Ask HN: Best way to find top medical specialists for brain tumors?

1 points by andrewseanryan 4 years ago | 5 comments

A close family friend’s 14 year old son was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor (following successful AL Leukemia treatment). I would like to help them find the best specialist in the world for his condition. If you have any tips, I would appreciate them.

Cheiree 4 years ago |

My own perspective is that of a husband of a wife with tumors that we thought meant certain death, yet she miraculously survived.

So get three to five personal consultations from different neurosurgeons in our own native language, this is just for your information so that you understand what the different options and opinions are. These consultations are just for your information, these will not likely be the neurosurgeon that will operate. Don't waste time, this can be done in a week to 10 days.

Also don't confuse personal sympathy with professional capacity. You want somebody who has operated a similar operation a few thousand times already. You want a genius in this medical field and not somebody to drink wine with.

I can recommend: https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/einrichtungen/neuroch... the other option in Germany is: https://neurochirurgie.charite.de/

I can just comment on possible locations in Germany, I don't know about others around the world, but certainly there are others.

Good luck, god bless the kid

andrewseanryan 4 years ago | |

Thank you much for the insights. His initial treatment for leukemia was at the kinder Clinic in Munich. They were very good. I will suggest the approach you mentioned here.

Im happy to hear that your wife survived. It is a very difficult issue.

prirun 4 years ago |

If you are in the US, check Mayo Clinic. The great thing about them is, you can see many doctors in a very short period of time, like a week, whereas with traditional US medicine, it takes forever to get appointments scheduled. I saw 15 doctors in 1 week. That would have taken me a year with regular medicine.

andrewseanryan 4 years ago | |

I’m hoping to get them to Mayo but they are currently in Istanbul. Thank you much for your insights.

brudgers 4 years ago |

I am sorry you are experiencing this.

The best choice will consider prognosis, tumor type, and quality of life.

Technical expertise only needs to be good enough to treat the condition if it is treatable and empatheticly palliative if it is not.