Dr. Michael Dean Hightower, MD

Horrible. He was working triage while I was in labor as a first time mom. Was very rude, told me I was barely one cm dilated (no explanation of what he was doing). I could barely speak to him my contractions were so intense which seemed to frustrate him. He told me to “go home, sleep through it and talk to your doctor in the morning.” Turned me away. One hour later I headed back to the hospital in active labor at 9cm. The front desk receptionist greeted me at the hospital doors saying “I knew he shouldn’t have sent you home.”

Horrible. Dilation check was very rough and rushed. Did not explain anything he was doing and what any of it meant. I had to ask the nurses to help me understand what was going on. I was in a lot of pain and he seemed not to care he said to come back when you are having extreme pain to the point you can’t talk and discharged me. I told him I didn’t want it yo get to that point I’m already contracting now and hurting, No good bedside manners at all. Not very caring and very rushed.

Finding a doctor these days who CARES about their patients is hard,and I have to say this one is snobby!

Dr. Hightower treated me as though I was over exaggerating, did not listen to symptoms, ignored my persistent pain that went on for several months and as as result I suffered and lost months of my life stuck in bed with a heating pad. When my seasonal job called me back, I was unsure of how to return to work without some form of pain relief. I described symptoms to him that he then blamed on everything from IBS to appendix issues. I read an article about the pressure I was feeling in my bowels that was written by a competent OBGYN, who stated clearly that the ovarian cysts I was SUFFERING from could very easily cause. He stated several times that the 3.5 cm cysts on my right ovary "wasn't that big, not that bad." I told him when I went for that one that I was hurting on the left side as well, which he ignored, as he did most of what I said. It was discovered less than a month later that I had a 2.9 cm cyst on my left ovary. That was when he started saying that the pressure issues I was… having, accompanied by the horrific pain, "Couldn't be anything gynecological." I asked how bad HIS ovarian cysts were, and he never answered. I would wake up from a dead sleep screaming in pain, be doubled over in tears for hours and felt as though he did not even listen to me for one minute. I live with chronic pain from fibromyalgia and other rheumatological issues everyday of my life and NOTHING has had me floored as much as these issues I went to him about. I've had several nurses and even a few other doctors tell me what they think of him, and to be completely honest, it wasn't a very high option of him. That, in and of itself, should speak volumes to his adequacy as a doctor. All the nights I cried myself to sleep, with my family begging me to go to the E.R., I should have listened. However, after seeing Dr. Hightower, I felt as though NO ONE would listen to me. I would never recommend ANYONE see this man. I'm not sure how an OBGYN couldn't know the symptoms that are often present with something as common as an ovarian cyst. Furthermore, I believe that no doctor, especially one who has never and will never go through what you are going through, should tell you "It's not that bad." It was for me. I was allowed to suffer immensely.