Patient Stories

Mr. Saeb-Parsy, I just wanted to say thank you for your care, skill and support when I had my cystoscopy. It was greatly appreciated.

Dear Mr Wiseman,

As you will probably remember, you performed a vasectomy reversal on me last year. We had a follow-up appointment in January, after which we put off trying to conceive a baby until after our wedding. (Dicey, but we had to wait.) Anyway, we tried to conceive while we were on honeymoon and it worked right away — my wife is now 13 weeks along, we’ve had the first scan at the Rosie, and — fingers crossed! — everything looks fine so far!

Thank you so much for your phenomenal intervention. From our first meeting, you explained everything with such clarity and compassion that I felt relaxed, informed, and positive about the process from start to finish; and of course your expertise as a surgeon, along with the great facilities at the Nuffield, have made it possible for us to have a baby. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance to us of your work — you have, of course, quite literally made life possible. Thank you so much, from both of us.

We’ll keep you posted on how it goes. And thanks to everyone at the Nuffield and at Bourn Hall who with patience (much patience!) and kindness steered us along.

Dear Mr Armitage,

Thank you for your letter, received this morning, with the good news it contains. I am indeed recovering well from the surgery, and would say I am already better than I have been for quite some time.

My wife wishes to join me in expressing gratitude for all the treatment I have received at Addenbrooke’s, culminating in the operation itself, and the skill with which it was conducted. Much care has been taken to put me at ease, alleviate and prevent pain where possible, and explain to us the course of action now proposed. I look forward to meeting you again when attending the clinic when the time comes.

Dear Mr Armitage,

I have just received a letter from you informing me that the tissue analysis from my prostate was clear of cancer. That has been good news for me but it also provides an opportunity to thank you formally for your, and for your team’s professional skills.

I was not clear which type of operation I was going to get on my enlarged prostate but I’d looked you up beforehand on line and was hopeful for laser surgery and relieved when you offered it. In the event the results were quite remarkable. From the very beginning, my urine flow was incredibly strong. It must have been like that when I was young but I can’t remember! Frequency reverted quickly to normal. (I had been going every hour prior to my prostate giving out.) My urine cleared of blood within 2-3 weeks and of scabs from the remodelled prostate in about 4. Even my sex life has been completely normal.

None of this could have happened without what you did. My father had the same condition as me and was operated on in 1963. It changed his life, albeit he made the absolute best of it. In my case it seems to have returned my life to normal.

Once more, many thanks

MRI Fusion transperineal prostate biopsies & Brachytherapy

To: Mr Kastner and Dr Russell

I am very privileged to have met you and benefitted from your extensive knowledge and very high level of expertise in urology and prostate cancer.

My experience of your consultations, assessment and subsequent treatment was exceptional.

I left with the impression that the service I received was personalized and of the highest standard and have the confidence that I have received the best treatment from the best doctors in the world.

I was particularly impressed with the sense of urgency from top down, including Andrew Styling, your secretaries and of course the staff in the Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre.

Thank you

Kind regards

Dear Mr Kastner

I just have to write and tell you how grateful I am to you and to Dr Mahroof for what I perceive as an excellent outcome for not the easiest of HoLEP procedures that you must have carried out in your time.

I have made – and continue to make – a much quicker and better recovery than I could reasonably have hoped for. This is surely due – in some part at least – to the decision not to carry out a laparotomy and cystotomy.

That decision meant that you all had to spend at least two extra hours in theatre when you must surely have been wanting to get away and start your truncated weekends.

But no, the patient – me – came first, and today I am benefitting from your willingness to go the extra mile, particularly when morcellation must be both tedious and boring as well as time-consuming and tiring.

It was a lucky day when I found myself in the care of yourself and Dr Mahroof, and I am hugely appreciative of your labours and attentiveness on my behalf.

Dear Mr Kastner,

[…] you performed HoLEP on my prostate, and the general purpose of this letter is to thank you for making such a total change to my quality of life.

