Dr. David Chessin

I had complicated Diverticulitis and my son wanted me to see Dr. Chessin. After 3 weeks in one hospital, I transferred to Mount Sinai. That was the Best thing I could have ever done, I was out in 3 days! Afterwards, I had the surgery and I feel like a whole new person. Dr. Chessin made me feel relaxed and I could see how much he really love what he does! His bedside manner is excellent! He explained every step of the surgery and his staff is amazing as well. During my post op, he told me to forget I ever had Diverticulitis! I have already recommended him to several other people who have suffered with Diverticulitis. And, I now eat whatever I want! I never have to worry about another attack! If you are looking for an expert, Dr Chessin is the ONE!

In a word, he's awesome. I had a mass in my abdomen. I first saw a different surgeon. She wasn't confident about what to do with it, whether to leave it be or operate. She took it to her hospital's 'tumor board'. The tumor board came back divided, and she searched for more expert opinions. And then a few days later her PA called me back with the official recommendation that the mass be looked at via an MRI in another 3 months to see if it grew, but with the explicit qualifier that they could offer no guarantees that the mass was not malignant. It didn't inspire confidence. It was at this point that I sought out the someone who is tops in the field. Dr. Chessin came incredibly highly recommended. His staff is awesome, and when I explained my situation on the phone they got me in on short notice. When I got to his office the wait was less than 5 minutes. Once he saw me he listened patiently to my history, he studied all the films I brought him, and he read all of the reports I brought. And then he told me unequivocally that the mass needed to come out. No ambiguity. He also said that in my case he wanted to do it sooner rather than later. And so while normally Dr. Chessin is in high demand and schedules surgery much further out, he squeezed me in to his surgical schedule in one week! He prepared me for everything; the POSSIBLITY of a 3-4 day hospital stay, the POSSIBLITY he would need to remove a section of intestine, the pain I'd feel following surgery, EVERYTHING. The surgery came off without a hitch, he was able to remove the mass without touching my intestine, I was able to leave the hospital THE SAME DAY, my pain was minimal, and my appetite came back immediately. He also informed me the moment I woke up that the mass appeared totally benign, and as soon as the pathology results were available he called me with the 'official' results that the mass was benign. This mass only showed up accidentally on an MRI which was taken for another condition, and no one could tell whether it was enmeshed in my intestine, and no one was sure whether it was benign or malignant. Looking back I can't imagine having had a series of MRIs over the coming months/years to see whether it had grown, shrunk, or stayed the same, all the while HOPING it wasn't malignant. I didn't have to. I found the guy, tops in the field, who knew just what to do, and how to do it expertly. I can't recommend Dr. Chessin highly enough.

Had an absolutely life changing experience with him! :) highly recommended!

The worst doctor I’ve seen in NYC in 20 plus years. I still haven’t fully recovered from his completely insouciant botched hack job, I have absolutely no proof but he gave me a feeling of total disrespect for any one not white and straight. The details of the fake care that came from his office are deep. But I won’t go into them here.

My experience with Dr. Chessin was more or less a disaster. I went to him for a pilonidal cyst, so he performed surgery on me. Initially healing seemed to be going fine but then stagnated and even seemed to be getting worse. He instructed me that this happened in 5% of patients, and that I would have to see him every 2 weeks for silver nitrate treatments. I trusted what he was telling me was true. After months of these further treatments and no progress, his story seemed to change. Some weeks I was almost done, the next I was about halfway healed. This surgery was supposed to heal in a few weeks. He told me the wound wasn't infected, and that I would have to wait until the wound had healed to get laser hair treatment for the area to prevent recurrence. I decided to get a new doctor's opinion, to which she told me that the wound was indeed infected and that there were foreign bodies in the wound area preventing it from healing. She suggested getting laser hair removal immediately to prevent anything from getting in the wound while it healed, and she pulled out foreign bodies from the area that Dr. Chessin either completely missed or ignored. After only a few visits with the new doctor, my wound had fully healed. It turned out Dr. Chessin was trying to close the wound site while there were still things in the wound. This cost me months of feeling disgusting in my own body and a lot of money to pay in treatments. In actuality, my body wasn't the problem and there was no '5%' of patients. He was just not giving me proper care and was missing key problems. My advice for anyone who has a pilonidal cyst is to get laser hair removal before surgery and to consider another doctor who won't be so negligent.