Patrick C. Graupman's Online Review Report Card

No.

Great Doc and personality! Wish all our visits were as good.

Couldn't ask for a better Neurosurgeon for my daughter.

We trust this doctor with our 2 year old 100%. After reading so many negative comments it's clear many were written by the same angry person. Gillette does follow up on any complaints. Disgruntled and ignorant patrons are at any practice. Educate yourself before believing some of the negative claims. And if you're easily offended and have no sense of the neuro world at all, maybe stick with a doc that will literally hold your hand through all of it. I fully appreciate Graupman's humor and have never seen anything out of line. He is extremely intelligent and I could see some people simply not being able to understand any of the complex topics he deals with. That's not his fault. You can't fix stupid.

Dr.Graupman wanted to operate on our child’s asymptomatic Chiari. After we declined Dr.Graupman’s offer to put our strong, healthy, and happy child through the pain and trauma of unnecessary surgeries, Dr.Graupman told us that our child’s spinal cord was tethered and could not be detethered without the chiari surgery done first. Dr.Graupman’s “treatment plan” for our daughter included 5 major procedures on her brain and spinal cord. Any of those procedures had a potential to result in profound disability or death. Because Dr.Graupman said that he could not do laminoplasty and that he and his partner always spilled CSF, no matter what precautions they took, and because he "diagnosed" our child without looking at the MRI, we sought additional opinions. All of those (8 ) opinions that we obtained from the highest ranking in pediatric neurosurgery hospitals, advised us that our child’s spinal cord was NOT tethered. Those doctors expressed great concern with with misdiagnoses of the underlying reasons of our child’s chiari and with the number of unnecessary dangerous (=expensive) procedures proposed by Dr.Graupman. They also told us that Dr.Graupman had missed a brain tumor. After finding out about those opinions, Dr.Graupman confessed to have been lying about our child’s spinal cord being tethered, pleaded, like a little boy, that he was “sorry”, promised to order tests to investigate the brain tumor, and to facilitate the transfer of our child’s care to the Children’s of MN. As soon as we left the exam room, Dr.Graupman canceled the MRI order, terminated our child as a patient, and blacklisted her with the Ch’s of MN CNS tumor program run by his former colleague from Gillette. To justify this course of action, he produced clinical notes that consisted mostly of lies . Months later, Graupman, apparently, had an afterthought and decided to remove several most damning documents from our daughter’s PHI, replacing one of them with a different creative writing sample. That was accomplished with full support on the from Gillette’s administration. Based on our experience, Dr.Graupman embodies the following negative traits representative of our current healthcare system: egotism, arrogance, incompetence, lack of integrity, greed, and overall disregard for human life. For more education on Gillette and its NS department, watch KARE 11 “Medical Miracle or Medical Torture”. Very similar to our story, only with a worse ending. We managed to avoid a major disaster only by getting additional opinions.

Dr.Graupman wanted to operate on our child's asymptomatic Chiari. When we told him that we were not interested, he tried to coerce us by lying to us that the child's spinal cord was tethered and could not be "detethered" without doing the chiari surgery first. Eight other doctors from the highest ranking in NS hospitals advised us that our child's cord was NOT tethered and that G. had missed a brain tumor. Dr.G. is a deceitful individual, who will retaliate when exposed. Do not recommend.

First of all, if you are told that your child needs surgery, get 4-5 opinions from different places. You may find out that your child does not need the surgery at all. Also you may discover a problem that you never knew existed. Never trust Gillette's one opinion, and this doctor's in particular. You'll be doomed and absolutely married to a miserable way of life, if you do. Take a look at what Gillette's neurosurgeon did to a boy from Texas on KARE11 "Medical Miracle or Medical Torture" My daughter was almost victimized the same way by Dr.Graupman. At Gillette, they have a method of aggressively putting a patient in hospital by offering an immediate surgery (including unnecessary). When exposed, the doctors blame parents for their own malpractice. In the TX boy's case the mother was blamed for "duping" the doctor into performing multiple unnecessary surgeries on her 9-year old son. In our case, the mother was blamed for not consenting to an unnecessary cord detethering surgery on a spinal cord that was not tethered and for getting additional opinions that exposed Dr.Graupman's con. In the TX boy's case the NS did not look at the boy's medical record. In our case, Dr.Graupman made his "diagnosis" without reviewing the MRI that he himself had ordered. In his pursuit of multiple higher-paying elective surgeries that would have secured our child as Gillette's patient for years to come, Dr.Graupman did not tell us that the child had a brain tumor. We had to find that out from Boston Children's neurosurgeons. There is a good reason why Gillette is not nationally ranked in neurosurgery. This hospital promotes surgery for money. It sweeps complaints about its doctors under the rug, and takes part in medical records alterations to cover up for its doctors' malpractice. AG of MN supports this hospital no matter what. Dr. Graupman is untouchable by virtue of his connections. If this doctor hurts your child, you will have no recourse. You may save your child and yourself a lifetime of unnecessary pain and misery by avoiding Dr.Graupman's "services".

Dr Graupman is the 4th pediatric neurosurgeon we have seen. We never want to see another! We trust him with our daughter who has Spina Bifida and have had wonderful experiences with his entire staff and hospital. Dr Graupman truly cares about his patients. He will tell it like it is and has a great sense of humor too. We will stick with him as long as possible.

Dr Graupman and other neurosurgical staff at Gillette Childrens hospital in St Paul, MN treat my daughter for Spina Bifida. So far dr. Graupman has been great. His sense of humor is a little dry, which could possibly be reasoning for other poor reviews of his attitude. He is very concerned about his patients and humble. He and his team saved my daughters life when other neurosurgeon's had no idea what was going on with her.

Surgery-happy. The only thing he wants to do , even in the absence of symptoms. High likelihood of misdiagnosis: means to obtaining consent for unnecessary surgery.