Recommended Doctor
James Thomas COURTNEY MD
Surgery - Michigan Royal Oak

I highly recommend Dr. James T. Courtney. I had a gallbladder attack that brought me to the ER at William Beaumont hospital in Royal Oak. They could have given me any surgeon. I was in such pain, I just wanted relief. To my good fortune, I wound up on Dr. Courtney's watch. He noticed my umbilical hernia in the CT scan and knew I'd lived with it a long time. I wouldn’t even have mentioned it, because it had been drilled in my head by my PCP for over 8 years that it was a cosmetic issue, even though it had grown to the size of a cereal bowl and was tender to the touch. Dr. Courtney saw it differently and made the decision to fix it at the same time he removed my gallbladder. He had a full surgery schedule on June 18, but he added me on anyway. "I'll just be operating all day," he said with a wave of his hand as if it was no inconvenience to him. On the day of my surgery before they wheeled me in for the operation, Dr. Courtney described to me how he planned to approach both surgeries in terms I could easily understand. It put my mind at ease. Before I was discharged from the hospital, he visited me in my room and told me he was unable to use any mesh due to the risk of infection. "Please don’t strain," He cautioned, ":At least not right now." He could have been my brother or my best friend after a hard day's work. He was so approachable I felt like hugging him and telling him it would be okay. The decisions he made and actions he took eliminated my pain and improved the quality of my life. He had just given me the greatest gift and yet he was beating himself up because he couldn't complete the surgery as perfectly as would have liked. If this wasn’t impressive enough, Dr. Courtney has mad surgical skills! The proof is in the outcome---it was a quick recovery with no complications and I'm thrilled with my new belly button! He raised the bar for other doctors in my future, because I can no longer settle for less than the best care now that I know how great it can be.