Richard D Ferkel, MD

If I could give 0 stars I would.
This review is 19 years too late. I had surgery with Dr Ferkel in Dec 1995 and unfortunately Unilocal did not exist at that time and household internet was in its infancy.
He performed a bunionectomy on my left foot. To clarify I did not have a bunion only what’s called a «joint» on my big left toe. Seriously, looking at the before pictures I had a normal joint and he performed unnecessary orthopedic surgery on a 21 year old woman. The surgery left me crippled, not having any mobility in my big toe. I am unable to wear high heels, dance, do lunges or even raise up on my toes. It also made my left foot half a size bigger due to the inability to normally move my big toe. I have had to buy different size shoes ever since then.
For a young woman obviously these problems have been hugely detrimental. I also have nerve damage to the area and it still hurts when anything touches the scar.
Fast forward 19 years and am now suffering severe plantar fasciitis with Mortons neuroma and pain to the point I had to stop working because I could not walk. These problems are caused by the inability to properly stretch the plantar fascia because I can not bend my big toe back. The surgery also hampered my ability walk normally and I compensate by hitching my knee up higher than normal.
I had to have a second corrective surgery to repair some of the damage Dr Ferkel did. I am in recovery and at this point don’t know how much function I will reclaim. My current surgeon states maybe 20−25% of the big toe mobility just enough to get me into low heels which is a very low priority at this point. There is a strong possibility I will be disabled for life and unable to work.
I believe Dr Richard Ferkel performed surgery on me for the money and if he had any ethics he would have turned me away. There was nothing wrong with my feet until he cut on me.
I could not remember his name until I accidentally found the old records. I looked up statute of limitations and it is only 3 years lucky for him. I should have filed a claim after his surgery but I was 21, still in college and would have needed parental help to do so.
My mother who put me in that situation to begin with, has been in and out of psychiatric facilities over the last decade. If that gives any idea of what I’ve dealt with.
I will regret having the original surgery for the rest of my life. Told my whole life, my feet were ugly and needed surgery, I was a victim of my mentally ill mother and an unethical doctor. All I can do now is tell my story and hopefully spare other people some of misery I’ve lived through.

I heard such good things about Dr. Ferkel and he has yet to fall short of expectations. Dr. Ferkel is fantastic. His staff was very helpful in helping me see Dr. Ferkel very quickly. When I did see him, he did not immediately tell me I needed surgery. Rather, he recognized that the root cause of my problem was likely arthritis and wanted to work with a rheumatologist to develop a joint treatment plan.