“Thank you Dr. Segler, and you get my highest recommendation!
I am an avid rock climber and sustained a severe fracture of my right heel in a rock climbing fall (basically crushed it). Bad news!
I was having a very difficult time with getting more than a five minute consult from an expert who’s advice was that after he did surgery I should probably find a different “hobby”, or the familiar brush-off from clinic schedulers (giving me initial appointments two and three weeks out from the date of injury.). I also live in Southern Arizona…a long ways from S.F. and Dr. Segler.
I needed to know the deep details of the nature of my injury, and the possibilities for successful recovery and a return to my active life style. And I was not getting this information.
I needed help in locating the best surgeon that was available to me. Someone I could speak with and someone who understood my needs and goals.
I happened to discover Dr. Segler on-line. Out of desperation I called this Dr. in San Francisco, but I really doubted that I would ever actually speak with him. How wrong I was! He personally answered his phone, ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON, on the way home from a HOUSE CALL! (Huh!? Who is this guy? Super Doc!!?)
He spoke with me for the better part of an hour and recommended that I overnight my CT scan to him for a SKYPE consultation. I did this and he spent ALOT of time with me, as much as I needed. The Skype technology worked great and he was able to give me a detailed analysis of my CT scan (which I could view with him). He gave me an in depth and expert analysis of my fracture and he made sure that I knew exactly what he was talking about. And the billing clock was clearly not running. The only reason I did not jump on a plane to S.F. for Dr. Segler to do the surgery was that he did not recommend it due to the difficulty of closely monitoring the high-risk recovery process related to this surgery after I returned home. He wasn’t fishing for surgery clients.
Yes, he is very knowledgeable, clearly a passionate expert in his field. But more than that he is a real person, a compassionate and understanding person, and a person that DOES NOT answer to Insurance Companies. He answers to you, the patient.
During the consult he did not sugar coat the severity of the injury. In fact he stated clearly that I had a 70% likelihood of acceptable recovery. But he never once indicated in any way at all that I should ever consider giving up my rock climbing lifestyle. In fact he strongly argued the opposite.
After a second day of consultation (with me never having to wait and hope for a callback) Dr. Segler successfully researched a short list of who he would take his heel to in Tucson if he were in my shoes…(shoe!). Three days later I was in a consult with one of these recommendations, a great surgeon who concured on every point with Dr. Segler’s analysis. A few days later this surgeon did my surgery.
Now, ten weeks post injury I’m getting back to climbing and the foot feels great (although I do still have a few weeks of recovery left). Thanks to Dr. Segler I truly believe that I dodged a bullet.”
Scott E., Bisbee, AZ