Dr. Sanjay Hegde, MD

Dr. Hegde was the anesthesiologist for my son's birth. After considering converting my CS to a VBAC (I was contracting every five minutes but only dilated to 2), we returned to original plan. As I was being wheeled to the OR, he said to my OB, "She was trying natural? You shut that down, right?" Once in the OR, he responded negatively to my (previously granted) request to have my arms free as I'm claustrophobic--luckily, the very kind ANP intervened and advocated for me. Dr. Hegde was rude, dismissive, and inappropriate in my care. Acting as thought a patient isn't there, can't hear you, and as if you have say over her birth choices (especially CS, which can be traumatic on its own) smacks of medical paternalism. I give him two stars only because my procedure was safe and I recovered from the anesthesia fine.

A previous procedure left me anxious about going under anesthesia again since I was unable to awaken in a proper amount of time and had to return to the hospital 24 hours later to get help with excessive non-stop nausea. Dr. Hegde interviewed me before the surgery, listened to everything I said and was reassuring. I awoke from the anesthesia as expected and was able to go home with only a small amount of nausea for that day only. I consider myself lucky to have had him as my anesthesiologist that’s day.