HK Ho Review

[2timemom]

I wanted to share my experience with Dr. HK Ho who delivers at Mt. Alvernia hospital in the hope that it will help others make a more informed decision. The post with my experience is a bit long, I would recommend concerned mommies read it, but I have summarized my 2 cents base for anyone who is currently with him or is considering him

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE / ADVICE

• Mercenary nature of doctor - Always question and do your research when asked to do additional diagnosis or take additional treatment. While it is key to make sure your baby is healthy, it should not be a matter of sacrificing the health of the mother for the baby. Also many treatments/ diagnosis may be unnecessary, and expensive
• Unnecessary stress and horror stories - For mothers who already know they are low risk (based on previous experience), you are better off going to someone else who is less likely to try convince you that things are otherwise. He has a tendency to make simple cases sound like they are risky
• No consideration for patients opinion - Find a doctor who fully recognizes that medicine today is no longer ‘Directive’ where a doctors giver orders that a patient complies with. Medicine is more consultative and discussion based, you should be given the freedom to ask your physician to clarify the Why’s and How’s of a decision and if needed do your own research and a physician who is not open to this is not worth your time or money

DETAILED EXPERIENCE (for second pregnancy)
Background - This is my second child and we were referred to Dr. Ho by some friends and we also didn’t find any bad reviews online at the time. My former gynae was not doing deliveries any more hence the change. I’ve had 1 child before carried to full term (i.e. 40 weeks) and have no history in family of preterm delivery, birth complications etc. Also preterm tendencies like bleeding in current pregnancy all through to 28 weeks (which is when we stopped seeing Dr. Ho)

Experience Dr. Ho - Right from the beginning our general feeling post every consultation was ‘Negative’. I was having a reasonably normal pregnancy but right from the beginning we would be left with stories of everything that can go wrong. Read below our experience at key milestones

• Week 12 - To test for chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus we choose the Harmony/ Panorama over the NT which is 500 SGD lower since we fully appreciated the comparative better results. At that point he must have identified us as willing to pay to minimize risks
• Week 20 - for the 1st time he took a measurement of my cervical length which he indicated was 29mm. It is between 30 and 35 mm for a healthy pregnancy. He shared a horror story about a patient for who this length dramatically decreased and she went into labor at 27 wk. Follow up -
  • I need to monitor this every 2 weeks to ensure it doesn’t go down (ok for us but 150 SGD more)
  • I should start treatment if this reading fell below 25mm. NOTE: Treatment is a vaginal cream
  • I was to monitor for abnormal contractions/ bleeding (which didn’t happen)
• Week 22, 24, 26 - Same story, my cervical measurement was 29, 26, 28mm respectively. It’s not a decreasing trend but more oscillating which we also read is normal. IMPORTANT - he was only doing 1 reading per visit which I found strange given most OBs are not trained on ultrasound imaging.
• Week 28 (diagnosis) - This time 25.5mm. He said he would commence treatment comprising-
  • Weekly progesterone injections till week 37 (300 SGD each)
  • Progesterone tablets (approx. 500 SGD +)
  • A topical progesterone cream (not sure)
• Week 28 (my reaction) - I was reluctant to start without doing my own research as 4 things stood out
  • He took only one measurement again. I would expect a more detailed confirmation before starting treatment
  • He fully seemed to have ignored my history as someone who carried a baby to term (40 weeks)
  • The treatment seemed pretty intense (3 forms progesterone) and did not align with what he said earlier of only using a topical cream
• Week 28 (OB dialogue) - We said that we would come back the next week with a decision. At this stage he again started with the horror story, even brought the patient case file to show us (I was surprised he keeps it this accessible, patient confidentiality). We held firm to next week which is when he said two things that made me sure I would switch OBs even if he was right
  • “Oh next week who knows if I will be alive” - Showing how immature he is not being taken at his word
  • “If you feel any symptoms just come directly to emergency, don’t bother to call me, the hospital will take care of it” - I find it extremely unprofessional of a Dr. to say something this callous to a patient who is already stressed

Second opinion (Informal) - We asked a few OB friends outside Singapore and based on this decided to go to another OB to check. Their comments -

• With my history of a full term for no 1. they would possibly keep monitoring and not start treatment
• Even if they started treatment it wouldn’t be 3 different forms of progesterone, just one of the 3
• Side effects of progesterone (which Dr. Ho conveniently left out) ranges from extreme dizziness, bloating to even mood swings / depression in extreme cases

Second opinion (from SG OB) - We went to another OB with our medical history; she pretty much echoed word for word what my OB friends had said.

• Now the BEST PART - She then took her own measurements, she took 4-5 readings all of which were in the 35/36/37mm reading range.
• She also showed clearly that my cervix shape showed no sign of funneling so I was perfectly ok for now. We were so astounded at the difference!
• She agreed to take me on as her patient and successfully delivered my baby at 39 weeks normal

Observations & Hypotheses - I cannot vouch for what his motivations were but I can make my own different hypotheses on his behavior

• Scenario 1: Fear bequeaths power: Maybe he paints every pregnancy, even the low risk ones such as mine in the light of it being ‘High risk’ as a way to enhance one’s reputation as a skilled OB/ God even
• Scenario 2: Mercenary: If you’ve identified the patient as someone who is willing to pay additional money to cover all risks, then why not try to sell expensive diagnosis/ treatment (e.g. 3 forms of progesterone which is not life threatening but will cause some side effects). For same reason may position a C-Section as the safest option at a later stage of delivery
• Scenario 3: Incompetent: Maybe it is just a combination of pure incompetence, could be the measurements were genuinely inaccurate and he wanted to cover all his bases with 3 different forms of progesterone. Either way does not defend not telling a patient of potential side effects to them and reacting as he did when he realized we were questioning his judgement

Understand this is long but please keep this in mind if you are considering him

 

[gwendokong]

Hi i just tested positive and may I have the contact of your 2nd gynae? Can share your review of the gynae as well? Thanks so much