Dr. John Ernest Lamacchia, MD

As I write this, my mom is undergoing a followup surgery to fix the damage that Dr LaMacchia did to her last summer, when he operated to fix a lumbar stenosis. He did fix the stenosis pain, but during the process he made errors that caused one of her feet to become paralyzed, she has been unable to walk without assistance since LaMacchia operated on her, and she has been leaking spinal fluid causing memory issues and preventing the surgical site from healing. My mom knew something was wrong almost immediately after the surgery, but when she tried to tell LaMacchia that she literally could not walk, he told her that she needed to improve her attitude and try harder. My mom has been enduring these complications for 10 months now, despite following all doctor's orders and working hard at PT, and LaMacchia just kept saying that this was all normal and she just needs to be patient. He also claimed that it was fine for the surgical site to heal over the "tunnel" that had formed against her… spine, but fortunately my mom got a second opinion from a wound specialist who made clear that the tunneling wound was a huge infection risk. Anyway, recently my mom finally got another opinion from a different surgeon to ask whether all of this was "normal" as LaMacchia claimed. He took one look at my mom's scans, crossed the room and gave her a hug, and scheduled her for surgery immediately. (LaMacchia could never!) The new surgeon identified 3 errors from the original surgery that explained why she was not healing, and said that he has seen all of them before, but never all 3 in a single patient! Sure everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but LaMacchia is on another level with his unwillingness to admit he messed up, instead choosing to blame the patient for being unable to overcome his surgical errors. So arrogant and uncaring that he would lie to his patient, telling her to "just be patient" for improvement that could never come, to cover up the fact that he messed up.

I walked in to get an opinion-dr LaMacchia said I needed an operation. I’ve been confined to a wheelchair ever since! BUYER BEWARE!!!

I suffered from chronic low back pain and sciatica, and exhausted every other option before deciding to have surgery. Dr. LaMacchia was amazing and took care of my pain and a year later, I'm still doing great! Thank you Dr. LaMacchia and I highly recommend him if you suffer from back pain!

LaMacchia is arrogant, pompous, rude, uncompassionate and a volatile personality. Absolutely NOT the type of person to be a doctor, let alone a surgeon. He would probably be great laying marble tile, as long as he did not have to speak to anyone, but NOT performing surgery! Just an awful person; if I could give zero stars I would.

Dr. LaMacchia is an outstanding Orthopaedic Surgeon. I would highly recommend him without hesitation for any surgery. He has performed three surgeries on me with complete success. I'm pain free. Thank you Dr. LaMacchia

Great experience with Dr. Lamacchia! He is a great person and surgeon who showed genuine care for me. Best part of this was every blood, X-ray, heart or other medical person I came into contact with spoke very highly of Dr. L and did not know he was my surgeon until I told them.

Met twice so far he is very thorough and explains everything. Surgery next. Does not push surgery!

After months of physical therapy, steroids, and epidural injections, surgery became my last hope for relief of the excruciating back and leg pain. I turned to Dr. LaMacchia for a second surgical opinion. He spent a great deal of time patiently explaining every detail of the care and surgery he thought I needed. At the end of the appointment, I was convinced that this was the surgeon I needed and he did not let me down. I am now 7 months post op and I am pain free. Dr. LaMacchia's surgical expertise gave me back my life and will forever be grateful. He cares and he shows it. (Great office personnel, too. Libby is the best).

We trusted Dr. Lamacchia for many years, unfortunately he has forgotten his oath to do no harm. He is too focused on test results and no longer follows his gut instinct to seek out what is best for his patients. He doesn't really listen and look at facts of symptoms. As a result he unnecessarily caused more damage to two of my loved ones and has made no apologies or tried to rectify their ailments.

I was referred to this office after a car accident. I completed a course of physical therapy. The office is run very efficiently . I had great experiences in the physical therapy. I like the fact that you try a conservative approach first before rushing into surgery. I had a 5 level acdf fusion and it was done in 3 hours. The expertise and care are at the highest level. I am forever grateful for Dr lamacchia's care. This could be your best referral too.