Dr. Ward Sayre Oakley, MD

My knee now after having a total knee replacement is in worse shape now than before the surgery. It's been over 2 years. He's rudeness and bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired! His PA Kristen has about the same attitude but no wonder she works with him. His other staff are wonderful, kind professional and I feel sorry for them to have to work along side him. Both him and his PA made me feel from day 1 that it's all my fault I'm having problems! After doing everything I was suppose to do but still having problems, swollen and not being able to reach my range of motion he decided to do a manipulation and let me tell you his attitude came out again. It was so painful almost starting over and he put me in that machine 24/7 for 2 weeks! By this time my nerves were shot. I went back to PT for 3 months and still at the end could not reach range of motion, pain and swollen was finally told this is all I can do for you for PT. I can't walk right, I can't go up/down stairs normal.… I live with a dull ache 24/7, it's swollen, feels weird, found out its off by a few degrees and it has fluid.Because I can't walk right I have favored my knee and so now I have so many problems with my opposite side (bursitis, arthritis, etc) I can barely walk to go get mail without feeling like a knife is in my side, Had to quit my part time job, can't walk my dog or get any exercise and now we're moving to get into a total one floor house with no stairs! I have been going to the pain clinic which they have been wonderful! They've done everything they could . They suggested me to go back to Dr. Oakley to have fluid extracted from my knee. Against my better judgement I did and again I was taken back by his attitude. He did this to me I did not do it to myself! Along with fluid being extracted they drew blood to check for infection. I waited 5 days for results and was anxious to get results because I was worried about infection. When 4:00 PM Friday came I knew I could not go through weekend worrying and waiting so I called his office. The nurse said bloodwork was normal and when I asked about fluid I don't have that. A few minutes later he called. Our conversation "This is Dr. Oakley your blood work came back normal, I asked how about the fluid test? he said it's normal too. He said you can come to me and I can scope it or got to someone else". Needless to say I did not go back to him and will NEVER go back to him,. Can't believe he got paid to do my messed up for life surgery, but he charged me to come back to take fluid from a knee he messed up. I went to a specialist at UNC and they did tests and had all the notes from here and he said what I thought he would say "this is as good as it's going to get, I'm sorry"! Thank goodness for steroids and continued pain shots or I would not be able to function at all. The shots aren't good for your body and are limited but I have to do what makes the pain go away. So as I put in the title - MY LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. Retire before this happens again!

Dr. Ward S. Oakley lacks any interpersonal skills, and his demeanor is just down right disgusting and all hope for any type of quality care is surely left to be desired with him. Dr. Ward S. Oakley is not sufficient enough in knowledge of certain congenital knee defects to properly do his required job. I have a rare congenital defect (bipartite patella) that effects less than 12% of the population. This inept doctor told me my condition effects a lot of the population which is totally dumb founded and incorrect and also told me everything seems fine. With a bone scan and proper x-rays this pathetic excuse for a doctor told me I was fine and referred me to someone else who he said “may do a better job than him”. He absolutely told me he was passing me off to someone else and that he didn’t want to help me. Dr. Ward S. Oakley may have once in his early days been a good doctor (I can’t know that for sure) but today he is incompetent and unable to perform his duties and provide accurate… results or care. This is dangerous! How can this be so? How can someone this negligent be in such a position. He also includes a transcriber in the room which I can only guess its to record conversation due to his possible lack of memory and or care to investigate and troubleshoot right then there. After 2 bad visit I decide to research Dr. Ward S. Oakley, and upon reading all the (what I could only guess to be) “glowing FAKE 5 star reviews” on their main website is solely to make this doctor and who know how many more doctors look competent. This is however false. No reviews can be published or edited in their webpage which is deceptive. Odd that they are all 5 stars right? Other reviews seem generic and fake. Another point to make on these appointments, which seems to be a trending pattern for doctors, is that they DO Not review any records or test before your appointment which draws out the appointment even longer repeating answers to questions that have been asked many appointments’ ago. When I first showed Dr. Ward S. Oakley my knee he barbarically man handled my knee cap which caused a lot of extra pain for the rest of that day, all because he didn’t read my reports. He didn’t know what I had and just jumped right in with no effort at all to be a “doctor”. The rest of the staff seem to follow these patterns and overlook these issues which can lead to very severe consequences on both sides. How can you call yourself a healthcare professional if you don’t care to “do the homework” before hand? If you don’t care to properly engage in your duties and its requirements, then I suppose you may want to consider the best and only option for you and that is retirement. It’s almost necessary that I start recording my visits in the future. I realize some offices state “No Recording Allowed” which is only there to protect the doctors and NOT the patients. What about protecting the patients from useless doctors? Can someone answer that? This review will be posted in other forums and or websites to raise awareness for other future patients looking to filter out the inept

He is the best. I have had both hips rep[laced by Dr. Oakley and everry Dr. who has x=rayed them since said they were the best they had ever seen. It has been nearly 30 years since first one and that is saying a lot.

I have had to have 4 surgeries due to accidents. Dr. Oakley is caring, takes time with you and is understanding of your concerns.

I have been to other docs for my knee and was told it was not a big deal. They should try to walk in my shoes. Dr. Oakley did xrays and showed me the areas that were problematic. He gave me a shot and my knee began to feel better right away. Finally, someone who spends the time to explain things and not just rush through the appointment!