Dr. Strasswimmer is rude, unprofessional and self centered. While cutting cancer out of my face, he boasted about his Harvard degree, schooling at Yale, etc..
While I was waiting in the patient chair after he did the initial surgery and had left the room, I contacted my friend via cell phone to notify her regarding my potential recovery time (my friends and I rely on each other during times like this). Dr. Strasswimmer briefly stepped into the room, saw that I was speaking to someone in my cellphone, said something about me "being on the phone" and stormed out.
Another staff member came in the room admonished me that Dr. Stasswimmer was "extremely busy," and that he had gone on to take care of other patients.
After waiting 40 minutes for Dr. Strasswimmer to return and stitch up my face, i got out of the patient chair to get some things out of my bookbag. He walked in at that time and demanded to know why I was out of the patient chair. I told him I was getting my checkbook. He appeared to be extremely angry, and he left for second time.
Then a staff person came in and told me that I had to stay in the patient chair, and that Dr. Stasswimmer expected me to stay in the patient chair so that whenever he walks into a room, I'm ready to go.
When he later returned, I was in the patient chair and he began to scold me about respecting his time and he lectured me about how fortunate I was to be getting a Mohs surgery instead of an excision.
As he was scolding and lecturing me, he was also putting stitches into a very sensitive area on my face (from my lower eyelid down to the area near my nose), and it felt like he was tugging tightly on the stitches, as if he were pulling shoe laces extra tight.
I felt like Dustin Hoffman, in the sadistic Dentist's chair in the movie "Marathon Man." It was surreal and it felt VERY intimidating. I was concerned that he was going to permanently damage my face.
After he left, and I was still in the chair, the owner of the clinic told me how great of a surgeon he was and how fortunate I was to receive his care!
Although I like and appreciate the staff and regular doctors at the Salida Dermatology very, very much, I will NEVER subject myself to Dr. Stasswimmer's care again.
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Sara M. | Oct 25, 2025