Dr. Carlo Bellabarba

This review is intended to be a fair and honest representation of my experience at Dr. Bellabarba's office. I arrived fifteen minutes ahead of time, as requested by the office. Upon arriving the receptionist indicated that Dr. Bellabarba was running 45 minutes to an hour late and asked if I would like to reschedule. I had waited something like a month for the appointment and had taken time off of work to attend so I was fine waiting it out. Everyone I interacted with was pretty nice. However, after I had been in the room for maybe 80 minutes, a notification popped up on my phone that my appointment had been rescheduled with Dr. Bellabarba's PA. He arrived in the room maybe 10-20 minutes later. He was very knowledgeable and answered many of my questions. He then indicated he would go and get Dr. Bellabarba to come in for a few minutes to get his opinion. I considered this a very important appointment because it would inform a major decision on surgery, so I stuck it out as long as I… could. I even missed my next appointment of the day which came with a pretty costly no show fee. However, when about 20 more minutes passed and the PA had not returned with Dr. Bellabarba, I could not wait any longer. I could not miss the third appointment I had bundled into that day's time off of work. It had been 2.5 hours and as I left I let reception know I could not wait any longer. They said "okay" and I left. I sent a message through the UW portal to let the office know I had to leave and why and noted that I thought it would be fair for them to at least acknowledge my experience and maybe consider refunding my co-pay. However, as of almost three weeks later, my messages have gone unreturned. I don't know if this is a common experience for patients or not, so I can't comment on that. Nor can I say what I thought of Dr. Bellabarba as I didn't get to see him. But the overall experience was quite poor.

This man is in one word to describe him, "evil." This is not my word; this came directly from specific entity who, like me, has been a victim to his unethical and criminal business practices. He is a fraud that will do anything to protect himself, his incompetent staff, and his employer - UW Harborview. Avoid him at all cost.

AFTER 8 PLUS YEARS OF PAINE DR. BELLABARBA'S DIAGNOSIS WAS SOMETHING I HAD ALREADY BEEN CLEARED OF. OVER ALL A BAD EXPERIENCE! J.M.

Had my first appointment 2 weeks ago. Upon review, was told I needed surgery. Was instructed to have a CT scan first. After the scan, the doctor seemed totally checked out asking me how I got injured after I had told him just a week prior and then said no surgery. He then gave me follow-up instructions to get an xray. I had xrays done at my first appointment at the clinic!!!! Kind of obvious he didn't review my file before coming into the room. I waited an hour past my appointment time the first visit and TWO hours on my subsequent visit. Pretty pricey parking in the garage. Completely frustrated. Upon reviewing my CT scan results and research, I DO need surgery. It is my belief he is afraid to touch me due to prior botched surgeries.

Dr. Bellabarba has done two spine surgeries on me in the last five years: a laminectomy on my L4/5 and a three level ACDF. I'm 54 years old and a serious recreational athlete. He is careful, thorough, honest, and technically sophisticated. There is no better spine surgeon in the Pac NW. I owe my health and excellent quality of life to him. I'm back to exercise pain free. Thank you. The only downside is that you wait. He has a heavy workload and when spine traumas come in they take precedence. Small price to pay for an intervention that will determine the quality of your health for the rest of your life. I'll wait for the rock star doctor.

I found everything about Dr Bellabarba, his team and Harborview nurses and staff excellent. I can not recommend Dr Bellabarba enough.

I am a long-time mountain hiker, traveling 5 to 15 miles a day. I not only had to stop hiking, but I also could, at times, barely walk. I was diagnosed with lumbar stenosis, a debilitating condition. Steroids did not help. Dr. Bellabarba performed a laminectomy and fusion. He thought that I might try hiking after one month. I did my first hike in one month. The doctor and his staff thought this was quite unusual, but I wasn't complaining. I am not "as good as new" - I think that would be impossible. I am in my late '60s and I had been expecting probably too much from my back for 30 years. Another doctor referred to Dr. Bellabarba as "famous" and I do no doubt that. Most back surgeries of this type result in little or no improvement; mine gave me 95+% improvement. I had feared being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

c-spine diskectomy, bone replacement, and plate four years ago. Good doc, thorough,careful, listens to context, and did exactly what he said he'd do. If I had to do it again (not that I'd want to!), I'd go with the guy and his surgery team at Harborview. They even understood that I wanted to get out of there and go home same day - once I satisfied them that I was OK and wouldn't do anything stupid, they were good with that.

Dr. Bellabarba Saved me from being paralyzed. I am so grateful and he is an excellent surgeon who did an excellent job on my surgery and gave me back my life! Thank you Dr. Bellabarba.