I saw Dr. Chu three years ago. At first, she seemed compassionate. As it became clear that she had no idea what was wrong with me, she started blaming me for made-up infractions. It turns out I have a rare genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos, which affects the connective tissues of the body (which affects multiple systems).

I had chronic pain (and we never even discussed pain killers, on my end because I can't function on them and have severe side effects, so that was not a factor), difficulty with cognitive function (which turned out to be explained by a condition related to EDS), GI issues, and many many more.

As my blood and urine tests were coming back with no indication of what was wrong, I started hearing things like "I don't think there's anything really wrong with you... Maybe you should see a psychologist." For whatever reason, I continued seeing her past this point (because this hadn't been a new thing I've experienced with my doctors). It devolved into her exploding at me and saying that I've seen five doctors before her that couldn't find anything wrong (I sincerely have no idea why she accused me of this, because I'd only seen one for the same issues within the last ten years which I told her about). She asked why I was seeing so many specialists (even though she herself made the referrals, and at that point I'd seen a grand total of two specialists). There were other accusations as well that were equally as absurd. Ideally, I believe she should have said something along the lines of, "I don't know what's wrong. I think you should get a second opinion - try so-and-so," as opposed to accusing me of lying, and of having a psychiatric issue as a diagnosis of exclusion.

I want to be clear that my gripe is not at all about her failure to diagnose me with a rare condition, as I don't think that'd be fair. She was downright cruel, and projecting her frustrations onto me. She and a couple of other doctors I had the misfortune encountering contributed to my hesitation in getting help.

Also, her staff didn't even respect her, much less the patients. They rarely answered the phone, never even seemed to listen to voicemails, were curt and rude (rolling their eyes when you ask to make a follow-up appointment), and one of them was the final straw and the reason I left - she was taking a blood sample, and started screaming at me to hold still (I was). She was having trouble finding my vein and getting a sample (not at all unusual for me, this is common with EDS). Eventually, she violently jerked the needle sideways in frustration. I had a bruise that covered a good quarter of my forearm and didn't fade for almost two months (easy bruising and slow healing are also a part of EDS, but I can attest that even IV bruises have never been as extreme, even the ones that required quite a bit of rough manipulation).

Also, I'm not a huge stickler for time, I don't typically mind a wait, but she would often see me a good 1-3 hours after my appointment time.

Submitted April 29, 2016

May run 5-10 mins late, but takes the time to ask and listen!

Submitted June 16, 2007