But a simple ‘Thank you” does not cover the way you first of all agreed to see me despite the fact that yours is not my local hospital, the care you took during the first interview to see that that particular treatment was right for me, and the very professional way in which you insured I was kept fully informed before, during, and after the procedure. […]

But I am delighted, and much relieved, to report that now, three months later, I am a transformed man.

Urinal flow is excellent and earlier this week I experienced a proper ejaculation for the first time since the operation, previous orgasms being sensation only.

I can only wish you all the recognition you deserve for the wonderful things you are able to achieve and thank you once again for your kindness to me, and of course my thanks naturally go to all your team too.

Kindest regards.

When the word “tumour or cancer” is mentioned, the inevitable happens, your imagination works overtime. Appointments then have to be made, procedures discussed and this is when it is so important to be dealing with somebody extremely efficient.

Well this was my experience with the secretary of Mr Oliver Wiseman, Kate.

Her manner on the telephone was so pleasant, understanding and helpful. It was very refreshing to meet with such efficiency and reassurance at a time when worry of your loved ones imminent surgery is in the forefront of your mind.

I would therefore like to express my thanks to Kate and say that I am confident that, if and when my husband has to have other treatment or surgery under Mr Wiseman, arrangements will be made efficiently.

I’d like to thank you very much for performing the HoLEP on me. The aftermath of the procedure turned out to be almost painless, and I was very happy to be discharged the day after the operation. I would also like to thank Janice for responding so promptly and helpfully to my questions.

The overall improvement in flow is dramatic, to say the least. It is a long time since I could stand well back from the toilet pan and hit the back of the pan in a forceful jet! But now I can. There is a noticeable sense of having cleared my bladder, something I haven’t felt for a long time.

I resumed sex with my wife on Day 15 with absolutely no discomfort, although there was no sense of definite ejaculation.. Absolutely no erectile dysfunction, whereas before the operation my erection tended to lapse after a while.

I would like to thank you especially for carrying out the HoLEP procedure but also to thank you and your staff for all the peripheral work carried out. Janice has been an absolute star in setting up the initial date and in liaising with my insurer to enable payment which helped immensely, particularly in reducing my stress levels prior to the operation.

I’d like to reiterate that the HoLEP procedure you carried out gave me a step change in quality of life. My urine flow now starts on demand and stops when I’ve finished, the flow rate is also markedly increased. However, the real positive changes have been to remove the worry of further acute urinary retention and to come off tamsulosin.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am with the results from my HoLEP surgery – for more than a decade I had to sit to urinate (couldn’t get enough stream going to stand) and now I feel like a boy again! Having researched the HoLEP procedure on-line, I was aware of your renowned reputation in the field so your excellent skills and experience as a surgeon and urologist were to be expected but I was pleasantly surprised to find you also had such a wonderful rapport with your patient easily explaining everything so clearly and taking the time to answer any and all questions). All phases of my treatment – from when I originally contacted Janice at Cambridge Urology Partners to arrange the surgery,the admission and pre-op at Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital, the surgery and recovery, to the final post-op appointment – were superb. The efficiency and helpfulness of everyone involved were truly impressive.

Following the successful surgery, I was able to be released earlier than expected the next day since I was “voiding successfully” within 7 hours of the catheter being removed and I did not have to use any pain medication at all after the surgery. Since you were able to remove the uric acid kidney stone lingering in my bladder during the procedure, that was a huge added benefit! It was also so considerate of you to schedule the post-op appointment back at Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital since that was more convenient for me (how often do you find specialists doing that? – definitely would never find that happening where I live).
The surgery was August 18 and I was back home in South Carolina by the night of August 27 still amazed at how great my waterworks are functioning. Again, many thanks to you and your team for everything – I am so grateful that I chose to come to Cambridge for treatment (it was a fraction of what it would have cost here in the U.S. and was light years better treatment).

