Reading her summary the next day, infectious disease team recommended her to go home on antibiotics but nothing from pharmacy. She was freezing cold, white as a ghost and up 5lbs on 3rd day home. Went to local ER, asked if they could check red blood cells. Well she needs 2 pints of blood. Confirmed with Mayo yes, they were aware…”have the family bring her to ER on Monday at Rochester” so obviously the local ER stabilized her, found the wound vac wasn’t put on properly and her wound looked terrible.

Took her back for a “procedure for the wound and go back home the next day” she got “infection in her lungs” trying the same medication for 3 days and only getting worse, I literally had to ask them to change antibiotics. Got a plan, with doctors informed them we want to know what is going on & to be honest. Had to come home for a day or 2 to get things caught up and snowstorm kept us away. Went up she was back in ICU on a vent Dr J & ICU doctor say oh there are still things we are doing. My mom was gone. They were keeping her alive because they wanted to find out what Kind of infection it was. I was mad and left only to get home & called that she wouldn’t make it through the night.

So many wrongs…no humanity…no compassion or empathy and no fucking accountability. How do these people sleep at night? Never recommend Mayo, too many “teams” and no communication between them obviously cost me my mom's life at 73. I did request her records and found out she was cardiogenic. Shock the day we took her back to Mayo, they should have never discharged her on 6 liters of oxygen, and no antibiotics. The thing I learned is, no matter how bad you want to get out and go home. Think about it turning around going right back because if you want out of a terrible hospital and you have to go back - no other hospital wants to clean up Mayo Clinic’s mess. I pray for them. They need it.

When they got in the room with the doctor my husband called me so I could update the doctor as to what was going on with my mother, because she was living with me at the time. I told him about the episode the night before and informed him as to what had been going on in the last few weeks and what she was doing to treat it. The doctor also made the comment that my mom had lost 6 pounds in a week, which was concerning to him. He then ordered some testing to be done on my mom. The next day I contacted Mayo to see what they had found out as my mother was anxious to hear what they had to say and what they could do to help her.

I spoke to a nurse. She told me that the tests came back normal and that the doctor recommended to continue with the same treatment she had been doing. I argued with the nurse and said why would my mom continue doing the same treatment if it isn’t working? I told her that further testing needed to be done to accurately diagnose the problem. I mean isn’t that what a doctor is supposed to do? That is one of the legal responsibilities of the doctor according to the “Duty of Care,” which providers are supposed to abide by. I also told her that the situation had been going on too long and that we needed to get the correct treatment to her soon. She ignored my concerns. The next day I got a call from another Bloomer nurse, not knowing that I had already talked to a nurse the previous day. Not sure how they communicate with one another.

Again, this nurse said the same thing, that my mom was supposed to continue with the same treatment. I argued with the nurse and told her that further testing needed to be done, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She became agitated and short with me. Finally in a sarcastic tone she said “Well then make another appointment, but you better do it today, because we are so far booked out that your mother won’t be able to get in for a while.” I did make an appointment for my mother, but unfortunately the appointment was booked so far out that she died before getting to that appointment. Nurses also have what is called a “Duty of Care.” It was the responsibility of those two nurses to convey my concerns to the doctor and unfortunately neither did this. This was a breach of duty!

Days later my mom had a major medical episode and I needed to bring her to the Emergency Department in Eau Claire. We checked in going on 10pm and then met with the triage nurse. My mom was crying and in a lot of pain and begging the nurse to get her in to see a doctor. The nurse was sarcastic and pointed at the people in the waiting room and sarcastically said to my mom “(mom’s name) do you see all of these people here, they all have emergencies,” mocking my mother. Not one person in the emergency waiting room was crying or in distress. I even told her what had been going on with my mother and that she is bleeding profusely, but she ignored me.

