Michael Levy, MD, PhD

It’s been 4 years now since we first saw Dr. Levy and sadly we will be moving to VA come January and have to embark on the daunting task of finding another one. Despite the negative reviews, we’ve had nothing but good experiences with him these four years and we see him OFTEN as our daughter is «just built differently» as he likes to say. He has a good heart and cares about the kids he treats. He is HEAD of pediatric neurosurgery so if there’s a long wait or canceled appointment because he is in surgery or taking some time to be with him own family, I would hope people could just be understanding. If it was that big of a deal, there’s an ER a few hundred yards away.

He performed my son’s brain surgery when he was one week old and although I assumed he did a good job and NO complications, because that is what he told us, we realized 6 months later it didn’t work because he ended up needing another one (of course we got a better doctor for the second one) and the whole time under his care fell through the cracks which is why it took us 6 months to figure it out and it was another doctor who realized it, thank God my son was seeing several other doctors.
Post-​op from Dr. Levy’s surgery he was admitted which we were told before surgery would probably not happen unless complication (which he said were none) so we ask Dr. Levy why? and his response was we (the parents) were not ready to take him home based on how I (his mother) reacted in PACU when my son would’t wake up so they were keeping him for the night. Next day he wasn’t acting normal and NOT eating so we went to Dr. Levy’s office to speak with him (since he NEVER checked up on him, only sent his student, we later found out) about my son’s current behavior not improving and his response is it is normal to act «Punky» after brain surgery. After the second day of acting «Punky» in the hospital and Dr. Levy did NOTHING and all the nurses said they only saw his student visiting him and also did NOTHING we demanded a neurologist to asses him and sure enough his «Punky» behavior was by then 48 hours of non stop seizures thanks to ZERO follow up from Dr. Levy after our repeated concerns to him. Ended up in a comma for another two days and they (ICU doctors, NOT Dr. Levy) got is seizures under control. Thank God my son has seen GOOD doctors after that and a better neurosurgeon and because of that my son has progressed and slowly recovered from Dr. Levy’s negligence.
As a mother who had to see 5 specialist to ensure he was actually getting cared for, and two of them caught his mistake. DON’T believe what a doctor tells you and DON’T assume they care just because they had a promotion picture holding a baby!
I HAD TO LEARN THE HARD WAY WITH DR. LEVY
Also a good tip… no doctor or nurse will speak ill of a famous neurosurgeon so when you ask a staff about Dr. Levy just watch their eyes and face… I made the mistake of brushing off their rolled eyes when I asked around because their words were neutral but now I will watch closer how obvious no one in the hospital thinks much of him and I also know why.
Good luck to all those poor patient who still see him, hopefully he learned from what he did to my son although he NEVER took responsibility for it so I doubt it.

I can only give Dr. Levy 5 stars, and wish I could give more.
Dr. Levy performed emergency surgery on our 5 year old son who had fallen and hit his head. I won’t keep you in suspense– he recovered fully and is enjoying kindergarten with gusto! However, please understand that the injury was incredibly severe and he nearly died. Thanks to Dr. Levy, he recovered well enough to start school on time. He recovered so well that his teacher had no idea that he had had any kind of surgery. So well that on a water-​play day, he took his shoes off, went running on wet concrete and slipped and smacked his head again — directly on his incision! Well, Dr. Levy was there for us again and reassured us that although this was preferably an avoidable occurrence, Dylan would be fine yet again. Dr. Levy has a dry sense of humor that is fully appropriate and a welcome relief for us after surviving these harrowing episodes. His bedside manner is superb and he is an outstanding clinician. He filled us with confidence and optimism when we needed it desperately.
Thank you Dr. Levy for everything!!!

Dr. Levy performed my 9-​year old son’s brain surgery in 2003. It was an emergency surgery, he had a large malignant brain tumor that was causing so much swelling that my son was lapsing into a coma.
Dr. Levy was very matter-​of-​fact about his situation and about the issues regarding the surgery. It took less time than he predicted. He used dermabond to close the incision, it’s like super glue for the skin. He didn’t shave his head except for a thin line where the incision was going to be.
The surgery was Wednesday morning and my son went home Friday evening in time for dinner.
We have no qualms in recommending Dr. Levy for anyone who finds themself in the unfortunate position of needing brain surgery for their child.
Dr. Meltzer we have some concerns about, make sure you ask for Dr. Levy.