Dr. Leonel A Rodriguez, MD

Considering Dr. Rodriguez is chief of the department of pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology at Yale, and former motility specialist at Boston Children's, I would've expected his care to be superb. Instead, I suppose the care received would qualify as medical malpractice. Both Dr. Rodriguez and his fellow disregarded scans and test results because the diagnosed rare conditions "don't actually exist" and "everyone has that", and claimed what is essentially the cure for these conditions was the "easy way out" and "unnecessary". While it's completely understandable that the majority of patients he sees are for chronic abdominal pain, often "functional" in etiology, and it's likely that consumes most of his focus in patients, there are other *motility* disorders that need adequate treatment. Saying a patient was misdiagnosed because the few prior treatments haven't worked is simply unacceptable. And telling a patient their enteral feeding devices are "being used for comfort" is… sickening. I can guarantee you doctors don't hand out medical devices for "comfort". Dr. Rodriguez claimed the only diagnosis was "visceral hypersensitivity," and that the only treatment necessary was to eat more by mouth, take an MOA, and to see a GI psychologist, which have all been tried extensively for several years. After years of medical gaslighting, we've become quite familiar with the terms "hypersensitive" and "functional". Dr. Rodriguez used words to make his diagnosis seem like it's something it isn't. Something they won't tell you is that the diagnostic criteria for functional abdominal pain, per the Rome Foundation, aligns with the diagnostic criteria of somatic symptom disorders. Though, they won't tell you this. They claim they don't use the terms "psychosomatic" or "somatoform" in their practice, which true- they just use more recent terminology to increase "patient buy-in", similar to several gi and pain clinics, especially pediatric, across the country. Sure, everyone has their own experiences, and are entitled to their own opinions regarding their providers, but I strongly urge against making an appointment with Dr. Rodriguez. If looking for a general pediatric GI doctor, Dr. Baldwin and Dr. Zeisler at Connecticut Children's Medical Center are great choices. As for motility specialists, it's in the patient's best interest to just skip CT children's hospitals, and go to Boston Children's.

He is an excellent doctor. Great with children my son loves him. Very patient and takes his time with his patients

Like most doctors he is arrogant. But he is also just a very rude man. He doesn't even look at the patient he says his piece and "what he says is right". I cannot stress how rude this man is.