Heckl Frank R MD

Waited 1.5 hours to be seen. Then he wouldn’t let me talk. Said he was running out of time… I was the one who had to wait! Lectured me because I wouldn’t listen. Suggested treatment already tried by past docs but wouldn’t hear me out! He is so FIRED! If I get cut off by my Dr because it took so long for him to see me, then I did not receive the adequate level of care.

Supposedly one of the most skilled laproscopic surgeons in NM… such a shame. I do not like writing negative reviews, especially about individuals in professional careers, but this incident from late 2007 stays in my mind. While moving my knee my alert went up that he was pushing my foot against his crotch! I tried to reassure myself that he needed to place my foot against his thigh for leverage, but this was just not that. Throughout the appointment he made 3 comments about how large my breasts were and it was no wonder I had injured my knee as most female runners «have no chest, are basically just bones and thighs.» I told him I really wanted to run again and asked if I could hike in my current condition. He asked me, «why are you hiking? Shouldn’t you be biking across America for breast cancer?» I gave him a weird look and he responded with, «I’m just saying.» He also started talking to me about Jesus and how God can take what is most important from you to test you. He told me that I should go and have a cup of green tea and think about all of the things he said to me so that I could change my young girl mentality and develop it into the professional woman/​future me mentality. He thought I could make my family proud, especially if I were to lose some weight and start running again. Normally I am an assertive person, but I felt really powerless during this encounter and didn’t respond to any of he comments. I guess I couldn’t believe this was really happening. He was really excited to work with me, but I didn’t trust him and my gut instinct told me something was wrong. After all of the talking he did, he only spent about 1 minute explaining what a torn lateral meniscus is. I cancelled all of my future appts. My primary care provider told me that Dr. Heckle called him to let him know he met me. He said that Dr. Heckle «raved» about me and was excited to have me as a patient. I told my doctor about my experience with Dr. Heckle and he told me that Dr. Heckle experienced a great family tragedy. We speculated this could be impacting his patient rapport. Who knows! Ultimately, I never went back and still feel violated about the whole experience. I don’t believe it was just me being nervous around a male physician as I trust my primary care physician who is male to do my annual physical, and we get along great. I can’t review Dr. Heckle’s actual surgical skill, but feel that my review is important. Ultimately I just didn’t think I could feel comfortable going under anasthesia to let him operate on my knee.