It is the responsibility of the triage nurse to assess the situation to determine who needs immediate care, but she failed to do this. Apparently, it was more important to mock my mother when she was clearly in distress! My mom was in a lot of pain and needed to get to a bathroom, because if she didn’t there was going to be blood all over as she couldn’t hold it much longer. The bathrooms near us were full, so I asked the triage nurse if I could take my mom to the bathroom in the emergency room. She told me no. Finally, someone came out of the bathroom. As I was wheeling my mom to the bathroom (she was in a wheelchair due to a foot injury), I looked back at the nurse and told her I was going to report her.

When we got in the bathroom my mom could no longer hold it and blood came spilling out all over her and the bathroom. A few minutes later the triage nurse came to the door with some paper towels. When the nurse saw all the blood on the floor, she suddenly had a room available for my mother. Imagine that!! She brought my mom to a room. The doctor came in briefly and said that they needed to do a CT scan. If the doctor would have assessed the situation better at that time, she would have known that my mom needed immediate attention, but unfortunately, she didn’t. My mom was so dehydrated and had lost so much blood that she requested some water, but the doctor told her she couldn’t have any right now.

When the doctor left, I asked the nurse how long it would be before they did the CT scan. She said they would be here in about an hour and that it would take an hour to complete the scan. Hours had gone by with no sign of a nurse or doctor. My mom was so dehydrated and uncomfortable, but there was nothing we could do until the CT scan was done. Over 6 hours later they finally showed up to do the scan and didn’t have the results until after 5am. They had left her waiting so long that she had sepsis and it had spread to her abdominal area. The doctor went over the treatment options, but the sepsis had spread so much throughout her body that the chances of my mom even getting through a surgery were not good.

We ended up bringing her home and putting her on hospice, where she died 5 days later. Based on the Emergency Medical Act and Labor Act (EMTALA) it is the responsibility of the provider in the Emergency Department to stabilize the patient and if they are unable to do this, they have the legal obligation to transfer that patient to a facility that can. I told the doctor about all the blood in the bathroom and at home and the pain my mom was in, so that should have been a sign that my mom needed medical attention immediately, not 7 hours later! If this had been done my mother would still be here.

While watching my mom lie there dying I messaged the doctor in Bloomer giving him an update on my mom’s condition and told him that she was dying. I told him I felt so helpless with my mom at home as there was nothing, I could do to help her, but wait for her next appointment, since the doctor and nurses had left us hanging. Early the following day, I got a call from the Bloomer Doctor apologizing for what had happened to my mom and that it was a learning experience for him and that he would pass it along to his colleagues. I’m not sure why a doctor of 20 plus years was clueless on how he should’ve handled the situation.

I’m not a doctor, but if the tests are normal wouldn’t you do additional tests to diagnose the problem? He neglected to do this. If he had gone through my mom’s records, he would have known that another Mayo doctor had advised her on how to treat the situation on 5/15/24 and now it’s 6/3/24, 19 days later and she is no better. If Mayo had done what they were supposed to do and listened to my concerns my mom would still be alive.

Another incident with my mother at Mayo!!!! Prior to all of this on 4/12/2024 my mom had a stroke and was sent to another Mayo Hospital to have surgery for a blood clot. The procedure did not take long and went well. The next day she was close to normal and doing well. On 4/16/2024 we were told by the provider that my mom’s heart was good and there was no damage from the stroke. She was released a few days later. A few weeks after that my mom had a follow-up appointment for her heart with a provider at another Mayo. We were then told that my mom’s heart was not good and that she had some leaking valves, etc. My mom and I were shocked to hear this, because nothing was said about this while my mom was in the hospital for her stroke.

A couple of months later I emailed Mayo stating that I wanted to get together and discuss what had happened to my mother. I got a call and we set up an appointment with Dr. P who is one of the providers that handles complaints and concerns at Mayo. I felt I needed to do this, due to the way my mother was treated and the devastation of the final outcome. This had left me so traumatized that I couldn’t focus on anything else. I did meet with Dr. P one of the providers in charge of complaints and concerns at Mayo.

