Richard Rooney, MD, FACS

I had a very bad experience. this Dr. spent very little time evaluating my situation, sent me to have steroid injections which ended up being in the wrong spot. After the injections failed to help he told me that my only other options would be a life of pain killers or having my discs fused. I sought a second opinion from another Dr. who spent longer evaluating my symptoms, got my steroid injections right and am now pain free and have never needed surgery. it blows my mind that a Dr. would rush so quickly to prescribing such an intense and risky surgery before exhausting all options. It’s possible that he is a very good surgeon but I wouldn’t recommend him for other treatment

I have never spent any time writing a review for anything, much less something so incredibly important. I’ve tried several drafts but am simply unable to communicate what I would really like to in 5000 characters, so I have to omit large sections of what happened that led me to Dr. Rooney. If you are at the point of seeing Dr. Rooney, you know you are in pretty bad shape. I was in Houston visiting my family when another person ran a red light going 65 and I was going with traffic and the speed limit (65) when we collided. I have to skip over this part to get to now, but know that the experience was more than horrible. I was in a tremendous amount of pain when I finally arrived back in Seattle. I went immediately to my doc, who because of his own bias and judgements decided that, no I really didn’t need much. He was so very wrong. But that’s another story. I suffered tremendously for months before his P.A. took pity on me and tried very hard to get me into the Swedish Spine Clinic, where I went to session after session of p/​t, Bowenwork, acupressure, and more. I met Dr. Tomski (absolutely wonderful doc, you are lucky if you have him working on you), who after trying and trying, realized that it simply wasn’t working. He ordered a procedure called a discogram, where they pump material directly into your spine to determine exactly what is wrong. And they found that one of my discs, for want of the correct medical term, was dead. That was what was causing all my pain. All of it. Every time my great dane ran past me on the stairs, or knocked me over, or if I slipped in the garden it just got worse and worse and worse. It was so bad that if I needed to drive across town to pick up my son, and if he left me sitting in that position for more than ten minutes or so, tears would just start pouring down my face. It was really, really bad. So, discogram! We found that without question the auto accident was the cause of the problem, period. Do you know that at times there was so much pain that sometimes my fingers would curl into claws? That was hard. Literally, every waking moment was true agony. I simply didn’t know any human being could take that much pain and survive. When I finally met Dr. Rooney, and the wonderful Lindsey (the person whom I suspect really runs Dr. Rooney’s office!) do you know what he said to me? He said «if you trust me I can take all your pain away. I know exactly what’s wrong and I promise I can fix you». Obviously, there was a lot more, but I’m very limited by space, so have to skip over quite a bit. But I did trust him. He made it easy. Lindsey made it easy to trust her. When the insurance company refused the operation, I called Lindsey, who said very forcefully that I was not to worry about anything and that she and Dr. Rooney would fight them, and that there was ZERO question the operation to fix my spine was the only way it would ever be fixed and they would make it happen. She said to do everything I could and just survive. That if I could just give her a few more days, and to not lose hope, they would prevail. That was the hardest few days of my life. I’m out of space so allow me to say this. If Dr. Rooney says he can do something, listen. And TRUST. He really can. Lindsey is so beautiful outside, but she absolutely glows from the inside and you know without question she really cares about YOU. They both do. They went to the mat for me and sure enough the insurance company backed down and authorized the op. When you have had an experience like mine, believe me, meeting them was nothing short of a miracle. I mean it. This team is the best you could have, and they have made my life whole again. I’m three weeks out from the operation, and all, please let me repeat that. ALL of my old pain is gone. Just like he said it would. Please listen to me. I wake up every morning smiling! Yes it hurts a lot to move, but I can move. This hurt is slowly getting better. Before it was slowly getting worse, and worse and worse. Dr. Rooney really and truly fixed me. You could not be in better hands. Period. If this helps even one person, and I hope it does, I am happy to use my terrible experience to encourage anyone finding themselves in the same spot that there is hope. Life can and will get better. It really will. I’m living proof. I wish you all the very best, and have faith. You can get your life back. It’s hard, it’s tough. It will be the hardest challenge of your life, but… it is possible to reclaim what was lost. Make your family help you, mine did not. Seek the best. Dr. Rooney and Lindsey are the best. :)