Dr. Steven Joel Wininger, MD

When I was 20 years old, I experienced my first pregnancy. That was in 2011. You would think I'd have forgotten the details, but the experience was so heartbreaking and terrible that I remember everything. I didn't know where to go for care, so I just chose to go to AZ Wellness Center for Women since a cousin of mine was being seen there for her pregnancy. I was only seen by the physicians assistant up until about 12 weeks, apparently Dr. Winninger can't be bothered to meet his patients until something goes wrong. At my NT scan, I was beyond excited to see my beautiful baby perfectly formed, but I was asked to wait afterward and speak with the Dr. I had until then never met. When I finally did, he told me that my child was likely to have Down Syndrome or another chromosomal issue. I was sent to another doctor that specialized in high risk pregnancies that same day for a second opinion, and was told by her that I would likely miscarry. Four days later I had a follow up with her and my… child's heart had stopped. She sent me back to Dr. Winninger. This is where things got bad. First, he told me that I would have to miscarry naturally. It wasn't until speaking to my parents that I was even told about the option of a D&C. I called to schedule one, and it was performed. When being wheeled into the operating room, I was panicked. I asked Dr. Winninger to take a tissue sample because I wanted to know why my precious baby had died, and whether I had been carrying a girl or a boy. He initially refused, saying that he usually only does this for third miscarriages. I demanded over and over that it be done as I was the patient and the one paying for the services. Finally, he relented. I was called weeks later and asked to come to his office. The pathology report revealed that I had a partial molar pregnancy, which apparently can cause cancer in rare cases and he said I needed to have routine blood draws to monitor my HCG levels for the next six months (had he not done the tissue sample as he initially refused, this would never have come to light). So every couple weeks I went to his office to have my blood drawn. I was a wreck. I sat in the waiting room full of glowing pregnant women feeling empty. The wait times are terrible, by the way, so I was out there for some time before being called back. I was in tears every time without fail. He never cared to ask why. Close to the end of the monitoring, finally a nurse noticed how distraught I was. I told her how depressed I felt and that I couldn't handle the waiting room. It was this nurse that told me I could have gone to a lab for the blood draws all along, and that I didn't need to be tortured this way. She must have passed the information along to the doctor because he asked me about it that day. He then basically told me I shouldn't be sad because my baby wasn't a person yet, and proceeded to prescribe me antidepressants (when my depression was clearly situational and not a result of any chemical imbalance). I stopped going after that. I just felt sick with the way he made me feel, the way he dismissed my feelings and worse dismissed the value of my child, however short his little life may have been. I feel sick that I allowed myself to be cared for by this man who never cared at all. TL;DR -Did not inform me of all options following miscarriage. -Fought me when I requested tissue sample during D&C. -Didn't inform me that I could go to a seperate lab for followup testing (had to sit in waiting room full of pregnant ladies every two weeks for months). -Ignored my tears. Finally discussed my depression and was basically told not to be sad because my baby wasn't a person and prescibed Zoloft. -Also, terrible wait times.

UnreliableHave had appts cancelled AFTER waiting for almost an hour. After the 3rd time, I decided to go somewhere else.