As I sit here writing about our experience with Doctor Sternberg, I truly hope that I am able to do him justice and convey clearly to everyone what an amazing physician, surgeon, and human being he is. While on vacation in San Francisco for New Year 2019, my 16 year old son complained of a cyst like bump on his tailbone and a strange drainage coming from below the cyst. My “mom brain” went into immediate worry-mode and I frantically did a google search that produced the the diagnosis of pilonidal cyst. I freaked out even more reading about the horror stories associated with the treatment. Well, the stars must have been aligned that day because I then proceeded to do a search for a doctor who specializes in pilonidal disease and since we were in San Francisco, Dr. Sternberg’s website popped right up. I called immediately, but due to the holidays, the answering service picked up. I nervously explained what was going on, not expecting to hear back from anyone until the next week as they had told me that the doctor was away for the New Year.

To my surprise, within 10 minutes, Dr. Sternberg himself called me back. He was so reassuring and I immediately felt at ease. He explained to me that I needed to take photos of my son and precisely how to do it (also explained on his website) so that I could send them directly to him for the confirmation of the condition. Since we were leaving San Francisco to head back to Dubai (where we live) in a couple of days time, this was an absolute life saver as we would be leaving before the office opened back up for appointments. I took the pictures, sent them and the diagnosis was confirmed.

Through speaking with Dr. Sternberg, utilizing the abundance of information on his website and doing an exhaustive external online search, we were able to comfortably make an informed decision about his treatment. There was absolutely no guess work involved in having Dr. Sternberg perform the cleft-lift procedure and we travelled 16 hours by plane to do so! After reading about Dr. Sternberg’s expertise with this condition and the cleft-lift procedure, I would not have dreamed of having anyone else do this surgery. Both the doctor and his staff made the whole process easy. The consult was set up for the first day, surgery the next and check up on the third. My son’s pilonidal disease was very advanced and had gone undetected for quite some time, making his an extremely difficult case. I was so worried. But again, Dr. Sternberg was an absolute hero throughout the entire process.

After coming out of surgery, the doctor explained that even though his condition was much more extensive than was apparent outwardly, he was confident that he would heal well. Dr. Sternberg actually called and texted me frequently during the recovery process to check on my son, often before I even had the chance to call him! On the occasions that I did call or message him (and there were plenty of times that I did) he always answered quickly and never made me feel like I was bothering him. My son is doing so well now and we are so incredibly grateful to have found Dr. Sternberg. I try not to think of what might have happened had we not. Thank you a thousand times over, Doc!

– Rebecca Z.