Dr. Nutik

[DarleneN]

Hi Everyone!

Has anyone had AN surgery by Dr.  Stephen L. Nutik?  He works out of the Redwood City's Kaiser Hospital in Northern California.  We are trying to find out how people feel about him as a neurosurgeon.

Thanks,
Darlene

[leapyrtwins]

Darlene -

I searched on "Dr. Nutik" and found this thread http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=6395.0

If you look at the bottom of page 1, you'll see that "Kelli" had surgery with him.  You might want to PM her.

Jan

[Mark]

Hi Everyone!

Has anyone had AN surgery by Dr.  Stephen L. Nutik?  He works out of the Redwood City's Kaiser Hospital in Northern California.  We are trying to find out how people feel about him as a neurosurgeon.

Thanks,
Darlene

Dr. Nutik was who I first met with when I was diagnosed and in Kaiser ( fortunately, I was able to escape into a PPO my company had). I did not like him, cold fish personality and immediately was willing to do a translab even though I had perfectly good hearing. Based on some research I did, I would consider him a very competent neurosurgeon, but not necessarily a world class AN guy, but that is certainly only a subjective assessment .

Mark

[Syl]

Darlene

I met with Dr. Nutik for his opinion. He recommended translab, but it seems to me that neurosurgeons are more likely than neurotologist to recommend translab. I chose to stay with Dr. Kato and her team because I felt comfortable with her.

I think there are some folks in the ANA local support group up in Fair Oaks who had him as their surgeon. But I don't know whether they would or wouldn't recommend him.

Syl 

[Guitarmn50]

Hi Everyone!

Has anyone had AN surgery by Dr.  Stephen L. Nutik?  He works out of the Redwood City's Kaiser Hospital in Northern California.  We are trying to find out how people feel about him as a neurosurgeon.

Thanks,
Darlene

Very nice man: I met him nine months ago when I was first diagnosed with AN. I spoke with him last week, and without hesitation he felt radiation would be a better option for me than surgery. He recommended Dr Tse who completed neurology and neurosurgery at Stanford.

[msswartz]

Hi,

I recently had my AN removed by Dr Stephen Nutilk in Redwood City, Kaiser.  And though he does not seem to be the most friendly person to me, he has had over 35 years of experience doing this kind of surgery.  Technically he did a good job on me.  I am just going through some of the normal but unfortunate after effects of this kind of thing.  But he said he is pretty much Kaiser, Northern Calif's Go-To guy for this kind of tumor.  He used to be the head of neurosurgery too.  He is a very serious guy and is supposed to be very good. 

Initially he was very nice, very serious, but friendly.  He encouraged me to explore the cyber-knife option with Dr Tse (pronounced Shay) and helped me to decide.  Based on the advice about my particular tumor size and location, I opted for open surgery.   The followup has been interesting.  And in all fairness I think it is effected by the personalities involved and I have been very anxious about my recovery and have probably tested his patience.   Having said that, he has always answered my follow up emails and inquiries but his answers have been short and to the point, nothing really friendly.  When I saw him for the followup, he seemed genuinely sorry for what I was going through and seemed very confident that I would recover fully in time.  It is my body and my life so I am more emotional about it.   He seems like a very good but a very business-like doctor to me.  But again, he did a very good job on me and getting the tumor out is what was important.

Michael

[jacobson69]

Hi Darlene,

I had a retrosigmoid surgery in Kaiser Redwood city with Dr. Nutik on May, 2008 and I had the best outcome possible with him.  If you choose him to be your neurosurgeon, you will be in *excellent* hands!  During our initial interview he took time to listened and answer my all my questions and concerns.  He was very warm and kind and I felt very reassured.  I also notice that took pride in his work.  My husband was there with me and he agreed he was a sure winner.  The night before the surgery, I emailed him to recap our plan: to go ahead sacrifice my hearing nerve, take out my AN as much as possible, and leave my facial nerve alone even if there was some residual AN left.  He did just that.  My recovery was quick and after almost 2 years post surgery, my only side effect is deafness on my right ear.  I hope my post is helpful and good luck to you on this journey!

Hui