Dr. Thomas C. Chen, MD — Local services in Los Angeles

Dr. Chen is a terrible doctor. I would strongly advise anyone reading this to run far far away from his office. I came to him complaining of pain from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. He flat out refused to believe I had EDS. Instead, he swore my pain was coming from crushed nerves in my spine. He pressured me into having spinal fusion surgery saying it would “cure my pain.” I should have never listened to him. He robbed me of my mobility and ruined my life.

Dr. Thomas Chen butchered my spine with this surgery. My pain is 1000 times worse now. The surgery went 6 hours longer than expected, lasting a total of 8 1/2 hours. This was an L5/S1 fusion. Just one spinal segment!

When I came out of surgery I was in a horrific amount of pain. But my veins were too fragile to support a port for morphine. The IV morphine was pooling up under my skin burning me and leaving bruises all over my arms and hands. I begged the nurses to call Dr. Chen for 6 days during my hospital stay but Dr Chen did not respond to repeated phone calls and pages. He did not come to check in on me. I was completely abandoned after surgery.

Important to note: Fragile veins are another symptom of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Yet Dr. Chen’s nurses again denied this was the issue and when my parents tried to advocate for me and get me some pain relief, the nurses accused me of being an IV drug addict who ruined her own veins. They withdrew morphine on day 2 and let me sit in the hospital screaming in pain for 6 days. I was fainting the pain was so severe.

After 6 long days, my parents were able to convince hospital administrators to release me so I could see my geneticist and pain management doctor and get actual help.

My geneticist who diagnosed me with EDS could not believe the torture I endured at Dr. Chen’s hands. Spinal fusions should not be performed on EDS patients unless absolutely necessary. Post surgery my pain became worse and I’ve lost a great deal of mobility. My disc above is now herniated and causing great suffering. It’s hard for me to even sit up without being in pain. I’ve gained over 50 pounds because I can barely move anymore. Dr. Chen admitted no wrong doing and stopped returning my calls.

He’s a butcher. He will slice you and leave you with no concern for your health or we’ll being. His office only cares if your insurance pays out for th as ridiculously...

Dear Dr. Thomas Chen USC NEUROSURGEON I am writing this review although more than 20 years have passed since you performed a lumbar fusion on me, I believe L4&5 S1. You literally changed my life on May 21, 2002. I had struggled with lower back pain for years that would literally having to take time off work due to the excruciating pain I was always suffering with. Little by little my condition worsened to the point that my gait was very unstable and I literally would lose my balance. I could not even bend to brush my teeth or wash my face. I had seen many doctors at which point I was referred to another doctor associated with USC, he examined me and he personally informed my condition was so bad the outcome would be bad, but just my luck he told me that he knew of someone who might be willing to perform my fusion. You examined me and my MRI you informed me that you would be willing to try but I had to know there was a chance of a bad outcome from it, you warned me I might come out with paralysis or some other complication. Living a life that I was living was not a good one due to the inability to do anything. I had complete faith in you! Thank you. I returned to work for another 13 years, It has been almost 24 years since my surgery, I still can walk, bend, take care of myself, take care of my husband and my grandchildren as well as cook and bake and do my own shopping. Had it not been for you I could have never been able to live a normal...

This guy is the worst! My mom has a neck problem and had a surgery done by another doctor, before coming to see him. Chen said the last doctor did not do the surgery properly and he had to re-do it for my mom. After the first surgery with him, it took my mom 3 weeks to get off the bed. And she did not feel any better than before the surgery. Chen said there is a second surgery needed, which he never mentioned in the first place. Ok fine, we figured he knows what he’s doing and agreed to the second surgery. Yet, after the second surgery, nothing improve, but my mom is in more pain afterwards. He said he did everything he could but don’t know why my mom is in pain. He just ordered one x-ray after another, but never ordered MRI to get a better picture of her spine.

Making appointments with him is horrible!!! He would schedule 5-10 patients into the same time slot. But he would never be on time. His first appointment is 9:30 AM but he rarely arrives before 10:00 according to the staffs. He is only in the Garfield Center every Monday morning, until like 1 PM. He would just leave before finishing all his appointments. Average wait time during appointments is 2 - 3 hours.

This doctor is the worst, no skills, not professional, no compassion for patients, and even not reachable in a sense. Do...