Paul Nottingham, MD

I too had a fusion and he harvested bone from my hip. I don’t know what side it came off of, it was such a small insignificant part of the operation. It seems to me it’s an awfully small gripe to have with Dr. Nottingham and doesn’t warrant such personal attacks. Fundamentally I agree accuracy in medical records is important but it doesn’t sound like Dr. Nottingham had malicious intent in your case simply for saying you presented back pain and the bone harvest was on the opposite side.
Fusion surgery by its very nature can cause long term nerve issues, back pain, etc. I still have pain too and take around the clock medication for it. In fact I am getting a Nevro stimulator in two weeks time to help further manage the pain. But I never for one second have any regrets about getting the fusion surgery; the instability I presented and the pain that instability caused was totally unmanageable, it was unlivable and effects my life significantly to this very day. But the fusion got me walking again and was the first step in picking up the pieces of my life and moving forward.

Hope your telling people if your using anything off label like you did too me. Anyone who thinks your great ask me about great. You harmed me but I’m lucky I did get my records before you could destroy them. But found out too late what you did how much were you paid by Medtronic for using that off label product? Everyone should check there records if you used it the side affects could cause extra bone growth cancer infection as I got thanks Dr. Nottingham how can you live with yourself your supposed to be a doctor quote unquote a caring person again JOKE. I have a wonderful team of doctors now doing your clean up. Sure hope you don’t do this too a child as you did to me. I have held my silence for long enough it happened on Sept. 28^th 2004 oh I’m sure you can recall. I support Kerry P. For everyone’s awareness the product is Medtronic Infuse Bone Graph don’t do it… Kaiser saved my life.

I too had to write a review after seeing the one star reviews. We had a completely opposite experience with Dr. Nottingham and his staff. We were referred to Dr. Nottingham by our pediatrician after my 14 year old son fractured his spine playing football. We could not have asked for anyone better. Dr. Nottingham was kind, caring and very professional. He had a genuine interest in making sure my son was well taken care of both before and after surgery. My son had a 1 ½″ screw put in his L-​5 along with a bone graft last November. Dr. Nottingham returned any phone calls we had immediately following surgery. He informed us all along the way what our options were and exactly what he needed to do to heal completely, including using a bone growth stimulator and referring him to a great rehab facility. Gladly my son’s spine has completely healed and is stronger than ever. We will be forever grateful for the way he took care of our son as if he was his own.

Finally got some of the records from another source other than this surgeon that I would not trust because HE WRITE FALSE MEDICAL RECORDS ON SURGERIES HE PERFORMS.
He performed the surgery on the WRONG BODY PART THEN WROTE FALSE MEDICAL RECORDS! He informed me and falsely wrote on the post surgery medical records that he performed the hip bone harvest from the «right side». He actually did surgery on the «left side». This FUCKED UP the surgery and was NOT WHAT I HAD AGREED.
This doctor is NOT REPUTABLE FOR WRITING FALSE MEDICAL RECORDS and if anything goes wrong during that surgery HE WILL NEVER INFORM YOU AND YOU WILL HAVE FALSE MEDICAL RECORDS so you will never find the cause of the error that occurred.
THEN HE WILL DUMP YOUR ASS.
Please join me in organizing SIT IN AT OUR STATE CAPITAL to require patients sign their medical records authorizing they have been written FULL AND CORRECTLY and not falsely as they now are written.
DOCTORS WRITE FALSE MEDICAL RECORDS BY «omitting» what will look bad to any investigation.
This is why I am now organizing all patients lobby our state and federal governments to stop this practice that all lawyers will inform you about.
Send certified letters of confirmation and voice record all office visits to prove your records have been written correctly. Reputable doctors «will write correct and full medical records». Incompetent doctors will not and omit your medical info.
Doctor Nottingham has written on my medical records that I had «back pain» that is totally false. I NEVER HAD BACK PAIN. Either my medical records were «altered» after the fuck up in the surgery that completely disabled me or HE MADE ANOTHER MISTAKE IN HIS RECORDS AND DID NOT PLAN THE SURGERY EITHER. THEN HE DID THE SURGERY ON THE WRONG BODY PART!
Failed to inform me about the serious complications that can occur when two disks must get larger hip bone removed. He fails to inform his patients.
Get a copy of your records before you agree for surgery to verify he has written a full and correct medical record as mine had no info written to them and he refused to provide any medical records to me.
STOP FALSE INCORRECT MEDICAL RECORDS AND PASS LAWS THAT PATIENTS MUST SIGN AND VERIFY BEFORE ANY BILL CAN BE SUBMITTED OR PAID.
925−229−3830
YOU THE TAXPAYER ARE PAYING FOR HIS MISTAKE BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN ONLY RECEIVING SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY SINCE HE PERFORMED HIS HORRIFIC SURGERY.
I will gladly talk and provide my false medical record to anyone who contacts me as false medical records are not what a reputable physician will write.
All taxpayers are now paying for HIS MISTAKES. This doctor has NO MORALS!

