Dr. Richard John Cegelski, MD

it was great

I saw Dr Cegelski in the ER at VCMC. He was extremely knowledgable, kind, and had great bed side manner.

It took 4 hours of waiting in the ER to be seen for severe back pain. This man kept saying "I cannot give you pain medication" and I never asked nor even spoke word medication. I only answered his questions that he asked me, and he assumed even before saying hello to me that I wanted "pain medicine". He caused me great pain by making me do things like walk and resist, typical things for lower back pain, and he said that it seemed like spinal cord damage symptoms, despite a clean MRI a month previous. I did have a pinched spinal cord for 3 months recently until I had surgery. But no one took my reflexes when I had to drag my legs up onto the bed with my hands and literally fell onto the floor whilst trying to stand 3 hours earlier, or tested me THEN. He accused me of faking symptoms, because I did not want an MRI (which causes a LOT more pain, which wasn't going to be treated), and refused to let me leave the ER unless I walked out. So I painfully had to force myself to walk out with my… walker. I should have brought my wheelchair to my doctor's appointment. This man shouldn't be dealing with people.