Gavin Falk, MD

Dr Falk is one of the kindest, most patient and capable surgeons I’ve ever met. When you have a special needs child that sees doctors and surgeons regularly you really depend on the best. He is easy to reach out to, easy to talk to and makes you feel like you are his priority. We are completely heartbroken that he transferred to another larger children’s hospital. He truly is an amazing surgeon and will be greatly missed by his patients and their families! If it were my hospital I would have never let him go. Very much an asset! Thank you Dr Falk. You truly are amazing!

Dr. Falk was very attentive before, during and after my surgery. His kindness to me and his concern for my care was so evident in his treatment. He was always available and made it very clear that he truly cared about me and my complete recovery. As an adult, I felt so confident in Dr. Falks care. I can only imagine what a tremendous comfort he would be in the care of a child. I would absolutely recommend Dr Falk to anyone, whether adult or child.

Dr Falk operated on my infant son with Hirschsprung desease. He helped get us a quick diagnosis, navigate our at home care, and communicated with us on his own time throughout our medical journey in and out of the hospital. We felt extremely confident in his abilities and that together we were truly a team of people who had my son’s best interests at heart. He never made us feel rushed or left any questions unanswered. Highly recommend!

I would highly recommend Dr Falk as both a surgeon and a wonderful doctor. Throughout the whole process DrFalk kept me informed about my surgery and any follow up questions I might have he was available to discuss with me. I truly can not say enough good things to convey how much I appreciate Dr. Falk

We couldn’t ask for a better Surgeon! Dr. Falk provides such a high level of quality care and truly cares about each one of his patients!!! From the very beginning he has been so down to earth and such a wealth of knowledge. Dr. Falk’s level of compassion, kindness, and honesty is such a rarity. We are so happy we were able to find Dr Falk and not have to travel out of state. Dr. Falk, his staff, and the hospital have such a great mission for being an outstanding pediatric center in the west and it truly shows. If your child is ever in need of surgical care I highly recommend Dr. Falk and suggest staying in state.

Dr. Falk placed a Nuss bar in our daughter to correct her pectus excavatum. From the first visit, it was apparent that he was not only knowledgeable, but also compassionate and truly cares about his patients. He involved our daughter in the decision making process, making sure she understood the entire process from surgery through recovery. He has been readily available to answer her questions and respond to her concerns from the first visit. The surgery went exactly as planned and our daughter is very happy with the results. Dr. Falk's office staff is friendly and readily available to answer questions, make appointments, etc. The hospital staff is equally compassionate and professional. The entire experience was better than we could have anticipated. We were originally told we might have to travel out of state to have this surgery. We were so glad to find Dr. Falk and his team so that we could have the surgery in Montana. I highly recommend Dr. Falk to anyone needing a pediatric… surgeon.

If your child is in need of a pediatric surgeon we highly recommend Dr Falk, his colleagues and his wonderful staff. Our Son has had stomach pain since Kindergarten. He had been seen my multiple Drs. and had multiple test done over the last 4 years. We were always told he was constipated, even after having multiple clean outs. We tried dietary changes several times to no avail. Because Doctors were not finding answers some suggested that his pain was psychosomatic. We were at the point of taking him to the Mayo Clinic as we were not getting answers here. Upon meeting with Dr Falk he immediately began searching for the cause instead repeating the previous diagnosis. After a few more extensive test and still not seeing the cause of his repeated abdominal pain Dr Falk scheduled him for diagnostic laparoscopic surgery. During this procedure Dr Falk found the cause of our Son’s pain and corrected it. We are happy to say that our Son has been pain free for 2+ months. We thought we… were going to have to find treatment out of state for our son but that wasn’t the case. We were thrilled to find such excellent care locally. Thank you Dr Falk and staff. Words can not express our gratitude.

Dr. Falk was both competent and compassionate with the surgery and care of our 2 week old son. He displayed the confidence and ability that you would expect from a highly trained surgeon and the sympathy and care that is less common to see in other people who share his occupation. The combination makes for an exceptional professional for the people of Montana. Thank you Dr. Falk!

Our 2 1/2 month old son had to have emergency malrotation surgery. Dr Falk is extremely knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. He remained calm and is an excellent surgeon. I would highly recommend him to anyone that needs pediatric surgery. Our son is doing very well after the surgery and he is healing up quickly.

