Merit F. Gadallah, MD

My wife and I were traveling to Hawaii and had a connection in Phoenix. While walking to the connection gate, I stumbled with arms and hands full unable to catch my fall. My left eye was slammed into the concourse floor in such a way and force that it ruptured my left eye globe. I had received a cornea transplant 43 years earlier making my eye vulnerable to such an incident. The day was a Sunday and the time was approximately 8pm in Phoenix, 11pm in Florida. My wife called Nadine, nurse/assistant for Dr. Merit Gadallah and she answered at that time and day. She had my wife take pictures and send to her. She conferred with Dr. G and called back telling my wife to not let me on a plane and to make sure EMT's knew of my eye history. She indicated she would begin calling ophthalmologist in the area for emergency treatment. We did not really know the extent of my injury and I had already rejected treatment from the EMT team. She called back indicating due to the time night that I should go to the ER and she had an appointment the following Monday with a local ophthalmologist. She and Dr. G did all of this while awaiting the return of the EMT team to arrive. They transported me to the ER in Phoenix where emergency surgery was done to enclose the hole in my eye. i later was told that I had blown out the prior 43 year old cornea transplant (while still attached, however) along with a portion of my iris and also my lens (kind of a self inflicted cataract surgery without the replacement lens). The repair surgery was successful but I was told to be sure to follow up with my ophthalmologist once released and back home. The following day Nadine contacted us to see how things were progressing. After discussion, it was determined to cancel my appointment in Phoenix she had set up for me. Later she called back to inform us of what we should do upon our return to Naples. She indicated that she was unable to obtain an appointment for me upon my return at the local Naples Bascom Palmer Clinic but learned that if we went to the Bascom Palmer Emergency Clinic in Miami, they would prioritize my condition and I would be seen immediately there with ultimate transfer to Naples for care. All of that went as planned and it was nice to have had all handled by Nadine and Dr. G. I was very thankful that my wife had someone to talk her through each step of the way, especially stopping me from making that connection, as well as the effort to set up/understand next steps as we progressed on the journey from Phoenix back to Florida. It has been a long slow road now 15 months since the accident but all is progressing well and I have faith that full restoration of sight in that eye will be the end result. Having a call taken at 11pm on a Sunday evening is very reassuring as we move forward in this aging process.

In November 2021 I was diagnosed with a severe compression of the spinal cord due to stenosis, L3-4, L4-5, that had reached the point where I had real difficulty walking. Following lumbar neurosurgery my condition progressively worsened. The surgical team thought this was due to lower extremity neuropathy and was ready to refer me to a neurologist for treatment, physical therapy. I took all my records to my MDVIP physician, Dr. Gadallah (known to his patients as “Dr. G”) who, being the exceptional internist and careful, thorough detective that he is, determined that I did not have neuropathy but, rather, most probably stenosis compressing the spinal cord at other levels of the spine that required further evaluation. Dr. Gadallah told me I had a problem that we would have one opportunity to fix and needed to be seen by the best. Before entering private practice, Dr. G was the Director of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, and later held the same position at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH. He referred me to the Cleveland Clinic FL where it was determined that I did, indeed, have more stenosis/severe spinal cord compression from C-3 thru T-1. Diagnostic studies revealed that my spinal cord was so compressed from C-3 thru T-1 that it was no wider than a sewing thread. The neurosurgeon moved me up the surgery schedule because he was concerned that if “[you] so much as turned [your] head sharply [you] could sever the cord and I can’t fix that”. Had it not been for Dr. G that may well have been my fate. Dr.Gadallah made sure I had the finest neurosurgeon and care at the Cleveland Clinic FL—that I was being taken care of by a neurosurgeon with “the eyes of an eagle, the heart of a lion, and the hands of an artist”. I could not have received better treatment and care at the Cleveland Clinic FL, and oversight by Dr. Gadallah. Because of Dr. G’s careful, considered analysis the 5 level cervical spinal cord compression was discovered and successfully surgically treated. I continue to recover lower extremity mobility strength, mobility, balance, and have full range of motion of my neck and head following 5/20/2022 surgery. I am eternally grateful for Dr. Gadallah—he is an exceptional physician with a heart and really cares about his patients. Thank you Dr. G.

When's the last time you heard of a doctor spending this kind of time with a patient? Faced with a decision about how to best treat a serious medical condition that was diagnosed by a specialist doctor, I called the office and said I would like to speak with Doctor G, as he is affectionately called by the staff, to get his opinion. I was surprised when the office manager asked if it would be okay for him to call me on Saturday. Of course that was okay with me but I never expected my doctor to do that. On Saturday, I spent abut 30 minutes on the phone with Dr G but he wanted to do a little more research about my question so he asked if he could call me back on Sunday! Sunday afternoon we spent another 20 minutes on the phone and I left that call confident in how I wanted to go forward. Fast forward several months, the procedure is behind me, I fee great and am grateful for Dr G's generous sharing of his time and his wise counsel. I am very satisfied with my decision to join MDVIP and am fortunate to have such a good doctor who really cares.

I've been an MDVIP patient for several years and became a patient of Dr Gaddalah (Dr G as he is affectionately called) four years ago when my wife and I relocated to Naples. I've been very satisfied with my relationship with Dr G. He and his team are very responsive and live up to the high standards set by MDVIP for patient care and responsiveness. Most recently I needed to speak with Dr G about a reoccurrence of prostate cancer. He called me over the weekend and we spoke at length about my diagnosis and the option for treatment being recommended by my urologist. He wanted to do more research and so we spoke again later in the day after he spent two hours on line doing his research. He raised several good questions and suggested that I get a second opinion before proceeding. As a result of his counsel, I will likely take a different course of action than originally planned and feel like I'm headed in the right direction. I'm glad to be an MDVIP member and thankful to have Doctor G as my doctor.