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- Gender Male
About Dr Chandrasekaran Sivakumar
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Practice in Calgary, AB
- Practice name
- Address C-era, 210 1016 68th Ave SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2V 4J2
- City Calgary, AB
- Province Alberta
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Fonda Browning
• 25 July 2023My appointment with Dr. Sivakumar started off badly and just continued to get worse. He wanted to know my marital status, if I had kids and if my sexual partner history was with males or females. Seriously, why would he need to know that?? He also told me that I was lucky to not have any kids. That can be a very terrible thing to say to some women who were unable to conceive. I immediately wrote that off as a poor attempt at humour.
Then he tells me my stomach is too big. Me: “I know.”; Him: “No. It is SOOOOOOOO big”. Completely degrading. I have a history of restrictive eating disorders, so these comments are damaging for me, not that it’s appropriate to say to anyone. He tells me that I eat too many cakes and cookies and rice and pasta and to please stop eating these things and only eat meat and vegetables. I tell him that right now I have been working on just eating every day (I can go months without food and not lose any weight). Him: “I don’t know why your doctors are telling you that, but I am an expert in this and you need to not eat so much. Just try your best.”
He was interested in my facial palsy and asked me to show him my teeth, which I did; and he asked when my Bell’s Palsy started. I answered and then said that my doctors think it is more likely Ramsay Hunt (and I’ve now had it four times which is extremely unusual, but I didn’t get to tell him that). He cut me off and very sternly said: “I asked you when it started not what caused it! It does not matter what caused your Bell’s Palsy and whether or not it was caused by shingles! You have Bell’s Palsy! (I was under the impression that Bell’s Palsy is idiopathic and that four instances of Ramsay Hunt is extremely unusual, but what do I know).
I also have a very atypical presentation of swelling in both feet, corresponding with separate knee injury incidents, which he also did not want to hear about: “If it is one foot maybe it is from an injury, but we know it is NEVER from an injury when it is both!!” He tells me I absolutely must have another ultrasound. Me: “I have had several DVT screenings and doppler US that I have requested just to be safe and a vascular consult.” Him: “That does NOT matter. You must have it again if it has been more than six months. Me: “Ok, that’s fine. Do you need me to do that today?” Him (almost yelling): “I don’t care when you do it! You just have to get it done!” He sort of attempts to be kind by saying he needs to have these tests done to be safe. He then proceeds to look at my file to see when my last US was (I wasn’t sure). It’s been over one year, but he also starts reading my vascular consult notes and with no explanation, says: “Ok. We will just test your heart. You don’t need to go for an US.” Me: “Are you sure?” (because he was adamant that I had to get another if it had been over six months) Him, yelling: “YES! I AM SURE!!!!!!!”
No patient deserves to be treated this way. I realize doctors are under a lot of pressure, but can they not find some kindness and compassion when dealing with patients? The biases that he displayed are not just dehumanizing and patronizing, they are dangerous. I am actually considering filing a complaint with CPSA.