Dr. Shahinian in Los Angeles, CA saved my husband's life!

[eronrabun]

This is for anyone who is considering going to LA for Dr Shahinian...
HE SAVED MY HUSBAND'S LIFE.  In October of 2005, my 25 year old husband was diagnosed with a 3cm acoustic neuroma.  We were presented with the option of the "traditional" operation or the new endoscopic procedure.  After MUCH research, we weighed our options and decided to fly from Georgia to California for this "New" procedure.  Considering the fact that Dr Shahinian has preformed over 200 of these surgeries and averages one per day, we felt extremely confident in his ability.  We were SCARED TO DEATH for the month of research & waiting.  The second that we met Dr Shahinian, all of our fears were gone.  He was the most confidant (without be remotely arrogant) physician that we had ever met.  We sat in his office for the consultation and he answered any and all questions that we had.  We honestly left his office feeling like a weight had been lifted.  We knew everything was going to be alright.  He told us exactly what to expect and exactly what he would do.

My husband's surgery was on Halloween of 2005 (now 2.5 months ago) and now he is doing GREAT!  With the old/traditional procedure my husband was told to expect to be out of work for 6 months.  He went back to work part time YESTERDAY!  He has NO facial nerve damage, NO balance issues, and NO CSF leakage!!!  I truly believe that Dr Shahinian is sent my God to heal.  He is an absolutely amazing physician!!  We have NO REGRETS about chosing him.  If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to contact me.  I would be more than happy to share our experiences.

[jamie]

Thanks for sharing your story. Although I already had treatment with CyberKnife, I am very intrigued by the endoscopic approach. There are some negative things circulating out there about that procedure, however it mostly seems based in theory rather than actual data, the same goes for radiosurgery. In the unfortunate and unlikely event my CK treatment were to fail, I will definitely consult with Dr. Shahinian and find out more about the procedure and the actual risks. Thanks again.

[eronrabun]

jamie:  Good luck with your results!  I truly hope everything goes well for you!

You are most certainly correct about there being some negative things circulating out there about the endoscopic procedure.  When we talked to Dr. Shahinian and his staff about this, they told us some very interesting facts.  Most of the cause of the bad publicity comes from other ENT physicians.  With Dr Shahinian's procedure, the middle man (in this case, the ENT) is not needed.  What does this create?  A loss of patients and a loss of MONEY for lots of ENTs.  Of course they don't like him... he is taking away their patients.  I can almost bet you that you won't find an ENT that comes to visit his/her patients in the hospital 3 (yes 3!) times per day!  That is what Dr S did for my husband and his other patient that we met on the same hospital floor.  Keep in mind that he visited us 3 times per day and his wife had just a baby the previous weekend!  Now THAT'S a dedicated and genuinely concerned physician!   

[eronrabun]

Just as an update on my husband's recovery:
As I mentioned earlier, he had surgery on Oct 31, 2005.  So it's been a little over 2 months.  Well, last night we actually went to the gym and played a little raquetball!  Granted we went not diving for the ball and being as competitive as we usually are, but we were able to hit back and forth for about 30 minutes!  Dr Shahinian's results are absolutely amazing!!  We continue to be amazed each and every day!
For those of you confused about the doctors... PLEASE do research on The Skull Base Institute and Dr Shahinain!  I would hate to even think about the results if we had the procedure done the traditional way.

[Schleprock]

My husband was just told he had this, so we are pretty new to the situation ourselves.  Hearing your story gives us both a very positive feeling after much worry, and from reading about the side effects from all the procedures.  We are also concerned about our financial situation and whether insurance will cover the procedure your husband had.  Just curious since this type of surgery is new.

[eronrabun]

Schleprock:

Yes, our insurance was a nightmare!  Since we are both young & fresh out of college (aka BROKE), we really had nothing to lose.  We had to fight the insurance company and call them back constantly.  They key was persistence!  When they say, "NO" ... ask why and keeping on pushing until you get what you want.  We talked to supervisor after supervisor.  Once we got pretty high up in the chain of command, we finally got results.  OUr doctor had to write 2 letters explaining the severity of our case and our need to see a physician that far away (we live in GA). 
On a positive note, our insurance FINALLY gave in and pre-approved this procedure.  They had never heard of it and had no precertification codes for it.  We actually set the codes & costs for future patients.  We have Blue Cross Blue Shield of GA.

I wish you the best.  IF you have ANY questions... please dont hesitate to contact me by email!

-Eron