Dr. Seth Louis Brindis

My daughter was seen by this doctor at CHOC ER and despite her symptoms of severe pain, abnormal imaging studies and lab, he discharged her with the comment that "Kids at this age do not know how to express what they are feeling. She probably has some nausea, but doesn't know the difference between nausea and pain. So, she says she has pain. She has some viral conditions, so I am going to discharge her with Zofran". Even though my daughter is only 5 years old, she says she is nauseated when she has nausea. When she says it hurts so bad, that means she has "pain"! Right before she came to the ER, she was screaming and crying due to severe pain and got she got so exhausted from that she fell asleep. This ER doctor said, "She is sleeping, that means she does not have pain." When she was awake, he did "magic tricks" which this doctor does to all his patients at ER, but my daughter was in pain and did not smile. He kept trying to entertain her with his magic tricks while I was… giving him a detailed history of her sickness. I felt he paid more attention to his charming magic skills than listening to the patient's history provided by parents. My husband and I had to come home at 1:30am with our poor child who was still in a lot of pain and when we got home, she almost collapsed and started having severe bloody diarrhea which was a new symptom. We called the CHOC ER immediately and spoke to Dr. Brindis and he responded, "Well, I am sure it's not a bloody stool. If you want, you can bring her back to ER, but I still think that she has some viral infection. Otherwise, you can try to get a stool sample from the toilet and see her pediatrician tomorrow and give it to them." He simply dismissed our concerns and had no sympathy. I am a Healthcare Provider as well. How do you know it's not a bloody stool without seeing? Viral infection does not cause a bloody stool! Also, how can you say we can bring her back to ER and re-register if we would like, but you already have a confirmed diagnosis as a viral infection regardless of new signs and symptoms of some kind of bacterial infection? Also, don't you know people do not have a stool sample kit in their house? Do you know how long it could take to get a stool test results at a pediatrician's office? At this point, my husband and I decided to take our daughter to CHOC in Mission Viejo. We arrived there at 3am and the ER physician at CHOC in Mission Viejo saw the photo we took and confirmed that it's a bloody diarrhea. The new ER doctor examined her very thoroughly and reviewed all the records from CHOC in Orange, consulted with pediatric hospitalist on call and GI team. The ER doctor at CHOC in Mission Viejo said, "We are not going to discharge your daughter even though it's not clear why she is having severe pain with bloody diarrhea. Until we find out what the problem is and your daughter's pain is controlled, we are going to admit her and provide proper treatment. We don't want you guys to come back to ER again and just assume that she has some viral disease." This is the type of person an ER doctor should be! My daughter got severely dehydrated and became lethargic. With the wonderful medical team at CHOC in Mission Viejo, my daughter got the right diagnosis, hospitalized for a week and received intensive care with great support. I hope Dr. Seth Brindis reads this review and learns some lessons, so that he won't make poor clinical judgements for any future pediatric patients at CHOC like he did to my daughter. I hate to say this, but he is the worst ER doctor I’ve ever met in my life and in my professional career. Instead of focusing on doing magic tricks to pediatric patients, listen to your patients, patient’s parents, examine patients thoroughly and try to come up with good clinical judgement and decisions without being bias by any assumption.

He did magic tricks for my child while we were in the Emergency Room at CHOC! Brought a smile to a scared kid's face.