Why Getting A Second Opinion Is Your First Best Move – A Personal Experience
By Peter H. Babagian
May, 13, 2013
My son recently had an issue with his knee. I wish to share it with you. Having gone through this ordeal with my
son has taught me more about how and what I do as a professional than anything else in a very long time.
October, 2012 my son Stephen, starting tight-end for his JV football team, took a hit to the knee while making a
reception. After limping off the field and being checked out by the team trainer, not only did he return to the
game, but he finished the season. Additionally, he began playing basketball shortly thereafter.
About halfway throughout basketball season, he came to me and said he could no longer keep ignoring the pain in
his right knee and asked that we see a doctor. I told him that of course we can see a doctor, but first, let’s find
out what we are going to see them about.
So our first step in getting to the specialist was to ask a trusted friend of ours whose son had had a couple of knee
related surgeries who they used. Additionally, I thought that we should at least seek the advice of a generalist to
find out which type of specialist Stephen needed. The generalist’s guess was that there probably was some PCL
ligament damage. He recommended a sports orthopedic surgeon who specializes in treating athletes at the
collegiate level who also happened to be the orthopedic our family friend used for his son and recommended. So
we thought, great! Surely, we are being taken care of. That was towards the end of January, 2013.
Now it’s February 2013 and we are meeting with a well-known collegiate orthopedic (Doctor #1) who seemed very
knowledgeable because he immediately began telling us the possibilities of what could be wrong… starting with
the severity of the bow-leggedness as well as what he perceived to be the looseness of the right knee and LCL… He
did rule out any damage to the PCL or MCL but also scheduled an MRI and X-rays to be sure his hunches were
correct.
We, not being at all familiar with his expertise, thanked him for seeing us on such short notice and told him that
we felt more comfortable working with an orthopedic that specializes in sports injuries mainly because my son’s
goal is to get a college scholarship for football! We set the appointment for the MRI and X-rays.
Later in the same month we are now meeting with Doctor #1 after he and the radiologist had a chance to review
the results of the tests. Doctor #1 read the report out loud and indicated that the radiologist found nothing
remarkable about Stephen’s ligaments or his bone structure as it pertains to being too bowlegged. Doctor #1 was
so bothered by the radiologist lack of finding that he got him on the speaker phone right then and there and
began arguing with him about what he thought was damage to the LCL as well as the severity of the bow in his
legs. After a bit, the radiologist mind must have been changed because he did later change his findings to possibly
a slight abnormality to the LCL.
With that, Doctor #1 then looks at my son and says he will need to have surgery to correct the slight degree of
bow in his leg before they can fix the LCL... His solution was to perform a high tibial osteotomy… which is basically
cutting the top half of the tibia (large lower leg bone) almost in half, then wedging cadaver bone and/or plastic to
straighten the bow to relieve the extra pressure that places on the LCL… which means roughly 6 months of
recovery time before the bone could heal enough to go back in and then fix the LCL with an additional surgery…
and all this is contingent upon how an otherwise healthy bone that was cut would heal with cadaver and plastic
bits and pieces wedged into it.
You could just imagine the devastation of my son’s morale now that he was just told he will miss his junior year in
football (where he was expected to starting TE on varsity and just began getting looks from a few colleges).
Additionally, the surgeon looked at him and actually asked my son if he intended to go on and play in college (as if
he did he not hear us before!). Stephen looked up and smiled, which resembled some degree of happiness
fighting its way through the sadness that had just overwhelmed him, and replied… “Absolutely!” Doctor #1, to all
of our surprise, shot back at him, “well, you may wish to do something different with your life”.
It was not a good thing to see my 6’2’’ 190lb. sophomore break out in tears…
At this point, we had no idea whether this surgeon was correct or incorrect… we only knew we couldn’t make such
an expert decision as we were not specialists in this field. We could only trust that he knew his ‘stuff’ because he
was recommended by someone whom we trusted no matter how uncomfortable it was making us feel… and all
the while I had to tell my son that if the surgeon who knows what he is doing says that is what is needed to fix the
problem, then we have to trust him to get it fixed.
