Wolinsky, Dr. Jean-Paul

After looking carefully at three different sets of MRIs, Dr. Wolinsky told me I had myelopathy (spinal cord damage), and his emphatic verbal recommendation to me was to have immediate surgery on my cervical spine (fusion). I have come to believe that this was a misdiagnosis. I followed up with second and third opinions -- one from an orthopedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins and another from a neurosurgeon at the Washington Brain and Spine Institute -- and none of the other physicians agreed with his diagnosis. More than a year later, I am managing the injury via conservative (non-surgical) approaches and have not had the surgery he suggested. Although his written report says that we discussed non-surgical treatments and describes our conversation as presenting different options, during the visit he dismissed non-surgical approaches to treatment as ineffective and emphasized the need for surgery immediately. He also didn't put his verbal recommendation for immediate surgery in his written report.