Infectious Disease Doctors - Seattle, WA

"I was referred to Dr. Pottinger diagnosed as having a somewhat uncommon parasite by my primary care physician. I suppose that due to the rarity of the parasite, Dr. Pottinger decided PRIOR to even seeing me that I could not possibly have not only the rare parasite I was diagnosed with, but any parasite at all. He diagnosed me with "delusional parasitosis", a syndrome that is supposed to require the elimination of the possibility that there is a real parasite before making a positive diagnosis. Dr. Pottinger made no attempt to investigate prior to diagnosing me, completely disregarding my referring physicians diagnosis. I requested that he run tests before I accepted his diagnosis as fact. He related to me through e-mail that the results had come back negative, but when I looked into the lab results I found that he had ordered a cancellation. Even if he had not cancelled the test, the test he claimed to have run would have been the wrong kind of test to confirm my previous diagnosis from a primary care physician who had spent several hours with me over a number of visits, in stark contrast with the attention I received from Dr. Pottinger for whom none of the five minutes he spent with me was spent actually looking at me, or in any way trying to diagnosis me- though he was brimming over with confidence as to how he had seen so many cases like mine and was able to make great progress with these patients (never curing them though) by putting them on a course of antipsychotic medications and regular visits with a psychiatrist. It seems just a little irresponsible to me for Dr. Pottinger to refute the previous diagnosis of my physician for no other reason than that he felt I could not have the condition due to it's rarity. I was referred up to the University of Washington Medical center specifally because my condition IS Rare... but rare is not synonymous with impossible. Having been diagnosed with such a rare condition, I studied it and educated myself about what I had. Some of the things Dr. Paul Pottinger said regarding this affliction when I questioned his diagnosis revealed his near ignorance of the disease. When I referred him to articles in The journal of Medicine that refuted his stated beliefs about my disease, he ceased communication with me and terminated me as a patient. Now my primary care physician and I do not know who to turn to for help with treatment. This physician, Paul Stuart Pottinger, left me high and dry. The disease I have is not life-threatening, and will not disable me, but it is very difficult to live with and manage, which in istelf is disabling. I suppose if a negligent misdiagnoses not something that lawyers would take on as a malpractice case, then it is not something that will really give doctors pause when they dismiss a patients health care needs."

"Would not believe me or my husband that I had experienced a classic bullseye rash and other serious symptoms of Lyme Disease including meningitis type symptoms but tested me for syphilis and sent me on my way. Afterwards I was diagnosed with Lyme, Bartonella, Active EBV, Active Cytomegalovirus, and other active infections. He has expressed an interest in Lyme Disease on websites but is not open minded enough to really investigate it or the many other infections that often accompany Lyme in a person who has a compromised immune system. If you are considering seeing him - well, JUST DON'T."