Terribly incompetent doctor who thankfully is no longer in practice. My father saw him for years in spite of what he acknowledged was often bad advice, sometimes in conflict with more sensible doctors and even common sense.

To give you some history, Thomas not only served as cardiology but acted as my father's PCP as well, rather than referring him to specialists when problems presented outside of the scope of cardiology. Thomas failed to correctly connect the dots with my father's chronic blood pressure problems (specifically, that he suffered from orthostatic hypotension, meaning low blood pressure upon standing, which was the result of his Parkinson's disease). These drops in BP resulted in a series of life-threatening falls. It was only through an encounter with the ER physician following one of these falls that the symptoms (which had continued for YEARS under Thomas by this time!) were correctly diagnosed. My father was prescribed a relatively common medicine that immediately addressed the problem, and he never again suffered from this phenomenon. If a relatively young ER physician can, on his first encounter with the patient, catch that a chronic cardiovascular symptom is merely one of the well-established features of a well-known and relatively common disease, why couldn't an "experienced" cardiologist come to the same conclusion after years and years of seeing this the same patient presenting with the same symptoms? Note that several of these falls were serious enough to result in multiple broken ribs (number ranged from two to four, depending on the fall) and a severe head injury that left him debilitated for months. Any one of these could have killed him. The fact that this went unaddressed for years is simply negligence.

My direct encounters with Thomas were thankfully relatively few, usually in taking my father to his office for check-ups. The waiting room was always packed, with extremely long waiting times, both signs of very poor scheduling practices. I found several of the staff very short with me, presumably since I wasn't a "paying customer," my being in good health and all. To give one example: Since we were in an examination room with limited seating, my dad was sitting on the one seat available, and I was sitting on a stool. The girl who worked for him popped in and snapped at me that it was Thomas' stool (meaning I couldn't sit on it). I asked for her to bring another seat. She disappeared like I never said a thing. Never saw her again. That seemed to be the M.O. from the top down. I know my mother complained that Thomas would never answer her questions; he'd just pretend like she hadn't spoken or would simply repeat what he'd just said without elaboration or clarification.

Thomas made nonsensical statements on several occasions. The one that really stood out for me was a visit in which my father brought in his blood pressure cuff, an off-the-shelf electric model. He'd had some high readings and was concerned because he wasn't sure if it was the machine or his health that was the problem. Thomas' assistant did a reading each with both my father's device and manually. The numbers matched. Thomas, in spite of the agreement in readings, stated authoritatively, "Yes, yours is bad. You can't trust it." You know what I'd never trust? Thomas' advice.

I'm not sure how his practice came to an end, but it was very abrupt. His patients were unceremoniously shifted over to other doctors. When my family asked why, the staff deflected questions. I came across this page searching for answers after my father mentioned him earlier. I'm suspicious that Thomas' retirement was the result of (or to avoid) a malpractice case. It has been suggested that perhaps Thomas was suffering from a decline in cognitive function (e.g., Alzheimer's or another degenerative disorder). If so, I'd like the facts to be made public since other patients may have been the recipients of poor medical advice from an impaired physician.

Submitted Oct. 16, 2015

One of the best cardiologist I've ever had the pleasure to work with and take care of his patients. Have excellent care to his patients.

Submitted July 26, 2014

While I believe that Dr. Thomas has now retired, he was one of the most accessible and caring physicians I have even known in my 58 years of being anyone's patient. He treated my dad so when I needed a cardiologist I followed my dad's recommendation and glad I did. MY file has been transferred to one of Dr. Thomas' partners who is also very good.

Submitted Jan. 13, 2014

Find another Doctor. My mom had seen Thomas for almost 4years when she really started to fell bad all he did was up her blood thinners. She gained over 35 pounds in water, she broke out in a rash, she went back to Thomas, he uped the blood thinners and sent her home. She went to another doctor ( not a heart dr.) he was concerned, called Thomas " No she's gotta stay on the thinners. She gained so much water and her skin got so thin blood was oozing from her skin. My mom was 80 her husband is 82 they trusted this doctor. We tryed to get in to see another doctor but the waiting list was so long. We took her to another docter but only could see hisnurse partitioner. She told my mom see was taking twice the dose that any man sould be taking. We took her to the heart hospital in lacomb la. Her lung was fill of fluid. Her blood was so thin they had to try to thicken it up before they could do anything. Her Kenneys was shutting down. 7days my mom was gone. Thomas didn't have a clue.

Submitted Oct. 18, 2012

excellent doctor

Submitted March 25, 2009