Dr. Joyce Ann Heald, MD

My husband and I took our 5 year old son to the immediate care after he was complaining of left ear pain. It was a Saturday and his pediatrician was closed. He has only had one ear infection prior to this visit when he was 3 and only been on antibiotics once in his lifetime. My son is not normally a complainer and had been crying due to the pain in his ear even after I had administered Ibuprofen and then Tylenol two hours apart. Upon our visit he was exhausted due to his pain. He had never in his life complained of this severe of pain before. After Dr. Heald looked at his ears, she said they "looked fine," and he probably had pressure in his ear secondary to a virus. She said to continue Ibuprofen and Tylenol every two hours and ride it out. We took him home and administered Ibuprofen again. My son at this point was crying and asking me if anyone was going to help him! He again is not a complainer and he was crying in pain for over an hour straight after we left the immediate care. I… decided to take my son to the emergency room because the pain was uncontrolled. The doctor at the ER looked into my son's ear and stated that he had a "red, inflamed, protruding ear drum with what appeared to be puss behind it." The ER doctor said he had a severe ear infection and that although the current trend is to not readily treat ear infections with antibiotics, that my son's was severe and absolutely needed antibiotic treatment. The ER doctor also gave us ear drops to help numb his ear to help control the pain. The moral of my story is I WOULD NEVER TRUST THIS DOCTOR, obviously she can not be trusted if she said my son's ear looked fine and the ER doctor saw a seriously infected ear. Please think twice before seeing this doctor.

I recently moved from In. back to family in Tx. Of all the things and people I will miss, Dr. Heald has to be the tops. Being of a "certain age" I've had years dealing with doctors and in all my years, Dr. Heald is the kindest, most attentive doctor I've had. She uses the most important tools a doctor has, her eyes, her ears and her hands; additionally she is empathetic, a trait long missing in new medicine. I am not looking forward to the process of finding a new doctor and realize I will most likely not be this fortunate again.

I have been seeing Dr. Heald for over 7 years and have been so pleased with my care. I had been seeing a much younger doctor who felt practicing medicine involved sending me for every expensive test in the book. Dr. Heald listened to my concerns from the moment I went to see her and being a woman of a certain age, I found I needed this connection so vitally. She uses all the right medical tools a doctor needs but most fail to use anymore....eyes, ears, hands and heart. She has never tried to push me to get extra testing, takes into consideration the costs and makes sure I am satisfied before leaving. I am 63 years old and love having found her.