Dr. Evan D O'Brien, MD

In saw Dr. O’Brien for lower back pain that had been going on for several years. He put me on medications and gave me ...cortisone injections. They did not help much and the medications made me groggy, and the withdraw symptoms in between were very unpleasant. Eventually he recommended I have a 2 level anterior fusion at L4 to S1 which occurred in 2006. After the surgery I had greater pain running down my right leg and horrible back pain where I could only stand for a few minutes at a time. He then suggested after another year of even worse pain to have posterior screws/hardware put in to help immobilize the area, accelerate the fusion, and decrease the pain. This occurred in November 2007. A year and a quarter later I continued to have pain which was getting worse. Dr. O’Brien suggested that perhaps the pain was now due to the additional hardware loosening in my back. The posterior screws were removed in April 2009 and they basically were so loose they fell out. When Dr. O'Brien could no longer do anything for me he passed me onto a pain doctor in late 2009. Today, 7 years after the original surgery I am in more pain than I have ever been in my entire life. I can no longer many activities of every-day living, driving is extremely painful, I can't exercise at all. The surgery in 2006 was the biggest mistake of my life. I now look at my life as "before surgery" and "after surgery". The whole right side of my body is in constant pain now from my right foot to the right side of my neck, even the implantation of a spinal cord stimulator has helped very little so far. I would not recommend this to anyone ever..... more details

In general Dr. O'Brien had a very good bedside manner. I saw him for lower back pain that had been going on for several ...years. He put me on meds and gave me cortisone injections. They did not help much. Eventually he convinced me to have a 2 level anterior fusion at L4 to S1. After the surgery I had greater pain running down my right leg. He then convinced me after a year of pain to have posterior screw put in to help the fusion. A year later I continued to have pain which was getting worse. The posterior screw were removed another year later and they basically were so loose they fell out. Today, 7 years later I am in more pain than I have ever been in my entire life. I can no longer do activities of every day living and can't exercise at all. When Dr. O'Brien could no longer do anything for me he passed me onto a pain doctor . This surgery was the biggest mistake of my life. I now look at my life as "before surgery" and "after surgery". The whole right side of my body is in constant pain now, even the implantation of a spinal cord stimulator has helped very little. I would not recommend this to anyone ever... more details