Dr. Costigan is an amazing doctor, always takes time to explain any questions you may have. Did my back surgery and did an excellent job. His staff is excellent, kind understanding.

Submitted May 17, 2021

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1.0 star rating 11/29/2017
I nearly died several times in spinal surgery by Dr. William Costigan. I lost 10 liters of blood. I lost a perfectly good kidney. I had code blue stroke called on me due to being overdosed on Dilaudid and propofol. Then the Dilaudid caused me to have a small bowel obstruction, I was starved for 20 days, with an NG tube only extracting my GI fluids. As attending surgeon, Costigan is responsible for these things.

I suffered horrendously from the adverse effects I experienced in this surgery, and I am still almost completely incapacitated. Instead of five days, I was in the hospital for twenty four days. It was absolute HELL. I lost 16 lbs in the hospital, and another ten in the month after I got home.
Very strangely, all the various op reports from all the surgeons conflict with each other, and NONE of them state what happened, why I bled out so seriously. One surgeon who was in the OR for 8 1/2 hours(out of a 12 1/5 hour surgery) DID NOT EVEN BILL my insurance, no doubt because he didn't want to be associated with what happened to me in surgery. My insurance was billed for reconstructing my vena cava, but none of the surgery reports explain how this very large vein was ruptured, or even acknowledged that fact!
After getting home from the hospital, Costigan pushed me to have another surgery. Every time I saw him, for four months his question to me was not "how are you doing?" but "do you want to have another surgery?!" I felt like all he cared about was doing surgery, I felt that he did not care if I died as a result. I was aghast at this, because I was still suffering cardiopulmonary problems that had not been assessed, no way would I go under anesthesia again like this!

But Costigan refused to give me referrals to specialists to deal with the fact that I had a major blood transfusion, lost a kidney, had stroke called on me, was having bouncing high blood pressure and breathlessness. He claimed he did not know any specialists he could refer me to. Why is he performing risky surgeries like this, if he cannot refer a patient for appropriate and adequate follow up care after an adverse event in his surgery?

I begged and begged and begged him to give me referrals, I even begged my other surgeons to give me referrals - this is all in writing, and only after Costigan was called on the carpet by another surgeon did he give me ONE referral, to a "bro" of his, a doctor who made several highly inappropriate comments about my other doctors, and a sexually explicit comment directly to me, involving the male assistant in the room. The conduct of the doctor Costigan referred me to was so bad in fact, that I reported him to his boss, the Chief, Division of Geriatric, Hospital, Palliative, and General Internal Medicine at USC Keck Hospital Dr. Michael Karp, who agreed that doctor has a tendency to be inappropriate and apologized to me profusely.

Costigan refused to give me any referrals other than this one, and got defensive when I reported this to him. This is NOT a caring, appropriate doctor, at all.

Costigan's assistant took it upon himself to make narcotics prescribing decisions without getting input from Dr. Costigan. This is practicing medicine without a license. Another staff member sent me a screenshot showing the names and appointments of other patients. This is a raging HIPAA violation.

Too late, I learned that Costigan has the highest medical error rate of all surgeons in a 25 miles radius. He is among the top five most dangerous doctors in the state, as well. https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/surgeons/1821084641

Costigan is concerned with doing surgeries, but I cannot say that he is at all concerned about providing medical care after surgery.

He has failed to demonstrate to me that the hardware he put in my back is FDA approved. For all I know, it is counterfeit. Even if it is FDA approved, they have failed to provide me with the documentation of the medical device implants as required by the FDA. I have NO idea what he put in my spine!

Run as fast as you can away from this guy!

Submitted Nov. 30, 2017

The numbers don't lie: he is one of the most dangerous surgeons in the state:https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/hospitals/050438

Submitted Oct. 21, 2017

Dr. Costigan is a gifted surgeon who has performed two surgeries on me with excellent results. I am back to work full time, dancing competitively and exercising daily. His staff and surgery suite all work together without any glitches to provide seamless outstanding care. There may be an occasional wait for your appointment if he has an emergency or if a surgery has run long or if another patient is needing more time with him. Dr. Costigan never rushes a patient so I am more than happy to wait on the rare occasion I have to.

Submitted Sept. 26, 2017

If I could give negative stars I would. The first two appointments I had were 1.5 hour waits. The first time I saw Dr. Costigan, he recommended I have one cortisone shot in one area and if that didn't work then surgery, spinal fusion. I went and got three other opinions and all said I needed to try the cortisone shot in three places and at least three times before I really talk about surgery and there would be two options for surgery. So in my opinion Costigan is a little knife happy. He refilled my pain medicine and said no more after this no matter if I was in pain or not.

His staff was extremely rude. Areolinda yelled at me and told me that I could not see another doctor only Dr Costigan, which was not true. When I spoke with Dr Costigan on my second visit he said "You can see who ever you want, but it's not like you need to." After a doctor recommends spinal surgery after one treatment, yes I did need to see another doctor. His staff also called my primary doctor and asked for a copy of my EKG and told them it was an emergency and that I signed release forms that they would send to my primary, I never signed any release forms. When I called the staff out on this and asked a total of 8 times for them to show me what I signed I was told "What's done is done." Ceaser then yelled at me "What's your problem, who cares what we did? You just don't want our help." I replied "I want you to follow the law." Ceaser replied "No, you don't want our help, we can cancel your appointment because all you are is a first time patient so we don't care!" When I confronted Dr Costigan about this his reply was "So that was my staff not me. Besides, who cares, We share our patients' records with whom ever wants them and we don't make them sign anything." Well newsflash that is against the law.

I only went to the second appointment to talk to him about all of this and he told me to find another doctor, which I already had done, because there is no trust between us and basically his feelings were hurt. As I was walking out he told his staff, and quite loud, that I was PMSing, which is extremely sexist.

So if you want a good doctor avoid Dr Costigan. Sharing records without the patient's permission is a HIPPA violation.

Submitted June 13, 2017

So far I do think he is a good surgeon, but his assistant is so incompetent, rude, aggressive, would criminally negligent be an appropriate term for a medical assistant?

Submitted Feb. 20, 2017

Dr. Costigan and his staff have been GREAT to work with. I live in Las Vegas, but I have not regretted making the decision to choose Dr. Costigan as my surgeon, even though he is in California. My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, but so far, even as busy as they are, this office and the Dr. himself have treated me like I was the only patient in the world. TOP NOTCH CARE!!! SECOND TO NONE!!!

Submitted Dec. 22, 2016

This Dr is a buffoon. Suspenders and all. I was kept waiting almost an hour to see him. When he did arrive he immediately launched into physically contorting me - no warning or explanations given - into several extreme and painful positions, I suppose to determine what my spine problem was. When he was done he explained for less than 5 mins what his plan is for me. He said I would hear from his office. I have heard nothing since.

Submitted Sept. 13, 2016

After waiting an hour 40 minutes past the appointment time and hearing him pop into yet another examination (waiting) room I finally left. No idea if he is capable, but he is certainly all about maximizing his profit at the expense of his patients and that does not bear well on his objectivity on treatments.

Submitted July 26, 2016

Dr Costigan performed a spinal fusion surgery on my mother 3 years ago that left her in a wheelchair, unable to use her right foot. I would not recommend his services to anyone.

Submitted May 24, 2015