Dr. John G Heller, MD

My husband and I have been in the medical field now for 40 years. I recently had very involved lower spine surgery. I am grateful to Dr Heller and his superb team for excellent results and very supportive care through a hard process. He and his Team are the Best!!!!!

Dr John G Heller is my miracle man. My neck was a mess to say the very least. he showed me my MRI and Cat Scan and explained and demonstrated all the areas he would be reconstructing. Dr Heller corrected every problem area he showed to me. He was so confident that he made me confident too. he had a good sense of humor. I would recomment him to everyone. The hospital staff were so great also. Hiw staff in his office could not have been nicer. His nurse.,Mrs. Swanson helped me tremendously.

Dr. Heller performed surgery to eliminate the intense chronic pain of my spinal stenosis. The result is that I am pain free after many years of suffering. Injections, at the Pain Clinic, and opioid pain meds no longer worked. In mu opinion Dr Heller is the best orthopedic surgeon in the South East !

After consulting with several spine surgeons we selected Dr. Heller's for my husband's procedure; it turned out to be the worst medical decision we have made to date. Dr. Heller emphatically stated that my husband did not need a fusion and would be fine with a 3-level, lower lumbar laminectomy. Approximately 23 days post surgery my husband was overcome by excruciating nerve pain which required a trip to the ER. From there, we went straight back to Emory where Dr. Heller determined that he had "misjudged" the compression on the bottom 2 levels, so several days later he went back in to perform a laminectomy on the bottom 2 levels of his spine. Once again, approximately 23 days post op, the horrific nerve pain came back. By this time my husband was a nervous wreck, but we decided we would give Dr. Heller the benefit of the doubt, so we headed back to Emory one more time. On this occasion, he simply told us that the nerves were aggravated and that there was nothing more that he could do other than bring in another doctor to do a pain block. Now mind you, my husband couldn't even get out of the bed to go to the bathroom. We got the pain block just to get out of Emory, so we could go somewhere else and get fixed. By this time, my husband's foot had turned gray, the skin was flaking off, and I am convinced that if we had listened to Dr. Heller and not sought treatment elsewhere he would have lost his left foot. My husband ended up needing a 5-level fusion, but I am happy to say that immediately after the last procedure (performed by a neurosurgeon in another city) his foot turned pink and looked much better. I am convinced that his sciatic nerve was compressed during the first procedure and stayed that way until the 3rd procedure 64 days later. I believe that the nerve pain became apparent when the internal swelling went away post-operatively. Of course, as a permanent reminder of his time with Dr. Heller, my husband has almost no feeling in his left leg or foot, but at least it is still there! On top of all of the pain and suffering that we had to endure, we also had to put up with Dr. Heller's smug attitude and bedside manner; he had no compassion and his only concern was to make sure that we both knew he didn't do anything wrong. I am making it my personal goal to share our story on every search engine platform that I can find. I do not want anyone to experience what we went through at the hands of John Heller!

I had been in constant nerve pain from spinal stenosis for over 5 months and Dr. Heller performed my surgery. He explained my problem and detailed his procedures prior to surgery. After surgery, he was very caring and very supportive in my after care. He and his associates are highly recommended. Evelyn in Jasper, GA

Dr. Heller is the Greatest!

Dr. Heller did my lumbar fusion and I had a bad outcome. I complained that something was not right after surgery and even months after. I was told to wait- so I waited. It's now two years and I'm still not right and suffering.. In trying to figure this out, multiple other spine surgeons (Mayo Clinic & HSS) have told me that the procedure I had was "not the best one for my condition". How could a surgeon of this caliber mislead me like this? I now have to undergo "the correct procedure" to fix it.

I regret having dr. heller do surgery on me. I'm young and never had surgery and was a good candidate for low back fusion. He messed up so badly and I'm now paying the price. I went to another surgeon for help who actually told me that dr. heller is more of an academic type of doctor and not the kind you want doing surgery on you. He told me that he's seen other bad jobs done by dr. heller which is deeply troubling. Worse, dr. heller doesn't seem to care. If only I knew this beforehand.

Left me with damage I did not have before my surgery and in chronic pain.

I had spine surgery with Dr. Heller. Unfortunately, there was an error in judgment on his behalf as to the kind of surgery I needed to fix my condition. I knew a mistake was made from the moment I woke up from surgery. As a consequence of this error in judgment I never healed correctly which has led me to endure being in pain for over a year and having to have two revision surgeries to correct the mess he made. He is dismissive when there is a problem and doesn't care to make things right. There are many excellent surgeons in Atlanta. My recommendation is to find someone else.

Wonderful experience with Dr. Heller, nurses, staff and entire team. I had a 2 level spinal fusion and forimanotomy . Dr. Heller was in my room morning and evening for the 2 days post op. I have never had to wait for an appointment. His staff is responsive, compassionate and ready to help in a quick time frame. He is simply one of the best doctors in his field! He speaks to you with respect, dry wit, and with compassion. I can only give his entire team the greatest of praise!

I met Dr. Heller because he was on call for my original doctor. I needed emergency surgery to relieve pressure on a nerve that was causing extreme pain. Pre-op was done to prepare me for surgery the next day. He entered in my hospital room the night before the surgery to inform me that he would not be completing the surgery because he cant fix anything in 15 minutes that took me a lifetime to mess up. I can not explain in words how awful he made me feel. I also felt like I was a bother to him and I interupted him from his real patients. My experience was so bad with him until this day I have a fear of meeting new doctors. He tried to treat my pain with meds but that wasnt helping. Needless to say I remained in pain and I have not recovered from the nerve damage. I would not recommend my worst enemy to Dr. Heller.

This facility treats its patients like a number. Very poor communication, follow-up and administration. I was scheduled to have a disc replacement to my C5/C6 vertebrae and Dr Heller had convinced me the best option was to go with the Bryan Disc instead of fusion. Long story short, after going through all of my pre-operation procedures, I had a basic question and called the office the day before my scheduled surgery date. While asking a question about the Bryan Disc, the assistant said " You're not getting the Bryan Disc, we will be doing a fusion". Not one word of this was spoken to me beforehand and I was clear that I wanted the disc. She stated that my insurance did not approve it. Why i was never informed is beyond me. They require you to approve both procedures just in case that during the surgery, the doctor has the option to go with the fusion if the disc does not work. Scary to think that I could have had the surgery not realizing that they were going to do the procedure that I did not want. No apologies! NOTHING! Blamed it on my insurance. Regardless, they failed to communicate this to me. My out of pocket expenses were significant and never even had the surgery. My pre-op MRI alone cost me $800 out of pocket as my insurance only covered a portion. This could have been avoided if they had informed me that my insurance wasnt covering the bryan disc. I had the MRI just 5 days earlier. A few other things to note: If you need an appt, you will wait at a minimum of 2-3 weeks to be seen. Even if in extreme pain. Administrative team is very unorganized. Cant find files and notes. They may as well assign a number to each patient.Extreme lack of care.

Dr. Heller has made my life great.He has operated on my spine 4 times, each time I get a better quality of life.This past year, I began to have a different pain. It took a bit longer to find the cure, but he did so and even called me the following Monday morning to find out how I did. he was happy when I told him "that you all nailed it this time. I am free from pain. He is the absolutley best spine surgeon. Fixes what other surgeons have made a mess on.

Saw very little of Dr. Heller after surgery. He did not examine me or discuss specific issues. Physician Asst. did all these duties. When I continued to have difficulty, was told to "take narcotics" and deal with issues. Ended up feeling like it was my fault that there was something wrong with me.