Dr. J Mark Palmer

He was known as the “ best” but after 10 years of trusting his judgement, we learned of our child’s permanent hearing loss. Numerous pairs of tubes were administered. He’d look in her ears quickly and say, “Yep, tubes!” The last surgery he left my child with a perforated eardrum and resulted in conductive hearing loss that eventually led to combined sensorineural hearing loss. She required an ossicular chain reconstruction and graft for the damage he left behind. After requiring a titanium implant, her hearing never returned and now is profoundly deaf in one ear, moderate deafness in her other from nerve damage. She now wears hearing aides. I am shocked that he is still practicing after disciplinary action & where he was subsequently fired from Cook Children. Also, was unable to obtain 5 years of my child’s medical records. As a professional where parents depend on his expertise...he certainly changed our lives and turned our world upside down. And I have to live with the guilt of… trusting him for so long. I have met others he has harmed with his practices as well. Heartbreaking.

Beyond upset with Dr. Palmer’s quality of work. He has caused my son not only est pain, but hurt his ability to hear correctly due to misplaced tubes. We are now on what should be a permanent set that was placed incorrectly. One way beyond where it needed to be. On the third set, I asked if the tonsils needed to be removed as they were possibly causing the problem. He looked right at me and said, ”no!”. Got a second opinion today when finding out all the info on the tubes being placed wrong and that the tonsils should have come out when the third set of tubes was put in.

Dr. Palmer has caused my infant daughter subsequent years of pain and will undergo a tympanoplasty to reconstruct her ear drum due to a “signature” tube placement as an infant. It is concerning that he is still practicing.

He is clear and concise. He spent the necessary amount of time with us.

I took my child with Downs syndrome to Dr. Palmer. She had reocurring ear, throat and sinus infections that required weekly trips to the pediatrician. We were referred to Dr. Palmer by the pediatrician. He suggested we have her tonsils removed which we were aware was a typical need for children with D.S. However, he also suggested tubes which we disagreed upon and did not want. Upon the surgical checklist at the hospital the nurse verified that she was to have her tonsils removed and tubes put in her ears. We corrected this with the attending nurse and said only tonsils removed, no tubes. A few minutes later, Dr. Palmer came in stating "I understand that you have a problem". I stated that I did not have a problem that apparently he had a problem and that I had not authorized tubes. He was very upset and retorted that he would prove that she needed tubes in the follow-up office visit. Long story short, her ears tested fine, I asked the diagnostician before going back into Dr.… Palmer's office. When the doctor came in to the room he brought up the ear testing and I told him I knew that she tested out fine for her hearing and we did not need to discuss that aspect any further. He was obviously perturbed but I do not see any reason to tack on needless procedures to a child or to benefit the medical field. The surgery was very successful by the way and she has not had any issues like in the past for the last 6 yrs. I do believe he is a very good surgeon but beware of your pocketbook. As a general overall observation I have foundd most doctor's office staff very incompetent. I don't know why, perhaps they don't want to be busy. It is a very disturbing observation the last few years. I can't explain it just get frustrated trying to make appts for my child or get follow through for medications.

Dr. Palmer is a wonderful Doctor. His office staff is very unprofessional. They are rude and do not accomadate do anything for you and when they do they are very rude. Every time I call to talk to the nurse she gives me a hard time about getting in especially if I have had to reschedule an appointment doue to a work conflict. They never have room for same day appointments (Like emergencies or anything) They make is seem like you are a HUGE inconvenice to them.Dr. Palmer is such a good Doctor that I do not want to change but his office staff is very hard to deal with!!

Dr. Mark Palmer, ENT is truly one of the most skilled doctors in this region and his office is always very busy with many patients. He has excellent surgical skills and maintains a very good reputation for his abilities in managing highly complicated cases including very sick children that have had extensive trauma in accidents, etc & also those with invasive tumors, birth defects, etc.

we have been coming to him with our son for years we have been through so many surgerys tubes, then tonsils, adnoids, then typanoplasty 3 times!!!!! and mastoidectomy he seems to not have much understanding for concerned parents. took my child to er last night due to swelling of the ear sudden onset after the 4th day of the typanoplasty and mastoidectomy the er calls him and he says oh thats normal send him home! really? he didnt even keep him overnighty after such a prodcedure! While at the er we were told by the er doc that the operation notes say dr palmer removed part of the mastoid bone and removed some muscle when dr palmer came out of surgery we were told by him he just cleaned the mastoid bone due to infection? so 2 differnt stories here!

--Dr. Palmer is very friendly and gentle. He is great with kids and interacted well w/both of my children.--I had issues w/the office staff since our 1st appt. The woman at the front desk is rude and unfriendly. After waiting 2 1/2 weeks for an appointment, she was ready to send us home b/c I only had an insurance card with my name on it. (The plan number is the same for all family members, so there is not point in carrying 3 cards with identical information). Had I not asked to speak with someone else, I would have completely wasted a day off from work because of her ignorance.--The billing department contacted me weeks after our surgery claiming that we owed them an additional few hundred dollars. Instead of explaining why, she simply demanded my credit card number. When I mentioned that I hadn't received a bill from their office, she acted as if I was the first person who ever expected to see an invoice when being asked to pay for something. --My child suffered from quite a bit of… bleeding the day of surgery and the symptoms met the "call the doctor" instructions. We called the doctor just before 5pm and received a voicemail. In my experience, doctors use an after-hours calling service to filter out emergencies. I do not believe this is the case w/Dr. Palmer's office. We did not receive a return phone call until the next morning. (We had to go to Cook's because I correctly assumed his office had no intention of calling me back)--The "children's area" is very shabby. Beyond a tiny TV, a few ripped up books, and a small table with one chair, there is very little entertainment for the many children who were in the office at each of our visits. --This is a small annoyance, but I did not appreciate having to pay for parking. And, of course, the garage only accepts cash. I wouldn't be surprised if the owner of the garage also owns the ATM located in the lobby.--As I said, Dr. Palmer seems like a really nice doctor who knows what he is doing, which is the most important thing (in my opinion). However, his incompetent and unfriendly staff made our experience less than desirable.

I was so happy with the wonderful job Dr. Palmer did with my daughters ear tubes. I believe he knows exactly what he is doing and is a very very good doctor. I would not refer anyone to another doctor besides him. I love this doctor!!!