Dr. Brian Dean Badgwell, MD

Where to begin... We were told at the beginning of my mom’s cancer diagnosis to go straight to MD Anderson. We were told they are “the best of the best.” We had such high hopes and expectations for this place and the team of Doctors that were going to care for my mom. Being that my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer that had metastasized to her peritoneum, we knew her prognosis was not great, but she and we as a family were ready to fight with everything we had. She was willing to do whatever it took to beat this disease or to at least live with it long term. We never gave up hope and quitting was NEVER an option. Dr. Badgwell is a very intelligent man. That is obvious. I remember watching him on a nonprofit stomach cancer webinar, before we found out that he would be treating my mom, and thinking “Wow! This Doctor seems great.” Needless to say, this was NOT what turned out to be. Though he was surface level kind, my mother felt that he was extremely cold and distant. My… mom told me that she truly felt he did not care about her, and that she felt she was just another check mark on his to do list. Being in the field that he is in, that is so sad. I understand that as an Oncologist, seeing death is inevitable. But there needs to be a happy medium. I do not think one should work in this field if they are not going to give patients hope or to treat them like an actual human being. I think Dr. Badgwell has been working in this industry so long that he has become numb to the fact that these are REAL people with REAL lives and families that love them dearly. They are not just a “cancer patient.” I wish doctors like Dr. Badgwell would put themselves in our shoes. What would they do if this was THEIR partner, child, parent, best friend, etc? Would they give them the same cold, distant demeanor? Would they give them a more precise and aggressive treatment plan? Dr. Badgwell repeatedly told my mom numerous times “bluntly” that he was just trying to “buy her more time”. He gave her 0 hope. His words would crush her every time she heard this and we would be the ones comforting her while Dr. Badgwell just went on with his day and busy schedule. I wish he wasn’t so cold and so distant to my mother. She didn’t deserve that and she certainly never asked to have cancer. She did her screenings and took care of herself. She caught a cancer that there are no early screenings for and she didn’t have symptoms until it was already stage 4. I wish he made her feel that he actually did care about her, and that he actually was willing to do whatever it took to try and save her life. So, this is the real issue. My mom was encouraged to do a clinical trial that Dr. Badgwell is/was running consisting of 6 rounds of intraperitoneal chemotherapy using only one drug called Paclitaxel. This is not a systemic treatment. She was on a systemic regiment prior that she was responding well too. He told her that she could try out this clinical trial, and that if it didn’t work, she could return to her previous regiment or something different. Being as proactive as we were, we personally chose to monitor her tumor markers weekly once she started the clinical trial. This is NOT something that Dr. Badgwell usually does. Well, once she started the trial, her markers started going up drastically. They were doubling and tripling. We as a family, and my mom herself, grew very concerned that after only 2-3 rounds of the IP chemo, her tumor markers (CA19-9 and CEA) were shooting up so fast and so high. Dr Badgwell INSISTED that this was a false positive. He told her not to worry. So, even though we were SO concerned, we chose to trust him. Well, after my mom finished the 6 rounds of the trial, she got to come home for a 2 week break before going back out and having scans and more testing done. While she was home, the cancer spread to her brain and spinal fluid. She declined rapidly and she died within one week. To say we are devastated is an understatement. I feel this trial is not sufficient. It is not a systemic treatment. I believe Dr. Badgwell knows this and is holding back this knowledge from patients. Clearly, the tumor markers were a good indicator and we should have taken her off the trial immediately. But Dr. Badgwell insisted they weren’t accurate. And now our beloved mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend is gone forever. And we haven’t heard ONE thing from Dr. Badgwell or their team. Dr Badgwell and his team NEVER sent us their condolences which just goes to solidify exactly what my mom was feeling - that he didn’t care about her. My dad actually called one of the nurses at MD Anderson and told them, and they didn’t even apologize or seem to care. They just made a note in their system that she had passed and that was that. We truly feel that Dr. Badgwell and the other team of doctors do not care. I feel Dr. Badgwell is so numb, distant and cut off from being empathetic to his patients he is treating. I hope by sharing my mom’s story, and Dr. Badgwell’s error, that this will either save or significantly prolong another life. Monitor your tumor markers. Watch them religiously. Do NOT do this trial that Dr. Badgwell is running. Just because you are at MD Anderson does NOT mean you are receiving the best treatment option available. Dr. Badgwell has a condescending attitude and I believe that he thinks he is holier than thou. How dare he say to my mom NUMEROUS times “bluntly” that he was just buying her more time. Where is his heart and his empathy? Why couldn’t he be kinder and more compassionate to her? Doctors like Dr. Badgwell know that the patients who come to them are at the mercy of their treatments. It is truly so sad. We had such a negative experience with MD Anderson and specifically with Dr. Badgwell. I am sure he is a good person at heart, but this was not the impression we got. Like I sai

Dr. Badgwell was professional and caring.