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Zack R.

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1 Review by Zack

  • Envita Medical Centers

6/27/13

My review is speaking strictly to my direct experience with this clinic as a Lyme Disease patient. I don't have much knowledge on their success with cancer patients so I can't comment on that aspect, though I do believe they attain some good results with them.

I am not one of the more complicated Lyme Disease cases. When I walked into Envita's doors I had been sick for less than a year and had responded to antibiotics immediately whenever I was prescribed them through a physician (I just was never kept on them long enough). When I came in the staff was warm and friendly. The patient care coordinators (essentially salesman for the facility) assured my they had a success rate over 90% with lyme disease patients. When I asked them to elaborate on what they defined as success, they said a, "significant improvement in symptoms." Though it was a very expensive treatment, I figured this was the place that would finally put me on the right path. Before I was inflicted with Lyme I was a healthy 21 year old male who had never come across any health problems so I believed them when they told me they'd get me well and I wouldn't need to see another Lyme doctor after working with them.

The nice thing about Envita is you are placed in a room with other Lyme patients so you immediately have a support system, and we all relied on each other throughout our experience. Though the staff and doctors vehemently preach the fact that we all receive an individualized treatment approach, almost all of us received essentially an identical treatment. I am not a doctor, and my knowledge of this illness is limited, but I do understand that this is a complex illness and each person has their own path to wellness. What works for person A will most likely not work for person B. Envita has essentially created a small box. They group everyone into the same treatment plan and there are a few lucky individuals who will get well because they fit into that box. However, the majority of their patients do not react well with the extremely aggressive approach, and if that's the case than you are most likely out of luck and out of $40,000-$80,000.

I was one of the lucky ones, I did in fact fit into that box. Let me make it clear that it wasn't easy, the treatments are brutal, they throw ever concoction at you at high doses and it will make you extremely sick. For the first month in there I vomited nearly every day. In the second month I was still very much struggling. I had to extend my treatment past the eight weeks like most of the other patients did because I was not well when my time was up. Luckily for me, that next month I spent in there was the difference. I spent $20,000 more than I anticipated because I had to extend my treatment plan but I walked out of the facility feeling 50% and felt like I was on my way towards a full recovery. It was difficult to see the other patients I spent time with struggling so much, but I felt lucky that I was one of the few that fit into the small box that Envita provides.

I was sent out with an after care protocol that was identical to what every other patient received when their treatment was over. I began the after-care protocol and started doing terribly. Because I was lucky enough to live in the area, I constantly made appointments with the doctor overseeing my care in the facility (Dr. Korn) to help provide me some guidance with the after-care. Dr. Korn told me that the more I pushed myself with his protocol the faster I would get better. At this point, nearly every other patient I treated with had abandoned Envita's protocol due to their negative experience but I kept at it. As each month wore on, my condition deteriorated more and more. After 7 months of treating through Envita my illness was actually worse than when I had started with them. What aggravated me even more was the fact that of the 14 lyme patients that I had met there and kept in contact with afterwards, only 2 had seen significant improvement in their symptoms. At least half were actually worse in their condition. So much for that 90% success rate they pitched.

Looking for answers I made another appointment with Dr. Korn. When I explained to him my situation he simply would just state that he didn't know what was wrong with me. Instead of providing me answers he simply asked what I wanted to do. I pushed him further looking for some guidance on the issue and the conversation veered into an area I was not expecting. The man I had entrusted the last seven months of my life with told me that it was very possible I had a spell cast on me by a witch while I was doing volunteer work in Africa. This "spell" that was placed on me, was a major contributing factor to my current condition. He insisted on giving me the name of a minister who we found out later performs exorcisms on his patients. I must also say that I saw him going down this path early on in the appointment and tried to steer him away by telling him that I was jewish, but it didn't stop him and explained to me that he was also jewish but believed in jesus. He also did this same exact thing with a 17 year old girl who was treating with me as well when she was not getting well.

My family and I were obviously upset with what had transpired. I understand that spiritual faith may in fact play a part in recovery from an illness, but I was there for his medical advice, not a lesson on finding Christ. The fact that he had done this with other patients pushed me to meet with the owner of the facility Dino Prado.

I want to be completely transparent in my review. When I met with Mr. Prado (From my understanding he lost his license to practice medicine so to call him a doctor would be misleading) I was intent on letting him know how his physician handled my care and wanted a refund on my treatment. I did think my care was mismanaged to the point of earning a refund but went into the meeting knowing that wasn't probably happening.

I must say that Mr. Prado was very receptive to my advice/criticism in the meeting. It is obvious that the facility has no intention of being a scam, and they truly do believe they are helping people. He seemed to be genuinely shocked when I told him that nearly all of the patients had a negative experience with Envita. Dino and his staff are under the impression that they are helping people, but they do not contact their patients after their eight week treatment is finished so they never actually have any idea how successful they are with Lyme patients.

He told me he realized this was a weakness in their protocol and he planned to do something about it. When I told him I was doing worse, Dino said it was due to the fact that I had recently started taking a couple percocet a day, though it was his doctors that prescribed my the percocet and never flinched in refilling that prescription. Dino also made it clear numerous times that Envita was the best at what they do. He told me that if I were to get well at another doctor it would only be because of all the good things Envita had done for me. I am not exaggerating my meeting with him in any way, this is exactly what he had conveyed to me. Though Dino clearly has good intentions, it is very apparent that he is delusional in terms of how much they're helping patients. Their treatment costs in the mid five figures even though their success rate with Lyme patients probably lays somewhere between 10-20%. The top lyme doctors in the country have a success rate between 60-80% with patients and provide their services at a much more generous price than Envita.

When I asked for a refund, he was very offended, but he and his staff were generous and insisted that their goal was to get me well and would provide me with a few months of treatment on their dime. They would switch me to the other doctor within their facility who would now be overseeing my care. I met with this other doctor, who does seem competent, and is a very nice man, but didn't strike me as someone who had a great understanding of Lyme Disease.

I gave Envita two stars because they have a tremendous nursing staff who truly care about their patients. They also have a state of the art facility and some of the front office staff truly do care (Craig), but thats about where the positive stops. To recover from Lyme you need a physician who really understands the illness and caters the treatment to you specifically, and that is something Envita lacks.

Sadly, lyme patients will continue to spend their life savings unsuccessfully at Envita. They are a marketing machine and I doubt my review will last on here long as they most likely have a way to take it down. My advice is to do your research on this facility before committing to them. Not only is the conventional medical community against them (which is fully expected and understandable), but the Lyme community is also against them. When I contacted the top Lyme Disease advocacy group who helps patients find LLMD's, Dr Korn was actually on their list of banned doctors. The main reason I chose not to take them up on their offer of free treatment is because they are basically shunned by most Lyme advocates. You can get better from Lyme, so please seek out the care of a trained Lyme Literate Medical Doctor who will work with you closely. I have lost $70,000 to this facility but more importantly I lost 7 months of my life. I am now under the care of a different doctor who I am very comfortable with and respect very much. I hope I dont come off as sounding like I have an axe to grind, I would have never left a review like this if it wasn't for the fact that nearly every lyme patient I was in treatment with did not get well while treating there. Best of luck to all the other lyme patients out there!

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