Dr. Liana Ellyn Dawson, MD

While Dr. Dawson was kind to my daughter in the emergency room of St. Vincent's Hospital, one very important request was not granted. My daughter's neurologist, who knew that we were going to the emergency room with concerns of a possible stroke, wanted to talk to the neurologist treating her, as he knew my daughter very well. She was not interested in making this call, and mentioned that it wasn't possible, or something like that. Bottom line = IF she had spent 3 minutes on the phone with the Dr. who knew my daughter VERY WELL for the last 17 years, she would have learned that what she was looking at was a particular type of seizure, not a stroke. Other doctors read the MRI, and concluded that the problem was some nerve thing that they couldn't explain, and proceeded to prescribe the wrong medicine. In addition, no blood level for the anti-seizure drugs she takes was ordered. This should have been the first move. When they discharged my daughter, she was still in great pain with… tightness and tingling on the left side. She proceeded to have two grand mal seizures within three hours. This has NEVER happened before. While everyone in the ER of St. Vincent's was extremely courteous, and the nurses were especially good, with care, blood draws, etc. the whole experience ended up being dangerous, because of the grand mal seizures that should have been prevented with knowledge of blood levels.