Five months ago I had hand/thumb surgery due to severe arthritis. Mini Tightrope is what the surgery is called. After five months, I am still in pain and have limited use of my hand. I am scheduled to have this “hardware” removed by another surgeon next week. My experience with Daugherty has been very bad. The morning of the surgery, he was joking about how fast he could do the surgery. I almost left and canceled, but I didn’t. Within a day, my hand was so swollen that it scared me. When I called his office, I had to leave a message. The next day I got a call from his assistant and was told the swelling is normal. After three months, I was still in a lot of pain. Daugherty said he didn’t believe me. He said another patient that he operated on the same day was doing fine and had little pain. He basically called me a liar. He told me about female patient that was trying to stay off of work even though she was fine. I have no reason to lie. I don’t have a job that I'm trying to get disability from or any other reasons. I’m retired. I consulted another hand surgeon and he believes the wire is too tight. I still can’t open my hand fully and the “buttons” feel like they are going to pop out when I make a fist. He is going to remove the “hardware”. My new surgeon x-rayed my hand and didn’t like what he saw. He said there was arthritis that Daugherty should have "addressed”. He gave me a shot to help relieve some of the pain. Daugherty and his staff are the hardest people to contact by phone. He didn’t even return calls from my therapist. The guy that re-did my cast complained about how bad it was to work there. His assistant was condescending every time I went there. In my opinion, Daugherty is a pompous and arrogant person. Yelp’s guidelines preclude me from truly expressing how I feel about this ”Dr”. Now I have to get Daugherty’s screwup fixed. One other thing. My current surgeon just went to a conference and met with the person who invented this surgery. He spoke to him about my case and he agreed that the wire is probably too tight and should be removed. He also said the “buttons” should be on the sides, not on top of the bones. Hopefully the scar tissue where the bone was removed will be sufficient to stabilize my thumb. I’m told that my recovery shouldn’t be very long. He’s going to make two small incisions where the buttons are, cut them off, and pull the wire out. I hope it works. I hope this review has been helpful. Good luck.

Submitted Aug. 16, 2014

This Dr is Amazing. His assistant is a class act ! I fought with my primary care doc to get evaluated. For a bad shoulder and forced me to try only physical therapy to heal. Dr Dougherty listened to me and was thorough with his test , scheduled me for an MRI based on his findings and confirmed I was in dire need of surgery . My labrum and rotator were an absolute mess , I had no mobility and was in pain prior to surgery. After ward I was vastly improved. I was able to get back to work in about 6 weeks and today I am at 100% I recently rode my motorcycle 1000 miles in one day without a single. Issue with my shoulder( anyone who rides would understand the gravity of this statement.) I am extremely thankful to this Doctor and would readily reccomend him to anyone who is considering surgical correction particularly if your employment or livelihood require expertise to retain.

Submitted March 12, 2013

My daughter apparently tore the meniscus in her left knee when she fell playing 'Dance Dance Revolution'. He asked a lot of questions, verbally interacted, and listened. He provided useful information for self care and monitoring. He was able to relate since he said he had once suffered the same injury. He made us feel comfortable and that we could trust him. Condition is still pending, so we'll post update.

Submitted March 1, 2010

I had rotator cuff surgery in December 2009- Dr Daugherty has been so great. He very patiently answers all of my questions with his calm southern accent, and cheers me on in my progress. He always seems genuinely happy to see me. The office staff sometimes confuses which office I need to be scheduled in (he is in the Encinitas and the Oceanside office) but Dr Daugherty is a really nice man and I always feel confident that he knows what he is doing and is taking the best care of me. I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes after my appointment time. He lets me know if I need to work on more exercises to get my mobility back and has set up my PT to begin now that I have shown good progress. I am happy to recommend him to ANYONE and if I should ever need ortho surgery again I will not hesitate to go to him again.

Submitted Jan. 19, 2010