Dr. Julian David Maendel, MD

I had a colonoscopy with Dr Maendel. The first thing I was told upon recovering from the anesthesia was that I had a tortuous and redundant colon. A tortuous colon is one that is pinched, twisted and misshapen; a redundant colon is one that is loops back on itself; these are chronic conditions. I was 73 at the time and had been paying attention to my gut health and function for almost fifty years so I would have known if I’d been living with those conditions. I’d also had two previous colonoscopies and neither of those surgeons found my colon to be tortuous or redundant; and I had a two year old CT Scan report that described my colon as being normal in shape and appearance. The next thing he told me was that I had a mass growing two thirds of the way around my rectum. That didn’t seem right either because I’d had a pelvic MRI just three months before that didn’t show such a mass. I mentioned getting a copy of the biopsy report and Dr Maendel said that “ they couldn’t do that “. Of… course I have the right to access all of my medical records and several days later I got copies of both the colonoscopy and the biopsy reports. The pathology report described a rectal lesion which was where I had a rectal tumor that had gone through a radical change. Seeing what was there was the main reason for getting the colonoscopy but Dr Maendel didn’t take an image of it. When I spoke to him him on the phone afterwards he wouldn’t acknowledge the change in the tumor, he wouldn’t explain what the pathology report described, he wouldn’t answer any of my questions; in fact, he wouldn’t engage with me at all. All he would say, and kept repeating, was that “ it’s an adenocarcinoma “ and then describe the conventional protocol for rectal cancer; which he knew that I knew, and certainly did not need to have repeated to me when I was trying to get answers about my medical condition. When it became obvious that continuing the conversation was pointless, Dr Maendel said in the most cynical, sarcastic, and disingenuous manner that he “ was there for me if I needed anything “. I can’t speak to Dr Maendel’s skills as a surgeon but when it comes to those most important character qualities in a doctor of integrity, forthrightness, and empathy; I found Dr Maendel to be utterly lacking.