I had a flipped bucket handle meniscus tear in my right knee. After an MRI, Dr. Bellah missed the "bucket handle" trapped in the knee joint in the leg that couldn't possibly straighten. He performed arthroscopic surgery, during which he removed a small amount of an extremely shredded meniscus. In addition, a guess on his part prompted him to remove plica, which I'm still not sure was necessary. A month after the surgery, Dr. Bellah continued to insist he had seen my leg straighten in the OR during the surgery. He first implied I had a psychological fear of straightening my leg. When I asked to see where he'd noted in the surgical report he had seen that leg straight, he was unable to find it in the report. He then insisted I had a problem with muscle memory - the signal from the brain to the muscle that controls the knee joint wasn't getting through. I suffered for 2 more years, than went to a different ortho. He immediately recognized the flipped bucket handle meniscus tear. As we reviewed the DVD of the 2nd surgery afterwards, I was shocked to see the large volume of shredded meniscus in the knee at the start of the surgery. I asked the ortho if that should have been removed in the first surgery. He said yes. I then asked "What did Dr. Bellah do to the meniscus during the first surgery?". The ortho answered "Absolutely nothing.". I have residual problems with the knee due to having it locked in a bent position for so long (courtesy of Jack Bellah), and the complete removal of any meniscus material. But the pain is greatly reduced, and I can straighten the leg a lot more than prior to the second surgery. Dr. Bellah doesn't listen, he's arrogant, and in my case, incompetent.

Submitted Nov. 25, 2014