My partner died in Huntington Hospital after waiting almost two weeks for a pair of life-saving surgeries that never happened. The first was oral surgery to remove infected teeth, the second would have been heart surgery. Dr. Cohen was the lead for the whole team of doctors working on this case. For some reason, they brought in a plastic surgeon, Dr Tiner, for the dental work instead of an actual licensed dentist, and of course he couldn't bill our dental insurance company. So he told us we had to pay in advance before he would do the dental work. So we scrambled trying to come up with $1750 on short notice. My partner told Dr. Cohen that he was worried about Dr. Tiner and having to pay in advance, but all Dr. Cohen did was tell him that he's the one they use, and that was it. No other dentists were provided, nobody who took our insurance plan. By the time we arranged the $1750, it took us a few days, but then it was too late. My partner had complications and had to be put on life support before he had a chance for either the dental work or the heart surgery. Dr. Cohen told me a few times that I should pull the plug on my partner, but I didn't want to do that prematurely. Dr Cohen said "It won't be premature." That what he says to the partner of his patient who is dying now, when he didn't do anything to try to speed up the dental part of the plan when he knew the patient was worried about it. So imagine my surprise to find out that the "dentist" - the only one they use - wasn't really a licensed dentist, but a plastic surgeon, which is why he wouldn't take our dental insurance. Dr. Cohen must have known he wasn't a licensed dentist when he had said he's the one they use. Why didn't they get us a real dentist, who would take our insurance, and we wouldn't have had to waste all those days trying to come up with the money? For someone who was supposed to be the lead on this team, in my opinion, he dropped the ball; he was in the perfect position to do something about the delay, but he didn't. My partner is dead now because we couldn't come up with $1750 fast enough, when it would have been taken care of if they had used a licensed dentist instead of a plastic surgeon. There was no medical reasons to wait for the dental work, only financial. Did I mention that my partner is dead now? I don't agree with what Dr. Cohen told me; I think he died prematurely, and in my opinion, Dr. Cohen is partly to blame for that.

Submitted April 19, 2020