I’ll forego the long story. My mother-in-law was in need of abdominal surgery. We didn’t choose Dr Howard, he was assigned by the hospital(apparently). As we had no knowledge of surgeons we had no one to request. However, we were reassured by the nurses that if they had to have surgery he was the one they would choose. My mother-in-law just had her staples removed today. There are still several weeks of recovery to go, but full recovery is expected. There have been no complications and everything is going extremely well. Dr Howard appears to be a great surgeon. Hopefully I will never need his services, but if I do I will very likely request him specifically.