Hetzler Douglas G Md Facs Santa Cruz Medical Foundation

Surfer’s Ear surgery. Amazing. I canceled surgery at the Stanford Medical Center 24 hours before I was to have it, because last minute I heard from a few different sources that I really should see Dr. Hetzler. I stayed up all night researching, freaking out, hesitant. Dr. Hetzler himself called me to assess the last minute decision, which was unreal anyway these days.
I canceled Stanford, though I respect the surgeon, as he was going to slice the back of my ear for access to the ear canal, and use a drill. With Dr. Hetzler, at about 90+% closure in my left ear, it was so non-​invasive, over in a few minutes (relatively speaking), and we threw in the right ear too because it was headed toward total blockage.
It has been two weeks and I am ready for everything. I gave him a big hug. He was so thorough with me that I almost felt undeserving. He has passion for this, he custom designed his micro-​chisels… He is the Man.
Sorry to hear about the guy who thinks he sucks. Hmmm, non sequitur.

Dr. Hetzler ranks in one of my top 5 worst physician experiences ever. I went to him experiencing dizziness and other problems with my ears. Hetzler was dismissive of my concerns. He brushed off the three previous diagnosis I had received from three different general practitioners. He looked in my ears and did two very simple manual tests. He then proceeded to ask me if I had heard of a particular disease, then suggested I probably had that disease and then told me after I questioned the symptoms of the disease against mine that it probably wasn’t that disease. He then told me to take baby aspirin and that I knew where to find him if it got worse.
I left feeling unheard, uncared for and uncertain about this maybe diagnosis.
I ended up going to EARS in San Jose where Dr Dear spent over an hour going through my symptoms, medical history and did a battery if manual tests. That was the first visit. He scheduled several other tests to rule out or assist in a proper diagnosis. And then took the final step of scheduling an MRI to rule out a tumor.
Dr Hetzler did NOTHING in terms of investigative medicine. He was lazy and most certainly not interested in finding out what was really going on.

Dr Hetzler is the kind of doctor I want for all of my medical needs, he’s professional, intelligent, and competent. I trust his expertise and advice.

Sheer GENIUS! I Just returned from surfer’s ear surgery this morning. I have zero pain or discomfort. Minimal drainage.
The Santa Cruz surgery Center is incredible. The staff is so helpful and informative. They made my short stay perfect.
On to Dr Hetzler. He is a magician. His knowledge and professionalism is amazing. He used his ‘micro chisels’ to open my ears (98% closure). It was seamless. He is clearly an expert in this procedure. I would HIGHLY recommend Dr Hetzler to anyone considering having the ‘surfer’s ear’ operation.