Northwestern Medicine Catherine Gratz Griffin Lake Forest Hospital — Local services in Lake Forest

If I could give zero stars, I would. After attending an appointment yesterday with my father-in-law, I was outraged—and quite frankly disturbed—by how poorly Dr. Desai treated both of us. "Rude and unprofessional" is truly an understatement.

When we entered the room, she greeted us and asked if we had any questions before she got started. I mentioned that we had a few questions regarding the procedure. I asked some very basic questions related to the appointment, and her reaction was extremely condescending. She immediately looked annoyed and said, “We already had a consultation. If you need these questions answered, then we have to set up a completely new exam for that. I have other patients I need to attend to,” and then stormed out of the room. My father-in-law and I were both shell-shocked by her reaction. It was completely absurd.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, I stepped into the hallway to check what was going on. I saw the same nurse who had originally been in the room with us, so I asked her what was happening and explained that we were simply trying to understand the details of the appointment, as there had been confusion during the last visit.

Dr. Desai then came around the corner, stood in front of me with her arms crossed, and interrupted our conversation. She rudely stated—with excessive attitude—that she had already discussed everything in depth with my father-in-law, and if we needed another consultation, we’d have to schedule it separately. She made a point to repeat, three or four times, that she had already explained the appointment to him. It came across as incredibly demeaning, as though she was trying to make him feel ignorant. In reality, I was simply trying to gain a clear understanding of what was happening, to avoid any miscommunication once he left.

She became so visibly frustrated that she threw her hands in the air in a passive-aggressive manner, shook her head, rolled her eyes, and stormed off again. I looked at the nurse in disbelief. The way Dr. Desai belittled my father-in-law, then gave me such a hard time, was unbelievable.

The nurse led me back into the exam room and tried to de-escalate the situation by telling me that Dr. Desai is a good doctor, that she truly wants to help, and that she wasn’t dismissing me—she just had other patients to see. At this point, I was fuming. I couldn’t wrap my head around how poorly Dr. Desai had handled the situation.

I apologized to the nurse, explaining that I wasn’t trying to cause conflict—I was merely trying to understand what was happening at this appointment. I didn’t understand why that was such an issue. I told her that Dr. Desai was dismissing me—she had stormed off twice. The way she treated both me and my father-in-law was completely unacceptable and unprofessional. I no longer feel comfortable—and certainly don’t trust her—to treat him. The nurse understood and apologized, and my father-in-law and I left the building.

I’ve since spoken with management about this issue and made it clear this won’t be the only review I leave. I have over 10 years of experience in the medical field, and I have never once treated a patient as poorly as she treated us—nor have I worked alongside a physician so unkind and lacking in professionalism.

Dr. Desai has shown zero compassion, zero empathy, zero self-awareness, and zero commitment to patient care. I encourage all future patients to read this carefully and be wary of her. Northwestern is known for its high standards and strong reputation, which makes it all the more shocking that she is part of their team.

Dr. Desai, if you read this, I truly hope you understand that you ruined this experience for me and my father-in-law. Your actions were combative, passive-aggressive, and deeply inappropriate. I hope you seek out training to improve your bedside manner and patient care. You should be ashamed of how you treat patients—especially those for whom English is not a first language. I sincerely hope no one else has to endure the kind of treatment we...

A late, yet much needed review that I hope gets elevated to Northwestern Medicine leadership.

My family has been going to NM for over a decade, so Northwestern was the obvious choice when it came to the delivery of my first child. However, the behavior of the staff throughout our delivery process was unacceptable.

My wife and I came in on December 21st, 2022, and there were projected snow storms on the forecast for the next day, which was our expected delivery date post-induction. We were told there are always two doctors capable of delivering babies on duty, but during the day of our delivery, it turns out the higher of the two doctors dismissed the other one to go home “in case it would snow”. Whatever the staff decides to do is the hospital’s choice to the extent that patients aren’t impacted, but that was not the case here.

At about 5:40pm, ~26 hours after we were admitted, my wife’s water broke and she was told to start pushing. The doctor (only one on site since she dismissed the other one) came in and the delivery process was in full swing. However, the doctor got a message stating another baby who was already delivered a day or two ago needed a circumcision. Despite my wife having started pushing, the doctor decided to leave and prioritize the circumcision to open up more bed space for other patients to be able to come in.

A nurse remained with us and told my wife to continue to push. About five minutes after this, our baby’s head started to show, and the nurse had a slight panic stating that my wife was pushing a lot better than expected and that she’d need the doctor present for when our baby comes out. She messaged the doctor, and the doctor instructed the nurse to tell my wife to stop pushing because she still needed some more time to wrap up the circumcision. The nurse then told my wife to stop, and my wife was absolutely exhausted.

About 35 minutes later, the doctor came back after finishing the circumcision. The time was 6:35pm at this point, and my baby’s head that was visible before was showing a lot less. The doctor instructed my wife to push again, and we restarted the whole process.

