Dr. Mark Dale Dixon, DO

I went to the ED at Helen Ellis with acute back pain and was unable to urinate. Dr. Dixon was the physician in the emergency dept that morning and acted like I was a burden and seemed to want me out quickly. I was told he didn't think anything was wrong with my back and it was muscle strain and told me I couldn't pee because of the pain I was in. I was unable to walk, and had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital because I was unable to walk to the car. I argued with him and finally got him to order an MRI. Later he returned to tell me yes, there was indeed a problem with my back, but he couldn't help me and discharged me home. A day later still unable to walk or urinate, I called an ambulance to take me to another hospital. Within 10 minutes of arriving I had a catheter which emptied 750 ml of urine from my bladder, and a neurosurgeon on the way to perform emergency surgery. I was told by the surgeon that my condition may be permanent. The MRI had shown that there… was bone pressing on a nerve that was causing the extreme pain and causing me to not be able to urinate. Luckily I am not dependent on a catheter now, but I am still angry at the way I was treated by this physician, and that he didn't tell me that my condition was actually a medical emergency.