1 /5 Audrey Hausig, MMT, MT-BC: Dr. Avvento caused my father undue pain and suffering. Despite being his doctor for many years, when my father was diagnosed with nodules throughout his organs, Avvento told him not to worry. He delayed the CT scan and then delayed the biopsy. He agreed to do a virtual appointment to read the results and then delayed it by hours and only did a phone call when we threatened legal action. He ordered chemotherapy with a high risk for bleeding despite my father having extremely low platelets (something which Avvento had treated him for for over 10 years). Throughout this process, despite my father clearly having metastatic pancreatic cancer, he refused to give him a clear prognosis and when pressed repeatedly he finally said 3-6 months, when it was in fact just over a week. This cowardly refusal to speak honestly and frankly made things much more difficult than they already were. The continued delaying of appointments and procedures was agonizing. If this man is unable to have tough conversations, he probably shouldnt be working in oncology. People who are dying deserve the dignity of the truth, even if it makes the doctor uncomfortable. His office was often unwilling to talk to my brother and I despite our legal medical proxy status. He did not order the full biopsy tests he should have and had to go back and retest for us to know genetic information. I recommend getting out from his care immediately and know that if he orders test, you are stuck with him until he chooses to read results (which will happen late and inaccurately) because other doctors are not allowed to share results.
