Martin Friedlander, MD

he's the best!

I first saw Dr. Friedlander about 15 years ago. At that time I had a progressive loss of vision in both eyes and went to Scripps for an evaluation. At Scripps instead of getting an appointment with an ophthalmologist, I was referred by a staff nurse to an optometrist who diagnosed my condition as 'retinal pucker' but advised me to see Dr. Friedlader for confirmation. Needless to say, because of Dr. Friedlander's busy academic calendar, my appointments were re-scheduled twice for several months while my vision deteriorated rapidly. When I finally saw him he apparently panicked and told me that the only therapy that could help me was PDT- Photodynamic Therapy, which he proceeded to perform without bothering to inform me about possible complications. Within a few days, I became almost blind in my right eye due to the laser permanently damaging the macula of my right eye. Fortunately, I was referred to a different ophthalmologist who promptly injected my left eye with steroids as a… temporizing measure to arrest the progression of AMD in my left eye until the intraocular injections of Avastin , the current treatment of AMD became available. My gripe against Dr. Friedlander is not only the two reschedulings of my appointments with him while my AMD was progressing but also not informing me regarding the possible complications of PDT. The intraocular steroid injections were available at the time and he could have bought some time with steroid injections until Avastin became available. Needless to say the attitudes of his nursing and office staff match his-totally unprofessional and patient-unfriendly. Stay away from him if you treasure your eyesight!