Dr. Suzanne Nelson, MD

She does not use proper diagnostic terms and makes diagnoses seem so intense I constantly left in tears. I tried multiple treatments under her care, all were failures including “drinks” I had to take which made me gain 15 plus pounds in a week or 2— how disorienting! I sought a second opinion when she decided to put me on emergency IBD medicine and was left with a deeply offended doctor who suddenly treated me as a know it all. Against her bias I wanted to try my second opinion’s treatment plan and kept having to tell her how to prescribe it as she “didn’t like the medication and knew nothing about it.” This is not an uncommon medicine. After finally getting to remission I was still constantly sick. I asked if there was anything else we could do given outlying symptoms which she responded “that’s as good as it’s going to get.” A handful of years after my diagnosis and a new doctor later I am FINALLY under proper care and for the first time actually feel GOOD with no symptoms.

We were so disappointed with our experience with Dr. Nelson. It became very apparent she did not read my son's chart prior to the appointment. I felt very rushed the entire time and she did not allow time to ask questions. The most upsetting part was that she was shockingly impatient with my 5 year old who was understandably struggling to stay still during the appointment. It would be one thing if she had poor bedside manner but provided adequate medical care, but she did not do either. I would not recommend this provider.

My daughter, who previously had a bowel resection as an infant, was having severe GI issues for over a year. Dr Nelson did several tests and told me my daughter needed surgery and referred me to a surgeon. After the surgery she told me that the surgeon said he did not see a problem and felt the surgery was most likely not necessary...and then SHE PROCEEDED TO MAKE ME FOR FEEL BAD FOR THE SURGERY AS IF IT WAS MY DECISION! Dr Nelson is the professional and made me feel horrible. She did not take responsibility for HER decision and was rude. I found another gastroenterologist. I would NEVER recommend her.

I wish I had read reviews beforehand. MD is very unfriendly, unprofessional & caused delay to care. I'm not sure if she references notes from prior visits because I had to repeat the same information to her multiple times. She seems to work through a cookie cutter solution method without taking into account each child & family's unique circumstances. Her communication is poor - I needed a form adjusted for my daughters school. This was sent on a Friday. Her response on Monday was stating that she does not understand why the school is administering this drug. she's the one who signed & sent the form originally. I spoke to her finally on Wednesday after a 45 minute wait and of course she changed her story. Her office recommend we see a GI therapist who only does virtual appointments. You can imagine how unfruitful that was with a 5 year old. Overall, after charging us over $1000 for 2 hours, she provided 1 piece of clinical advice, and a ton of hassle and delay to care.

Doctor Nelson made me feel very bad in the consultation with my 3-year-old daughter, after a light abdominal examination, I told her that I had felt a lump under my daughter's ribs when I was changing her, she told me that it was not my job to check on my daughter, that I was just the mom and she was the doctor. Even so, I insisted that she touch the part of her stomach that has troubled me for a long time, I think that after waiting a long time for this visit and being a gastroenterologist, it's okay if she checks my daughter's stomach again for a few more seconds ! But she has too much pride, little compassion and little patience to be a pediatrician and dealing with the anguish of parents.

trying to figure out my daughter’s tough GI issue

My 5 year old child has been dealing with some GI issues since he was born and I was hoping to have Dr. Nelson help him with his health issue and be someone that would make him feel comfortable and confident to speak with. He is shy and actually tried to tell her his experience with his issue and she didn’t even listen him. She was with us for 10mins never checked the concerning area I came in for and seemed more interested in her trip she was going on. The lack of emotion from a pediatric GI is absolutely unacceptable. I told my child before going how great it would be to speak to a professional that will answer all our questions and help make him feel better and instead did nothing but ignored him while he spoke.

My 16-yr old daughter and I had a surprisingly upsetting first-time experience with Dr. Nelson. The staff and the nurse were wonderful. The doctor, upon entering the room and greeting us, made a comment: "I am so glad it's Friday, I get to sleep in tomorrow". Throughout the evaluation she was vague and did not provide answers to my questions about my daughter's problem. She was rude and insensitive to a 16-yr old kid. It seemed that she was just interested in scheduling an endoscopy, however she did not provide much information as to why she believed one was necessary or how it would help. She appeared to be in a rush and did not even ask my daughter for a 24-hour meal recall, which is a basic part of any GI evaluation (I can speak to this as I am a nurse practitioner). Upon exiting the building, my daughter, who is a tough kid in general, burst out crying with the words: "Mom, I didn't expect them to solve my problem right away, but I was at least hoping for a nicer doctor".

This doctor lacks compassion, doesn’t listen, has little concern about a child’s over all health, and doesn’t value the parents input when the parents have been managing their child’s health issues for longer than she has been involved. Find another doctor…any doctor.

She can be a danger to a child. My two-year-old has special needs and has been throwing up consistently, I asked for her help on what I should do next because his GERD is agitated. Her response was he is at his max dose that I should contact the pediatrician and that there’s nothing she can do. I contacted her back saying the pediatrician will just refer me back to you. And that if she cannot help me I will try and figure out what to do and she just ignored my message, no care in the world that my son has been throwing up. She was very rude in the previous message and later I did find out from a few therapists at Shirley Ryan (RIC) that she is known for her poor bedside manner. She was nice in the beginning until she had to put forth more effort. Please don’t make a mistake try and find someone at the North location there is a lot more GIs there.

We took our 9 year old to Dr. Nelson after going through many GI at Lurie Childrens. She was amazing with our daughter - very thoughtful in her approach. She has always responded quickly via the Lurie system when we had questions. I am an adult internal medicine doctor so VERY picky and she exceeded our hopes!! Highly recommend.

I took my 15 yr old daughter to see Dr. Nelson. We were very disappointed with the visit overall. As a specialist who works with children, I was expecting more from her. She spent less than 10 minutes with us and did not seem to care about finding the cause of my daughter's GI pain. She is definitely not warm and fuzzy, like she portrays on her website. If you are looking for a pediatric GI, I'd look elsewhere.

Dr. Nelson does not rush you out the door. She is very kind and listens to what you have to say. My daughter saw her the first time at 9 and is now 14. We have seen other pediatric GI's with changes in insurance plans and she is the best! She was quick to get my daughter in when she was having issues too!

Brought 10 yr old son to Dr. Nelson 2 times. The first visit Dr. Nelson asked a lot of questions. Sent us to get an x-ray and a blood test. Her assistant followed up with us that the blood test was fine, no abnormalities, and that the x-ray showed that he was constipated. The recommendation was Miralax, water, fiber. No followup recommended. 2nd visit, yrs later, no conclusions and never asked for followup!! Going to diff gastroenterologist due to still having issues that were not resolved!!

Dr. Nelson's practice is very commercial oriented. Based on our eight month experience, there was hardly compassion we noticed for the patient. For simple follow up questions over the phone, we were forced to make clinic appointments and that was not convenient at all for us. There has been no improvement and we spend more than 8 months with her