Dr. Paul Ahern Lapenna, DO

Dr. LaPenna took great care of my wife while she was hospitalized. I’m very grateful for his compassionate care.

Just saw him in the ER myself. I had been hospitalized for four days for neurological symptoms before he saw me and had been being treated. He and his nurse practitioner saw me and labeled my symptoms as “distractable.” I told them both I was doing better and had already been seen by several providers agreeing with my symptoms but was essentially brushed to the side and told I had conversion disorder. The strength testing they did was not even appropriate for someone of my functional level. As a physical therapist myself I am insulted by this treatment and will be going to outpatient neurology and hopefully be taken seriously. This isn’t 1850 and you can’t label every young woman with symptoms you can’t immediately explain as “hysterical”

I was diagnosed with “vertiginous migraines” by Dr. LaPenna and prescribed Aimovig which he assured to me was safe. I started to experience hair loss and that has not stopped now for 3 weeks. I called and told them what was happening and they put me on “high priority” for a call back but I never received a call back. So after 5 days(including a weekend) I finally called back that Monday and the doctor had told the nurse, that literature does not support hair loss and it could be many other things. I have never been put on medication. I have never had hair loss like this. I looked up reviews on the medication and other people have experienced hair loss, but somehow it’s not listed as a side effect??! Anyway, this doctor completely dismissed me and has not tried to help me in any way. He offered to put me on another medication instead of trying to figure out why I’m experiencing hair loss. It is no coincidence that I was injected with a drug, before I could research it(which he told me… not to, and assured me it was safe) and then started experiencing hair loss and it has not stopped. If this doctor was experiencing this I’m sure he would be doing everything for himself to figure out why and stop it. I feel very defeated and now very sad that I’m losing so much hair. I just wanted help for one issue and now I’m experiencing another. I wish I never allowed them to inject me.

Dr LaPenna is excellent. He was great at listening to my issues and coming up with a course of treatment that makes sense and works well for me . I was extremely pleased.