We went over all of my concerns and what Mayo’s negligence has done to me. I told him I was in counseling and went over how this has affected my life. He showed no emotion until I made it clear that this was not acceptable!! He then made an effort to at least fake that he was concerned for my well-being. He admitted that a CT scan should have been done right away when my mom was admitted into the ER and that by the time the provider got to my mom it was too late to do the surgery as my mother would never have survived it. He stated he would do an investigation regarding all of this and get back to me in a few months.

Three months later I met with Dr. P to go over his findings. It was a different story now. He stated that the doctor in Bloomer did what he was supposed to do and that he had talked to other doctors and they stated they would have done the same thing. He stated that the doctor in Bloomer who met with my mother told him that he was unclear as to what was going on with my mother, so that is why he recommended to continue with the same treatment. I asked Dr. P why the doctor did not ask more questions, if he was still unclear as to what was going on. I also stated that there were medical records that he should’ve looked at that would have also given him more information on the situation and how long this had been going on. He had no answer for me.

He told me that a doctor has a set of guidelines to refer to when diagnosing a patient and that they base their treatment recommendations on that. He said because my mother’s condition was rare it wasn’t caught. Basically, what I was hearing from that was that a patient’s symptoms better be within the norm, otherwise they are going to be in a lot of trouble! This made no sense to me. How can a doctor be trained to follow a certain set of guidelines to treat people and to never look outside the box?!?! There are a lot of rare conditions out there, but you don’t necessarily have to know about all of them, that is what ongoing testing is for.

My mom’s situation was very cut and dry, whether it was a rare condition or not and there is no way that another doctor would have done the same thing. I also asked Dr. P why the two nurses in Bloomer did not convey my concerns back to the doctor. He said that the second nurse I had talked to said that she felt that what I was saying lined up with what the doctor reported and saw no need to contact the doctor. I didn’t understand this, because that nurse had a legal obligation to notify the doctor. I then asked him what the first Bloomer nurse said that I had spoken to. He said he never talked to that nurse. I was getting more upset by the minute, because it was clear he did not do much of an investigation.

He then went over his findings for the Emergency Department. He stated that my mother was not a priority in the emergency room that night as they had other patients to attend to. I asked him what they do when there is a catastrophe and a number of people come into the Emergency Department needing medical attention immediately? He said they would helicopter them to Rochester or other places. He said they have multiple helicopters. I asked him why my mom wasn’t helicoptered to Rochester or another place, but again he had no answer. He showed no empathy when talking about this and the worst part is, he is a psychiatrist, himself!! I also asked why nobody ever checked on my mother to see how she was doing while she was in the emergency room.

My mother was bleeding a lot and was very uncomfortable, so I couldn’t understand this. He really didn’t have an answer, but said that the nurses have monitors they can look at outside the rooms to see how the patient's vitals are doing. I told him that may be so, but they don’t sit in front of those monitors all night and that the monitors aren’t going to tell the nurse that the patient is bleeding, uncomfortable, etc. or how they are really doing if they don’t check on them. Again, no answer!! I asked Dr. P how he would feel if this had happened to his mother and his comment was “devastated.”

When I continued to question him on all the statements he was making, he had no answer. He would smile, shrug his shoulders and say he didn’t know. What did he do in the three months that he was supposed to be investigating my concerns? Did he even do an investigation? When I asked him what he found out about other concerns I had addressed to him, he said he hadn’t talked to those providers yet.

I went on to ask him what he found out about the doctors who never told us that my mother’s heart was damaged after the stroke? Again, he said he hadn’t talked to those providers about it. His opinion on this was that they were probably just focused on the stroke and making sure everything was ok with that. My mom had surgery the day of the stroke. The next day she was doing great, she was even doing well the day of the surgery. You mean to tell me that the days my mom remained at that hospital no doctor had time to inform my mother and her family members regarding the heart. I mean isn’t there different doctors for the heart, stroke, etc.? It’s not as if one doctor is doing everything and has no time to inform the patient as to what is going on. It is the legal responsibility of the doctor to inform the patient and family member or members if there is a Release of Information on file, which there was, as to their medical diagnostic findings.

