Claude D. Gelinas MD

give it up jacque. if you had any honor at all you would write this stuff under you own name. all these folks come here looking for help and expect a modicum of reliability and honesty. what would they think if they knew you were hiding behing the cloak of anonymity? although, jacque, you are not very anonymous in the above missive. most of it is directly from your own playbook. you said many of those things, verbatim, to me as i sat across from you in the exam room. oh, but that would require you to be familiar and on agreeable terms with a concept and term of which you are obviously blissfully and conveniently unaware. want to take a poke at it jacque? well, i will give you a little hint...its spelled. "h-o-n-o-r". come on there sport....the first line of the Physician Assistant's Oath goes like this:
"I pledge to perform the following duties with honesty and dedication:"
see that word that starts with "h"? its part of "honor". come on and get out there jacque!
i could really have you on with respect to the rest of this oath you took, sport. if everyone else (especially your patients) could read the oath you swore when you became a physician's assitant and knew that you promised to truly strive to serve its spirit and meaning, i wonder how trusting they would be? you should try a little harder to adhere to the spirit of the thing if nothing else. just sayin' sport.
oh, whats that you say.....me? well, now jacque, i am the humble little peon man on the street.... the one who grovels and creates drama because i know so little and must come to you and those so anointed with medical knowledge and wisdom. what would anyone want with my name and identity? retaliation maybe? have a nice day jacque!

He is amazing!!!!

I've had two surgeries with Dr Gelines and two with another doctor prior. Dr Gelines is the best I wasn't walking when I first saw him in 2007. After fusion of l3,4,5 and 5s1 I was walking again. I have genitive disc disease so in 2011 I had l1,2 fused, I'm still walking 5 miles a day. I have recommended Dr Gelines to too many people to count. Again he is the best.

Dr. Gelinas fused a vertebra in my neck in 2001 after a car wreck and the result has been perfect. I also had major lower spine surgery by Dr. Paterson in 2014 and it, too, has been a perfect result.

Despite the allegations Dr. Gelinas has faced, it doesn't change the fact he is human and made human mistakes, not malpractice against his patients. He's human unfortunately with MD his name he's held to a higher standard. He never came to the OR drunk jeopardizing his patients care in ANY way.
Even though he said arrogant as he'll, he cared. A young ambitious surgeon does not make money by telling people with many spinal problems not to have surgery. He monitored me conservatively for 2.5 years and still wouldn't operate no matter how much I wanted him to. I was 24 at the time, 2 years into my career. He warned me that I would not be happy if I had surgery. 20 years later and multiple car accidents later with my neck inoperable because of all the damage I've acquired over the years, I can look back and say"good" I listened to Dr. Gelinas and I still have my quality of life. He truly looked out for my best interests and I was able to live on in my life. Remaining functional for all these years was essential to my survival. The thought of disability was an early fear of mine because of my 2 shoulder surgeries in 99 & 00, left me unable to supposedly lift more then 20lbs for the rest of my life, like I said, supposedly. My neck pain has never stopped me till now. I have Dr. Gelinas to thank for that, he gave me more hope for the 20 years of extra life, I had despite my neck problems. He's not responsible for causing a disability in me, he's responsible for the life I was able to continue living all because he refused to do operate on my neck. There shold be more doctors out there like him, who truly look out for their patient's best interests

i agree with you. Dr. Gelinas was a cool surgeon. He cared about his patients. He really looked out for me after surgery. He went the extra mile to help me try and recover from serious back surgery. He did his part, and I tried my best to do mine. I saw so many people give up after back surgery. They did not engage in dedicated physical rehabilitation. They would rather complain about what did not go right, than to try and focus on the positives.