I’m going to start by telling you a little about our family. I am Adaline and my husband is Daniel, we have 4 children: C 14yrs old, MM 10yrs old, Marcy 7yrs old, and L 2 yrs old. Our daughters MM and Marcy both suffer from Hereditary Spherocytosis, a genetic blood disorder that affects the red blood cells. Marcy has a more severe case of HS. From the time she was born we were told that we should not expect her to survive and if she did the chances were high that she would have developmental and or physical delays. As parents to this lovely baby girl this was heartbreaking! Marcy was seen regularly ( I’m talking like on average of once per week) by the Doctors at UCLA Children’s Hospital. The Doctors did what they considered their best to honor our religious beliefs to abstain from blood. We view blood as the Bible does, as something sacred, Acts 15:20 tells us to “abstain from blood”. Therefore as Jehovah’s Witnesses we follow this scriptural council. To our dismay there were… occasions where we were stripped of our parental rights to make medical decisions for our dear daughter. In 2013 we made the decision to uproot our family and move to Montana. Since being here both of our daughters have been and continue to be under the care of the amazing Dr. Carrie L. Neuhardt, pediatric hematology/oncology, and our beloved Dr. Christopher Cancro, our family practice doctor. Since 2013 Marcy’s hemoglobin has been on a slow but steady rise. In January 2017 my husband and I decided it would be in Marcy’s best interest for us to be PROACTIVE in her medical care instead of reactive. After much research and praying we decided to speak with Dr. Neuhardt about having a scheduled splenectomy performed for Marcy. Dr. Neuhardt agreed that taking this PROACTIVE approach would be in the best interest for Marcy. With that in mind we spoke about which team of Doctors would be best suited for this incredibly challenging and HIGH Risk surgery. You see Marcy’s spleen was the size of a football and to perform this type of surgery on a small child is difficult enough but to do so with the highest regard for not only Marcy’s safety but also for our religious beliefs, to have a BLOODLESS surgery, would be a monumental task. Dr. Neuhardt gave us a list of Doctors to interview and consider for this task, along with the list of Doctors we had already been acquainted with at UCLA Children’s Hospital. There were Doctors in California that said we were being unrealistic and that Marcy would not survive a BLOODLESS surgery. After much research and interviewing of Doctors, we chose to work with Dr. Gavin Falk and his surgical team. Not only did Dr. Falk and his team have tremendous experience working with High Risk Pediatric surgeries but it was his attention to creating a personal connection to Marcy that touched my heart. He never treated her like patient number X he treated her with dignity and respect. He wanted Marcy to have as much if not more confidence and trust in Him than we did. After all it was her life in his hands. Marcy has had much experience dealing with Doctors and because of her special condition with students as well, and she will tell you that she LOVES Dr. Falk! There are no words to express the feeling of how amazing it is watch the fear in your child’s eyes melt away because they have such faith and trust in their surgeon and his team. We spent 8 months working with Dr. Neuhardt and Dr. Falk and team to work up plan of action and prepare for this monumental surgery. Dr. Falk and his team spent many of sleepless nights doing research specifically for this special surgery, all the way up until D-Day. Due to this dedication Marcy’s surgery will be recorded in a Medical Journal for others to refer to. Her’s was the first of its kind to be performed on a child! Not only that, but the amount of blood she lost throughout the surgery was so minimal that we were left breathless; she lost only 10cc of blood! Unbelievable right!! Even more incredible was the rate at which she recovered. We were anticipating at least a 7-10 day stay post surgery, but we were there a mere 2 days post surgery! The Doctors and staff were blown away at this and could not find a reason to keep her admitted. By day 3 she was off ALL pain meds and feeling good but still a little sore. Marcy has continued to flourish and has for the first time been able to attend public school and is loving it. For the first time in 7 years we no longer worry that she is going to catch an illness and need to be hospitalized or worse. The tremendous weight that has been lifted off our shoulders due to the dedication and incredible work of Dr. Gavin Falk and his team is immeasurable! I want to give a special Thank You to each and everyone of the medical staff at Kalispell Regional Medical Center that aided in the care of our beloved daughter. Thank you doesn’t do justice but Thank You just the same. P.S. One of the biggest lessons we have learned from this experience is that being PROACTIVE when it comes to our health can make all the difference. Had Marcy had to have had emergency surgery to remove her spleen I know things would not have turned out the way they did. Be your child’s #1 advocate! It can make ALL the difference. With the greatest appreciation, Daniel and Adaline Martinez