Dr. Leonard Dorsey Nelson JR., MD

Dr Nelson ruined my life. I was 27 years old and had no family to rely on. He wanted to go in through my stomach telling me the recovery time was so much shorter to do it this way. Dr. Nelson also wanted to be published about this surgery. SO, he used me as his guinea pig. The implants he wanted to use only recommended doing two level fusions in this manner. So even though my problem was L3-S1 he fused L3-4 didn’t fused L4-5 and fused L5-S1. He left a bad disc in my back! When I woke up from surgery with completely uncontrollable pain I said to him through tears “you didn’t tell me I would hurt this bad” his response “you would have never done it if I told you it was this bad”. Unsurprisingly, neither fusion took and I blew my L4-5 disc up. Just a month after surgery I had to go to the ER bc of the horrible stomach pain I now had. I begged to be put in physical therapy and Dr Nelson balked. When I saw him a year later with unrelenting pain he said “if you hurt you must need a second… surgery” I asked if he should do an MRI before deciding His response was “well if you want to do that” then had the audacity in his notes to say that he recommended the MRI. A bad surgeon and a dedicated liar. He only did the surgery to be published in a manual. I ended up losing the 45 lbs I gained after the surgery plus another 50 lbs and went for a second opinion. Thank goodness I did! I had to have a second surgery 3 years after the first and they had to use titanium rods and 18 screws to fix the mess he left. Just six weeks after that I had to have emergency abdominal surgery due to adhesions twisting a 12 inch section of my bowel. The stomach surgeon said he could see the weave of the pads they were supposed to keep wet when they laid them on my intestines, they didn’t stay wet. I have been plagued with stomach problems since my surgery in 2000. Here I am now dealing with adjacent segment disease two levels above my fusion, this was also downplayed as a side effect. Thanks for nothing Dr Nelson, I hope you have the life you deserve! You shouldn’t be subjecting anyone else to this pain. I’ve met at least 3 other people that you ruined. Isn’t that enough?

I had my lower back fused sometime in 1990. Treated me just like a drug seeker when I had a MRI after complaining of back pain to my family doctor but all he wanted to do is put me on darvaset for the longest time when if that Doctor would have done his job and order a MRI but instead I was labeled as a drug seeker when I was NOT. I was in pain. That's when I met dr Nelson jr.. From the beginning I was treated like a drug addict so he gave me a disco gram to recreate the pain when they already knew what disc was ruptured. They put the needle in my back and put fluid in the disc to recreate the pain. When they put the fluid in it I started crying like a baby and hollering from the pain. I think that test was a torture test to see if I was lieing. Well if they seen the ruptured disc on the MRI why did I have to go thru that. When I ran out of my 1st prescription of pain meds I had to call several times and then had to go to his office on Glenwood Avenue Raleigh orthodontics. I was… treated like a kid and I was married but I wasn't grown up in his eyes. After he gave me another prescription he never ask or told me to make a follow up appointment since I was just operated on. Never had a follow up appointment like I did with all my knee surgeries by Dr.Miller great Dr. but retired. Till this day my lower back hurts non stop. Pain is my alarm clock if I go to sleep. This happened in the 1990s and from some of the reviews I read he is still the same way. I still wonder if the surgery went right. If I would've had a follow up appointment after my surgery. I know that this is a very late review. I don't usually do reviews and in the 90s u couldn't. I wish every Doctor would remember that oath they took. I had to take a path when I was a firefighter and I will still give my life to save anyone or pets. Even though I'm not a firefighter anymore to many knee surgeries.

Dr. Nelson is single-handedly the most incompetent and frankly rude doctor I've think I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. His only advice was to tough out the pain in my back and that "the back is very mysterious". His unhelpfulness was one thing, and if that were the only bad thing about him it might still be alright, however Leonard is incredibly rude as well. I asked him after his whole "the back is mysterious" speech if he knew what I specifically hurt in my back and his response was to say "I've been talking to you for the last 15 minutes. Have you not been listening to a thing I said" in an aggressive tone when literally the only "helpful" information he gave me was that "the back is a mystery". Overall I would not wish anyone the displeasure of having to be seen or spend time with Dr. Nelson so if you are on the fence about seeing him, do yourself a favor and find someone else.

Treats me like a number not a patient, rude, disrespectful and I waited 2 1/2 hrs to see him. Waiting over a week for test results, no one has contacted me or seems to care. All I can do is wait in pain while it gets worse.

Operated on my relative - fusion of lumbar spine. Within 10 days, she was in excruciating pain. Finally determined that she had new fractures above and below where he operated. Dr. Nelson was contacted multiple times, but did not respond to the request for a consult . Had to remove all hardware. By that time, she had bilateral foot drop and bladder was impaired due to nerve impingement. Was hospitalized for 52 and died from sepsis at the operation site.

Dr. Nelson is a compassionate, thorough, well versed surgeon in his field. He takes time to explain things to you and has an excellent bedside manner. He is a a surgeon, but exhaust all avenues before recommending surgery and it must improve your quality of life.