Surgery was scheduled for 2013 spring break before we left the surgeon’s office (last week in March) and the
notable depression had already become visible in my son’s demeanor. Before we left, I asked Doctor #1 how
many student athletes has he performed this on and how many had gone on to play… he answered quickly with
“None”. That’s not what I wanted nor expected to hear.
Here is where we stood so far:
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My son came to me with an issue that needed to be handled by not just a professional, but a specialist
since he is an athlete and wanted to continue down that path.
We sought out the advice of someone we knew (trusted family friend whose son had two surgeries from
this surgeon and is currently expected to play this upcoming 2013 football season) to find out where to get
specialized attention from a qualified professional
After meeting with this collegiate sports surgeon several times, we received the test results and his
recommendations.
Not knowing whether his was correct or not because orthopedics is not our specialized field, we scheduled
what could have amounted to a short-lived career ending surgery.
Visiting with my mother (who resides in Rancho Mirage, CA) over Easter, I had mentioned Stephen’s pending
surgery to my brother-in-law, who is a two-time Olympian and a nationally known speaker about overcoming
adversity and sports, in hopes he could ‘cheer’ my son up a bit. He was absolutely shocked at the thought of him
having to undergo such an ordeal and then revealed to me that he had that very same procedure done to his right
leg (the upper tibial osteotomy) some 20 years prior but that was because he was faced with losing his leg (this
was long before he became an Olympian) which was damaged during a horrific work-related accident.
He then said we needed a second opinion… Using the internet, he showed me a surgeon in Santa Monica who
specialized in sports knees of not only collegiate, but Olympian and professional athletes. It wasn’t until I read
through all the info and said, “This guy seems legit” that he informed me that this surgeon he just showed me was
the one who fixe his leg and that he could get us in to see him by next week.
At first I was hesitant about making an appointment. I was worried about the cost, about having to drive 3 hours
from our hometown during traffic for a 40 minute appointment… and for what, to hear the same thing? Stephen
was fighting having to waste any more time with any second opinions… he just wanted to get it over with and get
on to ‘recovering’.
I set all emotion, feelings, preferences, conveniences and preconceptions aside and considered the idea of a
second opinion from a pure logical point a view… and it wasn’t long before there was a clear choice in the matter…
I could not come up with one valid reason why we shouldn’t seek a second opinion from another professional…
after all; this was the kid’s future at stake here.
I picked up the phone and made the call and we had an appointment with Doctor #2 the following week. I was
very surprised because I even told them my son’s situation and how we were just seeking a second opinion
because of the severity of the recommendation from the first surgeon. They informed me that they would be
happy to provide a second opinion and after, we could decide on how to proceed. They were just simply ‘glad to
help’.
The appointment day and time arrived and my son and I met with the Doctor #2 for the second opinion. He was
just as nice as the first doctor but he was noticeably more quiet in that he wasn’t trying to give any opinions as to
what might be the issue or possible corrections… he just kept asking Stephen about his plans for the future, about
how hard he trains, about his grades, about his girlfriend, and about how his parents support his quest to become
a collegiate athlete. He did this while physically examining his knee. This was in sharp contrast to Doctor #1 who
led with what was wrong and shortly concluded what the plan was going forward.
After Doctor #2 finished with the physical exam, he browsed the MRI and x-rays then asked Stephen, “why aren’t
you playing?” Stephen replied it was because the doctor told him to lay-off until he has the surgery.
Funny but Doctor #2 replied that’s not what he meant. He asked again but said aside from what the first doctor
said, ”why are you now not playing basketball?” Stephen replied that he guessed it was because his knee hurt.
