Recommended Doctor
James Parrish ROACH MD
Family Medicine - Kentucky Midway

Dr Roach is has many good qualities as a doctor, but above all, he is an excellent diagnostician. Twice he has caught a serious disease in my family when even a specialist missed it. My mother had seen nearly twenty doctors across Kentucky about a severe pain in her side, just behind and below the site of her 1980 mastectomy. She was also getting a constant build-up of fluid in her plueral sac. I was sure her cancer had returned, but no doctor seemed to be seeing the same thing I was. Finally, after yet another doctor had failed to figure out what was causing her pain, I told her I was making an appointment with Dr. Roach for her. Dr. Roach spent nearly an hour with her. He went over ever test result she had and did a careful and thorough exam. Finally, he told her that although none of her tests had reached the flag level, all were elevated and her cancer had clearly returned. He referred her to an oncologist. The oncologist examined her and proclaimed unequivocally that her cancer had not returned. The very next day, we got the results of a final test, a tap of fluid in her pleural sac which contained cancer cells. Dr. Roach had gotten it right. Although we had lost a lot of time with six months of misdiagnosis, Dr. Roach got her treatment in time that we were still able to buy six precious years: time enough for her to see her only grandchild.

My husband went to him complaining of depression and a "heaviness in his chest." I don't know what made Dr. Roach see heart disease in those symptoms, but he did an EKG and got abnormal results. He then sent my husband for a stress test and got abnormal results again. He referred my husband to a cardiologist who took one look at my short, slight husband with no family history and said they were false positives. I trusted Dr. Roach enough after the experience with my mom that I stuck my toes in and insisted on a heart cath. Dr. Roach was right again. My husband had a dangerous blockage in one coronary artery. The cardiologist ended up stopping the test and stenting the artery right then, as he was in danger of a heart attack. Since we caught it before he had an infarction, he is doing quite well five years later. Dr. Roach also took me seriously when I told him my husband had sleep apnea. He scheduled my husband for a sleep study, which showed that he was stopping breathing as much as sixty times a night. Sleep apnea is a risk factor for heart disease and can be quite serious. My husband now sleeps with a CPAP machine and if anything is healthier than he was before he had heart disease.

My own health issues are more complicated, and Dr. Roach has mostly referred me to specialists. However, he has diagnosed me well enough to get me to the right specialties and he has found very good people to treat me.

Dr. Roach is one of two doctors we see that are painfully shy, but I think that is what makes both of them such excellent diagnosticians. He doesn't say much, he may not... [<a href='read.php?taid=5001'>more..</a>]