Pulmonologists - Saint Louis, MO

"This doctor is the very worst when it comes to interpersonal relations and also medical competence. We had a terrible experience with him when our son was admitted to Children's hospital with acute respiratory distress. His first mistake (despite our concerns) was discharging him after only one night breathing on his own without oxygen and with O2 SATs still around 90. This resulted in yet another rush to the emergency room and a second admit a day later. Second time around he went in the opposite direction and when our son was finally doing much better he fixated on his weight. Our son was low weight at 5th percentile but only because he had been in hospital and hadn't been eating well. He always gained the weight back much faster at home but instead of listening to us he told us they would keep our child in hospital for another 2 weeks or as long as it took for him to gain weight. He was advocating for putting in a nasogastric tube for a kid that was recovering well and eating on his own. It was absolutely crazy and caused us a lot of stress when we were already beside ourselves with worry for our son. His manner was rude and uncaring. It was obvious he had a huge ego and privately several nurses confided to us that he was a nightmare to work with. He then prescribed a reflux related drug for my son without consulting us first. He insisted our son had reflux despite our repeated assertions that he did not. Our son later underwent extensive testing to check for reflux and it was confirmed that he did not have any, nor has he ever had reflux since that time. Two days after he told us our now recovered child would have to stay in hospital for another two to three weeks Dr. Rubenstein thankfully went home for the weekend. The resident doctors came to check on our son and we told them everything Dr. Rubenstein had said. They immediately agreed that none of this was necessary and discharged our son from the hospital. We went through all this stress and heartache because Dr. Rubenstein made the mistake of discharging our son too early the first time and then took out his guilt or embarrassment on us and our child. I will never forget the pain he caused us and the only reason we didn't complain at the time or sue this man was because our son was admitted to hospital many times per year and we were afraid that his life could be placed in the hands of this doctor once again. The doctors and nurses at CHOP are generally excellent and we are so grateful to them for their repeated care of our son over the years. However, I would avoid this heartless man (and incompetent doctor) at all costs. "