Dr. Harvey Richard Jacobs, MD

I allowed Dr. Harvey Jacobs to convince me that I needed foot surgery in 2002. I was 20 something and it was my first surgery. I had bunions on each foot and he suggested not only the bunionectomy but that my second toe (which was PERFECT) should be operated on also. He said that when we straightened the big toe it would make the second toe sit straight up so he would fuse that toe to make it stay straight. I didn’t understand what this meant and clearly didn’t have the good sense to ask more questions. What percentage chance of this happening, what will it look like after etc. He completes the surgeries back to back. The pain was unimaginable. After the left foot was completed I told him do NOT fuse the toe on the right foot, I will take my chances with the toe standing up. Two weeks after the second foot was completed I went to his office in terrible pain asking if this was normal. He went to examine my foot and I told him I was in a lot of pain but had taken my codeine. His… response? “Don’t worry, I’ve taken my codeine too”. The examination revealed that his surgery was done improperly, toe was out of place and yet another surgery needed. This was the point that I limped away and had another podiatrist surgeon take over but it was too late. That doctor and several others I saw in the coming years advised me that they had NEVER seen an outcome that bad. They tsk tsk and shake their heads when they see how Dr. Harvey Jacobs mutilated my feet. The second toe which needed no treatment looks like it belongs on Frankenstein. I assumed the incision would not be on top of my toe based upon how he explained it but it was. This tragic unnecessary surgery changed the whole trajectory of my life. I was heading to business school months following the surgeries but because of Dr Jacob’s incompetence my recovery time was excessively long which hindered my ability to participate in the school experience. I have to choose every shoe super carefully to cover my hideous scars and support the handicapped nature of my feet. Now I have to purchase shoes a size larger and let me tell you it is so much harder to find size 11´s than 10´s. I’m absolutely disgusted that this man is still in business after how he mishandled me, admitting to drug usage and ruining my only set of feet. All the kings horses and all the kings men have said I have a life sentence with these feet. They look horrible and I was trying to do something to improve myself and due to my choice of doctors I now have a lifelong handicap. Friends who have never seen me in open shoes look with horror and ask me in an alarmed voice “what happened!” Even though it was 20 years ago the mutilation still looks fresh. I wish there had been google reviews when I made this life altering decision to allow Dr. Jacobs to mutilate me.