Sidney Wu, MD — Local services in New York

Truly heartbreaking. I was recommended to Dr. Wu when she was either with another practice or private practice when my GYN changed insurance carriers but it was a blessing in disguise because in all the time going to the GYN, she never picked up that I had fibroids. During my first visit with Dr. Wu, all she did was press on my abdomen and asked if I had fibroids. I said no, not that I know of. She then took her camera scope that was in the room and did imaging right there on the spot and pointed out my fibroids on the screen. I was shocked and grateful because I would have never known if I was still with the other doctor. From that point on, Dr. Wu was very concerned and caring about my health and me as a person. I'm not sure what happened, but once she sign on with Weill Cornell, she became one of those poke and prod doctors that see you for a matter of minutes, then slap you with a bill. Very cold and non-caring. As a matter of fact one year when I was due for my annual pap smear, she sent me for an ultrasound of my fibroids and told me if nothing comes back questionable on my ultrasound, she doesn't need to see me for my annual pap smear. Ummm, I'm no doctor, but I do know an ultrasound does not take the place of culture samples and blood tests. She refused to schedule me for my annual pap smear. It got to the the point that I couldn't even talk to her. Any time I called to speak to her, I had to speak to a nurse practitioner or someone from the nursing staff. They'd tell me to speak to them about my concerns and then they will get back to me once they have spoken to Dr. Wu. The only time Dr. Wu actually called me was when she found out I went to another specialist about pelvic pain I was having. She actually scolded me for not consulting her first. I said I tried to consult with you several times and you kept giving me the same resolution of a certain type of testing through your staff and that resolve was not helping. The other specialist told me that a lot of times, doctors get monetary kick back from insurance every time they refer a patient for certain tests and that they will most likely send you for testing that's guaranteed to be covered by insurance. Any tests like MRIs or CAT Scans that may be rejected by insurance, the doctor may not refer to you if they feel it isn't life threatening because they prefer to refer you to certain tests that will ensure their monetary kick back. I was floored especially coming from a Board Certified physician's mouth. It made sense because Dr. Wu sent me for a particular test at least 4 times and nothing kept coming up but thanks to the other specialist, I was able to get proper testing and low and behold, there was something that was wrong. That experience is when I terminated my relationship with Dr. Wu. She is very intelligent and very knowledgeable, but ever since she signed on with Weill Cornell, she's turned into a non-caring robotic ice queen. Too many other good doctors out there (if you do your research) to be seen by one who only sees you as just a...

This review is for Dr Sydney Wu only, not the L&D team at Cornell. Dr Wu was my OBGYN for my first son. She was fine the first visit. At 11 weeks it was discovered there were potential anomalies on the nuchal scan and a high likelihood our little guy would have Down syndrome. That’s where the “fine” experience ended. My husband and I felt routinely pressured to abort, with such comments that she “never encountered a similar scenario where the baby makes it full term”, that my husband and I “are making a decision most people would not”, and eventually, when all the major health issues on scans seemed okay, “even if the baby is physically born fine, he definitely has DS and we will not know the mental capabilities until much later in life”. Thanks, Dr Doom (that was our nickname for her).

While I fully understand that medical professionals need to disclose all possible scenarios, this doctor’s delivery and subsequent communication of especially sensitive news was absolutely inadequate and most of all saddening. If my husband and I weren’t so strong in our convictions, we may have heeded to this practitioner’s doom and gloom… and wouldn’t have our beautiful and healthy boy - yes he has Down syndrome, and yes he is absolutely perfect.

To add to an already lackluster experience, when I went into labor I spoke with Dr Wu, as she was the doctor on-call. I explained that I was in excruciating pain, so much that I had vomited a few times. She told me to wait at home as long as possible because this was my first baby and I was only 2cm the week prior. Instead I only could wait about 2 hours, went in and delivered the baby within 45 min (too late for epidural as I was 9.5 cm on arrival, was a bit of an emergent delivery).

Thankfully, there were no complications related delivery. I actually felt fortunate that Dr Doom didn’t make it to us on time - she walked in a few minutes AFTER I delivered. In fact, the doctor (can’t remember her name unfortunately) and the nurse Sarah were absolute rockstars and I am forever grateful for them. I’m convinced the universe knew that Dr Wu’s presence during my son’s delivery would potentially take away from the joyous moment of his arrival.

Anyway, if someone at Cornell is reading this review and if the following hasn’t been recently addressed - please offer Dr Sydney Wu classes on empathetic communication of stressful and life altering news, and also how to phone triage an almost 39 weeks pregnant woman having...

Dr. Wu is clearly a highly intelligent and competent doctor with excellent credentials. The good review ends there. I did not realize just how poor my experience was until seeing other OBs and realizing what happened to me was not normal. My pregnancy visits were a maximum of 2 minutes and I was essentially only able to ask a question while she was walking out the door. Given this was during a COVID peak, my husband could not come to any appointments so I went alone. I am very efficient- I would not expect a long appointment. I literally just wanted to be able to ask a simple quick question during my visits as this was my first pregnancy and an IVF one at that. Then, the birth. My birth was somewhat traumatic, I pushed for 2 hours, ended up in a c-section and then in the ICU after hemorrhaging a lot of blood. Almost needed a transfusion. My son was also surprisingly born with an extra thumb. Through that, dr. Dobrenis and Yu were very kind and supportive in my brief encounters with them. Dr. Wu did not check in on me or my son at all after birth, in fact even my 6 week post-op appointment was via zoom. No one checked my c section scar, or any part of my body. She just said I was “fine” and had no other remarks. I asked why she thought I hemorrhaged and she totally shut me down. My total experience with her was bizarre and negative. I have no doubt she’s an excellent physician in terms of book smarts. But she needs to really work on bedside manner and patient care. I would only recommend her to someone who’s been pregnant many times before and has 0...