He and his colleague were involved in a 2004 ILLEGAL and non-​approved FDA clinical trial. Synthes and Nordian were both prosecuted and their executive officers got jail time because of these trials. Dr. Nottingham killed one patient with the product as the sales person watched and his partner did the same a week later. We can see he is clearly only motivated by money for unnesceray surgery.

Do not let this Doctor near you. He operated on my friend without doing proper testing. My friend c/​o back pain. all he ordered was an X-​ray and nothing further. After back surgery, he still c/​o back pain, severe enough, that he researched more and his medical doctor found that he had reoccurring lymphoma in the pelvic area, bilateral. Needless to say the prognosis is not good. His wife asked the doctor for a note to put his membership on hold at a club they belonged to while he was receiving chemotherapy. Nottingham refused and stated «I am not making any money on him! You are not paying my bills».

I had a similar surgery to the negative Orinda reviewer and am not pain free either, but it’s not Dr. Nottingham’s fault. Like that reviewer, I had a previous surgery, from which I recovered speedily to a no-​pain condition. However, that was years ago (12 in my case) and my disk degeneration got worse and I got older. Back surgery is a crap shoot anyway, from what I understand. No one can guarantee any results. I found Dr. Nottingham online after being treated by a true quack sports ortho in Concord. That one was not interested in helping me, nor compassionate for the extreme pain I was in. After my first visit with Dr. Nottingham, I felt I had found a doctor who cared about me and my condition. Since then I have been greatly helped by his P.A. also, and his staff (particularly Carol). When I have told others who my ortho doctor is, many of them have told me that I have one of the best.

Do not let Dr. Nottingham touch your back! I had surgery from Dr. Nottingham 2 years ago, specifically a lumbar discectomy for my L4-​L5. I am only 43 years old and pretty fit. This was my 2^nd lumbar discectomy on the same L4-​L5 disc. The first surgery was 2 years prior to the 2^nd one. In non-​medical speak, a lumbar discectomy is where they make a small incision in your lower back and clean out the ruptured disc material that has spilled out of the disc and presses on the nerve that goes down your leg. In both situations, there was no injury just simply a degenerative disc problem and when the pain started it got progressively worst and I couldn’t walk at all within a 3 week period. Both situations required immediate surgery once the MRI revealed that the disc material had ruptured and was pressing on the nerve that goes down the leg. After both surgeries were done, you get immediate relief because the disc material is no longer pressing on the nerve.
Let me first say that Dr. Nottingham was very sloppy not only in reviewing the MRI, but worst, the surgery itself. When I got the MRI and took it to his office, he held it up in low light and declared that it was a different disc that was causing the problem (I think the L5-​S1). He was wrong and later corrected himself.
The operation went poorly. Dr. Nottinham showed up extremely late to the surgery after the anaesthesiologist had started to put me under. My husband and I could tell the anaesthesiologist was getting nervous that Dr. Nottingham had not showed up yet. The anaesthesiologist told my husband that he could go. My husband was starved and went to the John Muir hospital cafeteria. He ran into Dr. Nottingham who was there having lunch. Can you believe it? My husband just glared at him in disbelief that Dr. Nottingham was having lunch while his wife had already been put under and was awaiting the doctor’s arrival in the operating room.
The surgery did not go well. Dr. Nottingham nicked the dura. In non-​medical speak, that means when he was removing the disc material he accidentally cut into the casing that protects the spinal cord. Spinal fluid leaked out. Fortunately, he caught his error before closing up my back. Still the danger is that the fluid can cause severe spinal headaches. As a result, I had to stay in the hospital for a whole week flat on my back and not allowed to lift my head above my body. This is done as a precaution if the spinal fluid leaks. I attribute «nicking the dura» to the overall sloppiness of Dr. Nottingham. Also, I woke up in the operating room which probably was a result of the anesthesia wearing off early than it was suppose to. As my husband says, he will not let Dr. Nottingham touch my back again. I’d rather be in agony before I let him do the surgery.
Why did I even pick Dr. Nottingham? Unfortunately, the awesome Dr. Hieu Ball who did my first surgery is no longer affiliated with John Muir Hospital and my HealthNet HMO would not allow me to see Dr. Ball. I must say that Dr. Ball rocks and in the future, I will switch to a PPO so he can do any back surgery. He is so brillant!
It has been over 2 years (Nov 19, 2006) since I had Dr. Nottingham do my surgery and I have not gotten the feeling back in my toes and the side of my leg between my ankle and knee. Very disappointing as when Dr. Hieu Ball did my first surgery, I got the feeling back in my toes and leg within a year. Again, I suspect this issue is a result of sloppiness on Dr. Nottingham’s part in the operating room.