25 minutes later, at 7pm, about half of my baby’s head was visible, and we felt like we were almost at the finish line. And to our surprise, the doctor stated that her shifts are from 7 to 7 and that she would need to leave. She just left DESPITE THE DELIVERY ALMOST BEING COMPLETE WITH HALF OF MY BABY’S HEAD VISIBLE. My wife absolutely exhausted from pushing, being told to stop, then pushing again after a 26-hour induction, and now the doctor leaving.

The new doctor checked in, signed some paper, then took over the delivery process. I was livid about the whole situation, but the safety of my wife and child came first and I didn’t express much displeasure to the staff. And as I knew we were close to meeting our baby, I asked if one of the nurses could take a few photos with my phone of when I first meet my baby. I felt the first doctor who left was incredibly insensitive and unprofessional, but the nurse who took my phone did not cease to amaze. The nurse who took my phone had the nerve to jokingly take selfies with her other nurse / new doctor while being right in front of me helping wrap up the delivery. Attached are photos they took with my phone (note the doctor pictured was the new doctor and I don’t have photos of the older doctor who left).

Shortly after all this, our baby was delivered at 7:13pm - just 13 minutes after the original doctor checked out.

This whole experience was incredibly disappointing and unprofessional. Things could’ve easily gone south and I would have 100% taken legal action if it impacted my wife’s or baby’s health. I’m writing this review for two reasons: NW leadership should be aware of this situation and the inappropriate activity that may happen under the radar unless reported. We recently decided to come back and give NW another chance, as it has been my family’s hospital for the past decade as mentioned earlier. Please don’t screw...

If I could give a negative five I would. Anyone looking for a natural, noninvasive childbirth experience "DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT GO TO THIS HOSPITAL!" I have had 7 children 4 birthed at hospitals, 1 at a birthing center and 2 at home, I know about childbirth. This experience was my daughter and son in-laws nightmare experience, first child, it should be a time of joy. The OB respected my daughters birth plan and she was great. The nurses were great and caring, however 4 nurses at the birth of one child is unnecessary. They also didn't give her any guidance whatsoever, which I was able to do, that wasn't required. However I wasn't able to stand at her bedside because there were to many nurses. Now the nightmare. I and no one else that I know have ever heard of a pediatrician being on call at a hospital to be at every birth. Most hospitals they are on call in case of an emergency, but they have a pediatrician at every birth. The pediatrician took over the care of my grandson completely, my daughter had two minutes with him. Everyone who has any 21st century knowledge of babies and mommies at birth know that skin to skin is what regulates a baby's breathing. I had this experience twice where my children came out breathing rapidly, one of them had bubbles in their mouth so the skin on skin face down took care of it while baby was watched by mommy and nurses. My grandson, with the same experience was whisked away to the special care nursery, given oxygen, IV glucose (they never explained this one), started on antibiotics even though they were in the process of testing. All tests came back negative, no fluid on lungs, no infection. They ran another blood test because they didn't believe the first one. All the while baby is kept from mommy till I made them let her have skin to skin time. Respirations were normal after just a few hours but he was kept on oxygen another day and a half "just in case", all the while he is still being given antibiotics as well, "just in case!". Second test came back negative. In the mean time my daughter wanted a vitamin K shot without preservatives or the oral k, the pediatrician we are currently reporting said the oral k is not good enough and you take the shot they have. She called my daughter and son-inlaw negligent parents and called DCFS, YES YOU READ IT RIGHT! SHE CALLED DCFS BECAUSE THEY WANTED A NONTOXIC OPTION FOR THEIR CHILD!! The vitamin K is not mandated in the state of Illinois and it just so happens that Lake Forest Hospital has the preservative free shot. She never bothered to look! All the while well into his first day all we are hearing from the nurses is how well he is doing. Numbers are great. By this time I'm consulting with nurses who don't work there with what his numbers are and I'm hearing from everyone that he should no longer be on oxygen, he never should have been hooked up to IV or given antibiotics. And definitely should not have had DCFS called! The third day we are told he has to stay for another day, that would be four days for observation. Well that was the last straw!! I called a lawyer, asked for records, called a meeting with head of department. I'am in the process of filling out paperwork to report this doctor and it looks like it is a group of pediatricians that are on call, and they are all in one accord with this standard practice of taking the children from their moms. We were discharged that night to go home. When we left, the nursery was full with not one empty bed. My last 3 grandchildren were born at Christ Advocate Sherman and the baby's never left the room. This birth was no different than those births, he breathing was just a little rapid because he had to get his lungs working. He cried strong and hard for some time which is also what clears everything. Beware of the social worker as well, they show up right before the DCFS worker. She profiled us, I know because she asked two personal questions of me she should have never asked, then met with the worker, I saw her take him back to meet with...