William Sanchez's Online Review Report Card

I am alive due to Dr. Sanchez. Developed liver cancer and had no symptoms, no nothing. Just an abnormal liver enzyme. Had a number of spots in the liver. My local health care system oncologist and surgeon felt resecting the liver would resolve my issues. Tumor board of the major university affiliated with the system shouted my doctors down. All they offered was chemoembolization. Got a second opinion at Mayo Clinic with Dr. Sanchez. Only there to see if what was being recommended for me at home was the way to go. Tests showed it was not. Then Dr. Sanchez offered to manage my treatment at Mayo. Surgery removed the tumor. Another had to be microwaved out 3 months later. Now approaching 3 years since surgery, I am still here. No way I’d still be alive without Dr. Sanchez and the team I had at Mayo Clinic.

I tend to write detailed reviews, so I hope the reader doesn't get bored and Dr. Sanchez isn't embarrassed. I was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma in Aug. 2018. My home community doctors found other spots in the liver they felt were of no clinical significance. A major university cancer center partner disagreed and felt all the spots were cancer, therefore, chemo-embolization was all that was recommended for me. A friend suggested I seek a second opinion and said Mayo Clinic was the place to go. Dr. Sanchez agreed to see me and I felt what I would get was a thumbs-up or down on the recommended chemo-embolization treatment and to be sent on my way. Dr. Sanchez didn't do that. He offered to do more diagnostic work to see if a surgical intervention was still in the realm of possibility Dr. Sanchez wanted an MRI because that would show what all the other spots were. I have a pacemaker and cannot have MRI's done. Mayo Clinic has been doing clinical study on pacemaker patients and MRI's for almost 7 years, and they did an MRI on me with no adverse effects. My other spots were not cancer and Dr. Sanchez recommended liver resection surgery and offered to coordinate my care. Surgery was done late October 2018. Post-surgical follow up in December 2018 showed a suspicious spot that was inoperable at the time of surgery and Dr. Sanchez coordinated a referral to Dr. Grant Schmit, an interventional radiologist, who burned out the spot using microwaves in January 2019. Had 4 subsequent visits and blood work and CT scans showed no residual or recurrent cancer. Overall, the odds of beating hepatocellular carcinoma aren't all that good. My home health care system only offered me a palliative solution, and at best, I might have lived 27 months longer. Mayo Clinic, Dr. Sanchez, and Dr. Cleary offered me a "curative" solution, although there are light years diference between "curative" and "cure". Despite that, Mayo Clinic is the equivalent of a "medical Disneyland" and there is nothing they cannot or will not do on behalf of a patient. That extends to all the physicians I have seen so far, whether Dr. Sanchez, Dr. Cleary, Dr. Driediger, or Dr. Ezzeddine. The staff have been wonderful to me. Dr. Sanchez knows his stuff and he gave me a sense of hope that doctors in my home community could not. All the care management and coordination Dr. Sanchez did on my behalf delivered on that sense of hope he tried to instill the first day he met me in late 2018. You can trust him with your life...........I did !

He dismissed all of my previous history because, not knowing I was going to Mayo Clinic, I did not have any of my medical records pertaining to the conditions for which I was being seen. I explained that the scan he wanted were over 11 years old, but that did not influence his decision to not treat me. I was presenting with elevated liver cancer markers, upper right quadrant pain. He said that had nothing to do with liver disease, despite Mayo Clinic's info stating exact opposite.