PLEASE people realize that people who had bad experiences are going to tell more people then any, research shows this, when a negative result is encountered for every one positive result 3 more people will talk about their negative results. I'm not is anyway condoning his outside activity. Back surgery is not a gurentee by any means. 50% result is best. Even with these CDC guild lines, doctors have come forward and said these spinal surgeries are NOT gurantee of any to return to pre incident status. Most end up worse off. I'm so glad he warned me. A doctor offered to decompress my neck at C7-T1 in 2004 because I had a 3mm herniation abutting the C8 nerve root. I refused remembering vividly what Dr. Gelinas had told me. If you look at the true anatomical structure of the neck with all the ligaments and tendons. An anterior discetomy moves these important anatomical structures to the side not to mention the esophagus as well. Add the anterior fusion approach and these ligaments are cut in order to access the damaged area. Ligaments are vitally important to the stability of the neck. These are cut, this is why surgeries to the spine almost always gurrantee future surgeries, loss of stabilitiy. The nerves are RIGHT IN THE WAY as well and are very sensitive to any irritation. FACT OF LIFE. If more patients were aware of all this progressive anatomical destruction involved and the overall anatomy as well, they would never agree to such an involved procedure. Even the CDC has said these doctors have caused the problem by performing minimally successful surgeries just to appease a unfortunately ignorant patient about the low success rates. These surgeries have been considered to be butcherous quick fixes in nature because they violate the natural body mechanics and this is NOT because of the surgeon's technique. I'm talking about the procedure itself not the surgeon botching the job. 2 totally different issues.
Unfortunately today because doctors are forced by continuous insurance cuts to see more and more patients, we have the be more informed regarding our health then previously. Being a respiratory therapist, doctors have to build a trust with me but I go in with my guard up and unless I see rationale for the other way I discuss my concerns, very vocally I may add.
I DO NOT excuse his actions outside of work in any way shape or form. I despise of alcohol and don't drink, I can't because not only because of my current medications but I also have epilepsy and alcohol reduces my seizure threshold an $8000 mistake I will never forget. I worked at Circle K for 9 months, again a job I had to take because no one will hire me with my injury list in a hospital anymore. Occupational health turns their back on me hearing the injury list and enclose the medication list and thats the deal breaker no matter what a doctor says. I've been through this situation enough to know and it's traumatizing. I'm doing everything I can to make sure I'm able to work, actively participating in my own treatment so I can stand on my own 2 feet and someone has to be SO judgemental and form their erroneus perception about me because of the prescribed treatment I'm undergoing. Healthcare practioners are the worst at that.
If you look a the life of luxary he lived, having a Porsche and a large family, that has been loudly publicized, his wife obviously couldn't come down the middle class like the rest of us and it destroyed their marriage. Reality sucks, living beyond your means is not all it's cracked up to be.
I'm still walking around because of his judgement call.had I had surgery and been in the continuing number of car accidents I've been in, I'd be in a wheel chair right now and more then likely a quadraplegic. I may be bankrupt because of all the money I've put forth to receive my treatment but I can still walk around and say I'm a success. In 2011 when I was working at Lowes, he came into the store and didn't recognize me but I did and told him I was the respiratory therapist the wouldn't die, that was all that was needed to spark his memory. I made that much of an impression.

Replies like yours do not help anyone. You are just here to rant about your own life and make judgment calls about others that have no place in the discussion. Sounds like you need psychological therapy now. YOU are a part of the PROBLEM.

All I'm saying is there's 2 sides to every story. This doctor has helped many and vice versa medical science is not a given. Who are you to say I need serious psychological help? I've done research. What problem? If you can't tell me then you need to thing about your words. There's good and bad about every physician, if you must insult me take a look a yourself, your having issues too. Of course I am my life is a shattered image of it's former self. My healthcare career was off to wonderful start, then the start of my what would become an eventual nightmare. Dr. Gelinas helped me to through an extremely tough time by being . We've all had different experiences with doctors. I'm merely expressioning my pisitivr rxperience with detaiks and what's wrong with that

Two sides? Hmmm... that would be, 1.) your side and 2.) your side... and "serious" psychological help? you added in "serious" to stress the point yourself. LOL. Do you hijack a lot of threads, so you can talk about yourself? You are "merely" expressing your "POSITIVE" experience? You got on here to personally put down Dr. Gelinas and his wife, and interfere with their private lives. GET OVER YOURSELF AND GO AWAY.

Everyone's had 2 different types of responses and I've been dealt what I've been dealt and just making the positive note of it or trying to.. If you can't see that go find some help to see that there's life beyond chronic psin. If you can't have a somewhat positive attitude you're the one who needs to go away"bite me"

and no I don't, I'm just being positive or trying to be, it's not about me, I just share my story but I'm one hell of a listener. Gelinas is not a complete monster, enough said

I like and respect Dr, Gelinas, more then anything, he cares and I'm truly sorry about what happened betwenn him and his wife. Dr. Gelinas alalways kept my best interests at heart.

Tell me about why you're so negative, towards everything and what your spinal problems are. I have a story to tell we all do why don't you share yours

Does anyone know how I can contact Dr gelinas I was supposed yo have a spinal surgery in 2005 and I didn't do it. Is he still a surgen? I am having trouble finding a surgen orothpedic surgen.. Who specializes in spinal fusion other then gelinas if he isn't available?