Dr Walter Jerry Oakes, MD

I saw him for a tethered spinal cord and subsequent surgeries. I'm not sure that I ever left his office that I wasn't in tears. Very cold and negative! Condescending and no bedside manner at all. He straight up told me that he is the very best in field and not to get a second opinion. My leg function is dramatically decreased after the surgery. Very upsetting!

First point of contact was making my son's appt, the employee, I forgot her name but was very kind & helpful. Dr. Jerry Oakes is obviously an incredibly intelligent doctor of his kind. I ALWAYS read as much info as I can find on my son's doctors before I make the decision for any of them to treat him. My son was born with Achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. Dr. Oakes seemed to be very knowledgeable of his condition and explained to me exactly what I needed to know. My son is 11 now and thanks to his doctors in Bham and the Lord above, he is doing well. Aidan has never had to have any surgery so far in his life that pertain to him being a wonderful outgoing healthy little person! So we are extremely blessed. But if Aidan needed neurological surgery in the future I can promise you it will Dr. Oakes performing the operation! One more important tid bit to share...I remember Aidan had to have a MRI of his neck regarding his foramen magdom, it's the area where his brain stem… and spinal cord run through...if I'm remembering that correctly...anyway, when the results came back Dr. Oakes took me to the computer and showed me the image of Aidan's MRI, and explained the results, which were good, thank gosh!!! So, in posting all this info I just put out there for those of you who are going to read this, and I hope Dr. Oakes does, I'd like to remind everyone this few things :) Our doctors are under just as much worry & stress as we are regarding our precious children's health, so if Dr. Oakes doesn't have the bedside manner you think he should have, keep in consideration how much he has on him, he has I'm sure hundreds of little patients and his mind is always going non-stop, thinking of how to help, cure, lessen our child's pain, etc, etc...Dr. Oakes main focus is our children, not us parents. Give him a little bit of a break before posting anything like negative comments. He is an exceptional doctor in his field of neurology! I happen to be a nurse myself, and believe me, I've worked with a many of doctors that just don't care and have a bad attitude. Dr. Jerry Oakes isn't one of them! Thank you for reading my post and God Bless!!!!!

He wouldn't listen and caused my child to have tons of more symptoms(and.issues),

Was a great doctor.

I was a patient of Dr. Oakes in 1982 at Duke Hospital. I was 12 years old and had a tethered spinal cord. I will admit that he is an excellent surgeon. His bedside manner and people skills are horribly lacking. He told me that I had a low threshold of pain and went on a rant of the different procedures I would experience because of my lack of pain management. He leaned over my hospital, in front of my parents, and said "You will have pain until the day you are placed in a pine box".. NICE... FYI... 30 years, I have a MBA graduated with Honors as a member of Phi Kappa Phi... Still going strong regardless of what he prophesied.

Dr. Oakes is a great neurosurgeon in my opinion. Our experience started when my son was 3 and was diagnosed with arnold chiari malformation. He had the decompression. At age 4 he put in a shunt for hydrocephalus. My son is now 20 and has had only 2 minor shunt revisions over 8 years ago. Dr. Oakes does not have the bedside manner some people may want, however, he makes up for it with the intelligence, experience, and genuine compassion for his field. He saves our children's lives. I've seen him train new doctors over the past 17 years. He has had his assistant sit down with the parents to discuss procedures and any concerns. I would and have recommended him to anyone who has concerns with their child.

Dr. Jerry Oakes saved our sons life 22 years ago when Dr. Oakes was at Duke Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.. Doctors had done everything they knew how to do at ANOTHER MAJOR MEDICAL FACILITY here in Raleigh, North Carolina.. After numerous shunt revisions, 14 shunt revisions, to be exact, our sons Doctor said he did not know what else to do, and he said he was very sorry. We looked at our sons Doctor and we told him to please send us to Duke Hospital because we had heard about Dr. Oakes. By this time, our son was in a coma. We transferred by ambulance to Duke, and immediately saw Dr. Oakes. Dr. Oakes and his team immediately recognized what the problem was with our son. It so happens at this time that Dr. Oakes was the only Dr. that had been trained to perform the procedure that our son needed. He performed procedure that Doctors in Raleigh did not know how to do. Our son has a shunt. He had flaps in his ventricles that were preventing fluid to drain thru the shunt and… Doctors in Raleigh repeatedly revised shunt over and over and at one time he had 3 shunts. Doctors in Raleigh saw the flaps but did not know what to do and just kept revising shunts until our sons shunts just stopped altogether. Then our son went into coma and Doctors here in Raleigh knew it was the end, that is when we wanted to go to Duke and see Dr. Oakes. I wish we had not of waited so long, but we did. Dr. Oakes went thru our sons ventricles and cut all the flaps out so he could install 1 shunt instead of multiple shunts. Was Dr. Oakes bedside manner the best? NO! But I don't care, he saved our sons life... 22 years ago and our son still has the same shunt Dr. Oakes put in.......

Dr. Oakes is a very smart man and I am sure he is a good neurologist. But he is very odd talks in the third person and really takes no interest is getting to know you or your child. Really mediocre bedside manner doesn't really answer questions. Only use him and his partners because that's all we got in Alabama, the entire Childrens Hospital Neuro Department is just like him doesn't care doesn't answer questions and doesn't follow up.

Dr. Oakes was my son's doctor 22 years ago when he had a tumor on his spine.Today my son is 24 years old , works a construction job everyday and has never had any severe effects from his surgury. He does have some back discomfort but nothing unbearable. I will always be thank - ful for Dr. Oakes for his honesty & his bedside manner about what to expect in short or long term. He was wonderful to both me & my son. Thank - you Dr. Jerry Oakes , I will always sing praises for you..

My four year old son saw Dr. Oakes. He made no effort to engage my son or get to know him before making conclusions about him that were completely off base. He asked my husband and I trick questions to get us to try to make us to say the conclusion that he had already come to in his mind and he spoke to us in a very condescending manner. He was rude, pompous and extremely offensive to us, our child and all children with special needs. I do not recommend this doctor to anyone.