Dr. Thomas Serio really cares

My husband has bronchiectasis & GERD. He is prone to bacterial infections in his lungs due to aspirating food into his lungs because the epiglottis doesn’t completely close over his wind pipe when he swallows food. A few weeks ago, he got one of these infections and I called the pulmonologist to request that he call in a prescription for antibiotics and prednisone (the usual treatment for this infection). I was told by the doctor’s nurse that this wasn’t an emergency and she made an appointment for my husband for the following week. She said the doctor wouldn’t call in the meds I requested until after my husband saw the doctor the next week. Two days later, I had to rush him to the ER in the middle of the night because he couldn’t get his breath. He was in the hospital for five days and never saw a pulmonologist. For two days the hospital doctors did tests on his heart (echocardiogram and cardiac catheterization) because they were sure his heart was the problem. They refused to listen to me or my husband when we tried to give them his history. Bottom line, he was discharged with the same meds he had been taking before the hospitalization.
A week later we followed up with his pulmonologist who was less than responsive and just referred my husband to three other specialists and said he didn’t know the root cause of the problem. This doctor also was quite short with me asking me why I dared to take up “5 minutes” of his nurse’s precious time asking what I thought were relevant questions.
Yesterday, when my husband started having symptoms of another bacterial infection, he called Dr. Serio and was given an appointment for this morning (not a week from now).
Today, my husband had the appointment with Dr. Serio who spent over an hour discussing his condition and truly listening to this saga we have recently experienced with other doctors snd the local hospital staff. Dr. Serio is the only doctor we have seen who actually reviewed all the meds Bill has been prescribed by various doctors to make sure there are no problems. Dr. Serio really “listened” and then gave Bill recommendations for actions as well as giving him a new prescription for his breathing problem. After one dose of the new med, his breathing problem (SOB, wheezing) cleared up in less than ten minutes. By the way, it was Dr. Serio who originally prescribed the nebulizer and albuterol inhaler. And, we have previously asked Dr. Serio to call in prescriptions for the antibiotics and prednisone when the pulmonologist wouldn’t even return our call for more than two days. So far the pulmonologist hasn’t really been of much benefit other than ordering tests and referring Bill to other specialists. Today, there is no doubt in my mind that every penny we pay for the privilege of having Dr. Serio as our primary care doctor is worth more than I can say. Because my husband has multiple health issues and has been seen by cardiologist, urologist, pulmonologist, speech therapist, gastroenterologist, Dr. Serio is the only doctor who looks at the big picture for Bill’s overall health. Quite frankly, I believe Bill gets the best results when he confers with Dr. Serio.