While talking to Dr. P I knew that he had probably been told what to say by Mayo’s legal team, which I predicted was going to happen. I myself, was doing some research on all of this while Dr. P was claiming he was doing an investigation. I met with different people specializing in all of this. I’m not sure if Dr. P really believed what he was saying, but nothing he said made any sense and he really didn’t answer my questions. I felt like he was insulting my intelligence thinking I was going to believe the ridiculous excuses he was making.

Towards the end, the meeting took a turn for the worse. I kept putting him on the spot with questions, but he was not able to answer them. He continually looked at his watch during our meeting and seemed very agitated with me and my questions. I would be too, if I was a doctor and unable to answer simple questions. Once he knew I wasn’t going to buy into what he was saying he wanted to end the meeting. We talked further and he made the comment that I could never prove negligence and that I would have to prove this for Mayo to take any responsibility.

Well, I think I can definitely prove negligence! He told me that proving this would be timely and expensive for me. He was trying to intimate me into letting this go, but unfortunately for him it didn’t work. He said he has had to deal with many patient concerns and once he gives the individual his findings, they are all happy with the results and no other action is needed. If this is true, it’s because he tries to intimidate them into dropping everything and many people probably do.

He did not give me any closure as to what happened to my mother. He had less than a page of notes from the review, so not sure he really investigated anything. He was not prepared for the meeting. I was crying profusely telling him how this has affecting me and that I have to see a trauma counselor to try and deal with it, but no expression. He just ended the meeting. Talking to Dr. P confirmed everything I already knew. Mayo had neglected my mother and did not give her the same treatment that every patient is entitled to. My mom was 78 years old and was discriminated against due to her age and this needs to be addressed. It is so disheartening to know that Mayo can’t be trusted to give us the care we deserve and are entitled to and that only the young are prioritized and the old are left to die.

After the meeting, I was sick to my stomach and cried all the way home, because I couldn’t believe the things Dr. P was saying and how cold he was about it. I contacted a doctor friend of mine and went over my mom’s scenario, without giving him anymore info than what was given to the doctor in Bloomer. He made the comment that due to what was going on and the tests being normal, further testing should have been done to correctly diagnose the problem and that advising the patient to continue with the same treatment was negligent on the doctor’s part. If this is true what Dr. P said, that every doctor that he supposedly talked to would have done the same thing as the Bloomer doctor, Mayo patients are in a lot of trouble!!!!

At one time I really trusted Mayo and they were rated one of the top medical facilities in the United States, but this is no longer the case. Based on the reviews I’ve read about Mayo and my own experience I now have no trust in Mayo and I’m not alone. Mayo does not have the best interest of the patient in mind even though this is their legal responsibility. Their main concern is to make sure they don’t have to take responsibility for any wrong doing. This has been so heartbreaking for me. I think about my mother every second and how she had to go through all of this.

I will make sure I get this out to the public. I will continue to reach out to those with expertise on this subject and proceed further to get justice. I think an investigation regarding all of this needs to be done with a source outside of Mayo, someone who will actually do a review and be unbiased. I think it is important for people to know what is going on at Mayo. There are lives at stake and there is no room for negligence and Mayo will stop at nothing to avoid responsibility for their actions!!

After the two weeks of bumming around Rochester with nothing to do, I went to the follow up appointment the day before I was to fly back to Anchorage. At this appointment I asked Oliver what I should say to my neurologist at home that misdiagnosed this chest mass, at this point he looked at the MRI for the first time and discovered that I did have a mass that was clearly visible on MRI and written about in the accompanying report. I went home the next day after wasting thousands of dollars on flights, rental car, and hotel.

The fact that Oliver ** didn't even glance at any medical records I brought him seemed grossly negligent to me. I called Mayo clinic patient relations trying to get some reimbursement for the expenses for this utterly useless and frustrating trip and was denied anything because Oliver lied to them about the reason for my appointment in the first place. I wouldn't recommend the mayo clinic for anything at this point. Also, Oliver ** should not be trusted to see ANY patients period! With the kind of negligent, and utterly lazy performance he should be stripped of his license.