Dr. Alisa Janell Newman, MD

The incident happened Thursday morning and I’ve waited until Sunday night to write this to make sure I was not writing out of anger. 

I've had chronic ear infections my whole life. When I felt one coming on a few days ago, I began antibiotic drops as usual. Then, I started having an intense pain, dizziness, and muffled hearing. I went to the Advent Health Westchase ER at 5am and saw Dr. Newman. After looking at my ear for a few seconds, Dr. Newman said I had no signs of infection or swelling, and the eardrum looked fine, so there was nothing to do. At this point, I am hysterically crying from pain and practically screaming that I know something is wrong. She just coldly repeated herself saying nothing was wrong and told me to go to a PCP or ENT instead.

After a miserable 10 hours, I went to an ENT at 3pm to find out that my ear was so swollen he needed a smaller tool to see my eardrum. I have major swelling, an outer ear infection, an impacted eardrum, and fluid behind the eardrum. I was prescribed multiple antibiotics and steroids to deal with it all.

I know ER doctors are expected to know everything, and it is a very difficult job. Also, if it was just the inner ear issues that are hard to see and require specialized tools and training, I wouldn't be so upset. However, based on the ENT's assessment, there is no way Dr. Newman could have seen my eardrum with the outer infection and swelling to tell me it was fine. I felt like I did not get a proper assessment and when I pushed back saying I knew something was wrong, she just repeated that there was nothing there. I felt like she was not listening to me and based on the ENT’s description, she likely did not do a proper evaluation.