Before the operation I was getting up at least 3 times during the night. I had to urinate very frequently during the day. I knew the location of all the Public Gents in Cambridge and all the pubs where you could use the Gents without buying any beer. Urination flow was poor and incomplete with dribbling. Erections poor and not long lasting. (I was) increasingly very tired and weedy, unable to cycle because of soreness. Everything (was) an effort. Four months after the operation: Urine flow excellent, with good immediate force, no interruptions and no dribbling. Much longer periods between urination. Some nights I sleep through without wakening. Erections excellent. Much more energy, back to cycling and gardening. I feel as though I have been rescued from poisoning and liberated back to a normal life. My family join me in thanking you very much indeed for the expert help you gave me during the recent operation.

Presenting problem: Significant prostate bleeding and very large prostate despite previous prostate vaporisation procedure. My experience started some 5000 miles from the shores of the UK. Early one morning I noticed that my urine was bright red. There was obviously something very wrong and I would need urgent medical assistance to stop the bleeding. My local doctors successfully accomplished this but informed me that I would need to have an operation to reduce the size of my prostate. In the process of deliberation over where this procedure should be done, we discovered through the marvel of the internet the HoLEP procedure (Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate) at the Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital, where one of the best HoLEP centres is located. My prostate was about 10 times the normal size. Coincidentally I had earlier been referred to the same hospital to have a cataract operation on both my eyes. The challenge was whether the consultants and supporting medical staff from two separate disciplines were in a position to coordinate their surgical procedures within a given time scale, particularly as the prostate operation called for prompt action. All in all, three surgical operations were carried out within an eight day period and I can testify that all were remarkably successful. Throughout the process I experienced little or no pain; and I only spent about three days in hospital. My prostate has been successfully reduced in size and all functions have returned to normal with no side effects. According to my consultant surgeon (Mr Tevita Aho), I should never need to have another intervention for prostate problems. Finally you may be interested to know that I did not have to mortgage our home or the grandchildren’s inheritance to accomplish this feat. The medical bills were all inclusive, modest in their amount and were easily settled within my credit card limit.

My recollection as a young man was being able to pee over a five bar gate onto a mushroom on the other side. However, during the years prior to my operation I found it difficult to pee on to a mushroom six inches from my feet. It gives me great pleasure to now record, following my operation, that I am now able to circumnavigate the above gate once again. Yip-pee! Within 3 weeks I was playing golf again. Within a week I was walking quite briskly and swimming as well. And within 4 weeks I was performing again with my dear wife. I have to record that I was wrong to put off this operation for so long. When I think back at the disturbed nights peeing 3 or 4 times if I was lucky, 3 total blockages when I had to have a catheter inserted, watching out for when and what I had to drink. It really was not worth the delay. So to Mr Aho and his team very many thanks. You did a splendid job and I shall be eternally grateful.

Having been diagnosed with multiple Kidney Stones in both Kidneys I needed to ensure the treatment required was swift and effective due to a heavy business workload. The Cambridge Urology Partnership were fast to diagnose the problem, they operated quickly and with an honest open and confident manner that made me feel at ease. Everything progressed exactly as they explained. This was my first experience of surgery at 34 years old but at no point did I feel overly anxious about the procedure due to the excellent communication skills of the partnership team. Follow up care and testing is also second to none. Very impressive team, thanks for your help!

Dear Mr Shah, I would like to thanks you and your team for the care and attention I received from the outset of the robotic prostatectomy including my hospital stay and aftercare. Following the operation I was surprised how quickly I was up and about, with very little discomfort internally and the small external wounds only taking a couple of weeks to heal. I was able to return to work just four weeks after the operation, (most helpful as I am self-employed). But I think that the best thing other than the abvious removal of the cancer is the speed with which my waterworks have recovered. Once again I would like to thank you for taking my case, and for a very satisfactory outcome of the operation