Dr. David Michael Lakes, MD

I’m writing on behalf of my best friend who died too young, needlessly and without receiving even the basics in cancer care. She was only 35 when she began reporting episodes of brief but severe pain in her left upper abdomen. They were totally unpredictable and caused her to cry out and double over code less Than a minute then disappear for No apparent reason. She was a wife and mother to a 3 year Old daughter, was on not medications and rarely needed to see her PCP at Kaiser. She would be alive today if anyone had paid attention to her and made any attempt to work her up during the 18 months she kept reporting the recurring pain. By the time they ordered ANY diagnostic tests, the pancreatic tumor she had had grown to 2.2 centimeters. Removing this type of tumor BEFORE it reaches 2 cm’s is CURATIVE ! 18 months had passed and all she had to show for it was repeated co- pays, and “guesses” that she had “food allergies “ , then “reflux, then irritable bowel. She had no symptoms of any of these. The pain wasn’t associated with any activity (eating, drinking, exercise etc and she had NO complaints of nausea, vomiting or diarrhea! She simply doubled over in excruciating pain. Then ONE day, it happens while she was with the chief of gastroenterology who I had trained under. His response was: “OH MY, you really DO HURT, don’t you then immediately ordered a CT scan. He called her 2 days later while she was driving to pick up her daughter from school (1st grade). He didn’t ask where she was, what she was doing or if anyone was with her. At 2pm he called to tell her she had a pancreatic tumor!!! This is all significant to Dr Lakes because nothing about her care changed. Because her PCP and gastroenterology had ignored her and wasted time, she was now terminal because the tumor had been allowed to grow for the past 18 months to that magic size where IT could be removed but it has now grown to 2.2 cm and spread. So NOW is when she was passed on to David Lakes who provided the most minimal care possible. He attempted to prevent her from going to MD Anderson or any of the other major cancer hospitals for a 2nd opinion and care. We had to get a professional patient advocate from Sacramento to step in and advise dr lakes and Kaiser that it is against the law to prevent a patient from seeking the second opinions of the patients choice or preventing them from participating in clinical trials. We learned from Kaiser medical records that patients and their families were routinely deterred from obtaining their records needed in a timely fashion. When we arrived in records on Friday morning we were told the records could not be released. This patients in-laws were BOTH attorneys and had to use their powers with the patients advocate. We were to leave for Houston that night but had to delay to be sure WE could copy the records and have them in hand. MD Anderson wondered why my friend has NO PORT for chemo and blood draws so we had to tell them that Dr Lakes discourage their use and gave a long list of invalid rationalizations as to why. Bottom line was the expense from HIS oncology budget. Houston put in a port which she loved and wished she had before, then started her on chemo with a pump. NON of the K ER or chemo nurses were Familiar with the port care and pump. It was hard enough to accept what had happened, yet I find it happening to me now. But most egregious was Dr Lakes refusal to confirm the diagnosis and provide ANY KIND OF PAIN CONTROL! I found my friend once curled in a ball in tears because she had a pain in her arm was so bad. I asked about recent CT scans and Mets BUT DR LAKES HAD MADE NO EFFORT TO LOOK FOR METASTATIC DISEASE! I asked about a bone scan and he got VERY ANGRY! Then I asked what her calcium was and he got even angrier. The oncologists who filled in for him had no clue about her pain control. They assumed she was on NORCO when she was on dilaudid and should have been on fentanyl. When the bone scans were finally ordered, dr lakes Said: hmmm, im NOT USED TO READING THESE!!! IF anyone is considering using Dr Lakes because they’ve heard how wonderful he is, please reconsider and or micromanage his care. Reading my friends bone scans were a no brainer. A 1st grader could easily look and say: geez mom, what are all of those white spots everywhere. Dr Lakes referred my best friend to PHYSICAL THERAPY FOR PAIN MANACEMENT!!! They were as astounded as me and helped Me get in touch with the cancer pain management program Dr Lakes SHOULD have referred Her to years before for pain management but again. IT WOULD COME OUT OF HIS BUDGET. This man, this oncologist, this doctor appeared to have no empathy or compassion for his patients (at least anymore). He didn’t care about them, their families, hopes and dreams and fears of suffering towards the end. Sadly, his patients are simply so exhausted by pushing thru the ordeals they’d been through that they don’t even file complaints. Their fears of retaliation are valid because we saw it over and over again. This ordeal spanned from 2000-2010 when my friend finally passed away. She was so emaciated that I could barely recognize her and couldn’t even look at her because it hurt so badly. I feel Dr Lakes was “done” before he even became board certified in oncology. Too many of his patients went through unacceptable ordeals that were in humane to the patients and loved ones. When I asked about biopsying a metastatic leasion he took my friend into an exam room and stuck a noisy needle into her thigh without even local anesthesia. That scared her to death because she now knew he was fully capable of such inhumanity. Things could have been different IF her husband had been proactive and stayed involved but some just can’t. I did my best but it wasn’t enough because going up against an Old MD in a large HMO is