Dr. Sanjiv Kumar, MD

My wife recently delivered our first child at Emerson Hospital. This review has nothing to do with the L&D staff, the OBs, or the nurses - they were all fantastic. However, she decided to get an epidural part-way through her labor and they paged the anesthesiologist on call, who happened to be Dr. Kumar.He came in the room, said two sentences (we're doing an epidural. Do you have any questions?) and the proceeded to set up and perform the procedure. Not only did he not inform my wife of the risks or benefits, but he also didn't let us know what exactly he was doing as he was doing the procedure. When he missed the first time and she was yelling in pain - both from his malpositioning as well as her contractions - he didn't stop but simply kept going.The twist to all this is that I'm a physician who has performed the exact procedure Dr. Kumar was performing plenty of times and know that, with enough lidocaine, time, and explanation, it can be a very comfortable experience. I didn't… say anything at the time because I didn't want him to take out my displeasure on my wife but it's important that his future patients know - if you have a choice, go with someone else. If you don't, and are stuck with him since you're in the middle of labor, then I hope your experience is better than ours was.