Dr. Ai Sakonju, MD

Not sure if she is good doctor or not. Upstate Neurology department told us no appointments available. Go somewhere else. Rude!

We took our son to this doctor after many signs and symptoms of a neurological problem. My 12 year old son was experiencing balance issues, falls, tingling and numbness of extremities, severe pain to mention a few things. She performed a nerve test which is very painful. She was cold, distant and rude to our kid and us. While he was crying due to the shocks she was telling him it wasn't that bad and to be a big boy. Her nurse tried to distract my son by asking him what he wanted to be when he grew up and my son answered that he wanted to be a police officer; the doctor just blurted that he would have to choose something else because he would be disabled. Now at this point we didn't know much about what was going on and suspected he had muscular dystrophy but we hadn't discussed anything with him about what that would mean. My kid was in tears. The only good thing that came out of that visit was the referral to Shriners Hospital where we met Dr. Kristen Carroll an orthopedic surgeon and… miracle worker. I never again took my son to the most useless, heartless, and meanest pediatric neurologist we have ever encountered. She should not ever work with people especially children. For this review I had to give one star but if there was a way to give negative numbers I would do that.

We took our son to this doctor after many signs and symptoms of a neurological problem. My 12 year old son was experiencing balance issues, falls, tingling and numbness of extremities, severe pain to mention a few things. She performed a nerve test which is very painful. She was cold, distant and rude to our kid and us. While he was crying due to the shocks she was telling him it wasn't that bad and to be a big boy. Her nurse tried to distract my son by asking him what he wanted to be when he grew up and my son answered that he wanted to be a police officer; the doctor just blurted that he would have to choose something else because he would be disabled. Now at this point we didn't know much about what was going on and suspected he had muscular dystrophy but we hadn't discussed anything with him about what that would mean. My kid was in tears. The only good thing that came out of that visit was the referral to Shriners Hospital where we met Dr. Kristen Carroll an orthopedic surgeon and… miracle worker. I never again took my son to the most useless, heartless, and meanest pediatric neurologist we have ever encountered. She should not ever work with people especially children. For this review I had to give one star but if there was a way to give negative numbers I would do that.

Doctor Sakonju does not give time for patients and hardly listens to the patients requirements she would start making her own assumptions and being a neuro doctor this does not help

We were referred to Dr. Sakonju, and I was not very happy with our visit. She had an intern with her that she was teaching, which I understand it's a University hospital, but I've been an instructor and I know there are ways to go about things and be sensitive with your patient. She would tell the intern...see look how she can't do this...look how her left leg doesn't touch her head, as my daughters left leg was touching her head. Look how she can't do this or that, which my daughter was doing, it was as if she wanted to find something wrong so she could teach the intern and be able to show her what she was talking about. She may have educated the intern but it would've been nice to know what was going on with my daughter. I left the appointment trying to figure out if she had given my daughter a diagnosis, if I needed to set up another appointment, or if my appointment was even over. I had to then go talk to other Doctors and therapist to even understand what she had told me and… that's when I found out I wasn't the only one who had unpleasant visits with her.

After about 4 years of seeing doctor S for our child's seizures, we grew tired of explaning tendencies and triggers for her seizures that were met with "not possible", "highly unlikely", "bright light without a strobe effect cannot be a trigger", "let's not change the meds", or " ... (no response) ...". Quite by accident we were set up with an appointment with another doctor in the same office and he was instantly more understanding. His responses were "uncommon, but VERY possible, and here's what it could be", "bright lights and motion-triggered seizures are rare but definitely a possibility", "we may be able to find a better medication for your child", "let's run a couple of tests and rule out a few obvious possibilities", "down the road we may want to test for some rarer causes. The new doctor is very open to the idea that sometimes parents see things like correlations, tendencies, etc. that a doctor cannot see in an office visit. He is very willing to work together to… understand what might be the cause of the seizures. Dr S seems to think that she is a one-person or "professionals only" show that the parents are not a part of. We have changed to the new doctor even though he is difficult to schedule. I can see why. He is better at keeping an open mind to understanding our child's case.

I have a love of Japanese culture so I thought the poor bedside manner reviews would just be a cultural thing and we'd be fine. Turned out she was American and it really was just terrible bedside manner. She did not take my child seriously because she "see[s] so much worse" which disturbed me. She ordered some bloodwork as a precaution. Office never called with results and didn't return messages. I found out results 4 months later. We left with no more answers than we went in with and no referrals or recommendations other than to come back in a year to see if he has gotten worse at all, in her 15-minute opinion.

She is an excellent dr. especailly with wanting to rule out other options before a final diagnosis.

Dr. Ai is a bit nutty. She is bright, but I didn't find her to be THAT bright. I think she operates with the idea that she is smarter than other people which causes her to sometimes bend the truth/make snap judgments/miss details. Definitely not the best Primary has to offer.

Preconceived opinion that it was all in his head from the doctor left my 11 year son devestated. He has brain trauma and one year later with neuromuscular problems.She announced in the middle of testing to go home and get a psychologist. He had never seen an MD let alone go to a hospital and this idiot calling herself a doctor really did some damage as to his trust in the medical field. Our family MD who had known him all is life as a friend could NOT believe her lack of professionalism. As we were leaving Primary ER the staff was incredilus and encouraged me to be aggressive and find a better answer. Sure. When I had just lost complete faith in Primary Childrens Hospital for allowing such a quack into their facility. Now on to the insurance mess where the "doctor" billed the insurance under 2 names and then demanded the same amount from me. Go figure.