Doctor #2 continued by stating that Stephen finished playing out the football season and played basketball up
until the other doctor said to stop… indicating that there wasn’t an actual ‘physical injury’ or reason that
prevented him from playing… only the advice of the first doctor and possibly the pain made playing harder, but
certainly didn’t prohibit him from doing so. We were all shaking our heads in agreement.
Doctor #2 added that with athletes, it is their (good surgeons) objective to do the least amount of invasive repairs
as possible. And that performing an upper tibial osteotomy was like sending in your biggest guns right from the
get-go. Also, Doctor #2 said that he saw no noticeable damage to any ligaments (much like the original
radiologist) and the pain that Stephen was experiencing was probably from a minor injury to the meniscus and
that he could probably take care of that in roughly 30 minutes with an arthroscopic surgery with a recovery time
of around 5 weeks as opposed to 6 months and then some.
You cannot imagine the joy on Stephen’s face after hearing that… and all because we took the time to seek a
qualified second opinion.
By the way, after having the surgery with the Doctor #2 in Santa Monica, he confirmed (they provided images of
each of his ligaments as well as the injured meniscus that was causing the pain) that there was absolutely no
damage to any ligaments and the varus deformity (bow-leggedness) which was less than 5 degrees, would not
have required an upper tibial osteotomy even if there were damage to the LCL as Doctor #1 proclaimed. The
meniscus that was repaired had a small 4mm x 4mm little rupture, which was ‘cleaned up’ without any stitches.
By not seeking a second opinion, we would have unknowingly and blindly had my son undergo a very invasive and
unnecessary surgery so they could prepare him to receive a later surgery to repair an undamaged LateralCollateral Ligament that, according to Doctor #2, would have all but insured that Stephen would have been
eliminated any possible scholarship chances. In fact, Doctor #2 said that statistically, the number of athletes who
had this procedure and went on to compete at the college level on a scholarship was ZERO!
It’s was what we didn’t know that we didn’t know that would have hurt us… and that would have not been
anyone’s fault but ours…
It is now May 24th, 2013 and Stephen, having been cleared for full active participation in sports, works out 5 days a
week at the gym, three days a week at his school, still goes to the physical therapist twice weekly, strength trainer
twice weekly, speed trainer twice weekly and on his own he joins his QB at 5am to practice running routes to get
ready for the upcoming season where he is expected to start as the varsity tight end.
By the way, Doctor #1 along with his staff was not so forthcoming with the MRI or the x-rays and they were
noticeably offended when I informed them that we were seeking a second opinion… It wasn’t as though they
fronted the money for the MRI and x-rays and would only recover the costs if we went through with their
services… I paid for those items. It was very unprofessional to say the least.
The right thing to have done, as far as I believe, due to the nature and severity of the intended proposal by the
first orthopedic, would have been to suggest to us to get a second opinion… if nothing more than to confirm his
recommendations. I can assure you that if Doctor #2 confirmed the findings of the first, we would have gone back
to Doctor #1 and gone through with his recommendations.
Having not received any such suggestion, I can only assume that he was not confident that what he had proposed
would have stood up to another professional’s scrutiny (which it thankfully didn’t) or he truly believed he was
indeed the smartest person he knew.
The moral of this story to me… not only emphasizes just how important second opinions are
because they do help uncover what we don’t know that we don’t know… but it has also
prompted me to suggest to each and every new prospect we meet with, that before they employ
our financial plan or hire us as their financial advisors, they should take the time to get a second
opinion… if nothing more than to make sure that what we are proposing is really the best fit for
them… and if we are the best fit for the prospect, they will be comfortable utilizing our services
with the highest degree of confidence for many years to come.
For more information, contact
Peter H. Babagian
Vice President – Global Wealth Management
Portfolio Manager – Financial Advisor
The Legacy Group at Morgan Stanley
www.morganstanleyfa.com/LegacyGP
520 W Main Street Visalia Ca 93291
559-733-7211, Fax 559-738-1613
CA Insurance Lic.# 0B08311
[email protected]