Tough-to-diagnose patients find help at Clinical Infectious Diseases Specialists

Clinical Infectious Diseases Specialists may have opened only about six months ago, but it’s already getting kudos from patients across the Las Vegas Valley.

Citing a myriad of symptoms that included a burning sensation, sores, wheezing and coughing, southeast resident Angela O’Bryant, 44, had gone to doctor after doctor since 2010, but none of them was able to help her.

“It was agonizing to be in that kind of pain, and no one believed me,” she said.

Northwest resident Hope Bellueme, 23, was in a downward health spiral for more than two years, with swelling, bruising, blackouts, short-term memory loss and tremors to the point where she needed a wheelchair. Her nervous system was so severely affected that being touched brought on searing pain.

“My mom couldn’t even hug me,” she said. “… I was praying the whole time I was sick for a Dr. House to (appear).”

Like O’Bryant, a plethora of doctors couldn’t diagnose Bellueme’s problem. Both women eventually found Dr. Dhaval Shah, who runs the facility at 2435 Fire Mesa St., No. 120.

He has an extensive background in treating infectious diseases, wound care and HIV and hepatitis C care, and he was named the Top Infectious Diseases Doctor for 2011, 2012 and 2013 by the Consumer Research Council of America.

“I came here not knowing what to expect, except maybe the same thing: Tell your story all over again and get a bill at the end,” O’Bryant said. “But that’s not what I got. I got listened to.”

Shah ran a battery of tests on O’Bryant until he narrowed down the cause: staph bacterial infection.

Shah discovered that Bellueme had Lyme disease, and she began treatment immediately.

“I was out of the wheelchair within two weeks,” she said. “He was so aggressive (with treatment). He didn’t give up.”

Perhaps the reason Shah was able to pinpoint the problem was that his practice takes a comprehensive approach to medicine. There, everything is under one roof, including whole body X-rays, ultrasounds, nutritional support and a compounding pharmacy for precise prescriptions. The 7,200-square-foot facility also houses an infusion section set up to handle 34 patients. There’s screening for immune deficiencies and nutritional supplement drips for those with chronic fatigue.

“It’s complete care under one roof, rather than doing things piecemeal,” Shah said.

The facility has a hyperbaric room with two Sechrist 3300 chambers, each costing about $150,000.

They provide high oxygen treatment for those with complicated wounds. Shah said the hyperbaric chambers can be used to treat a multitude of conditions such as chronic wounds, blood infections, third-degree burns, stroke, radiation exposure and gangrene.

“It’s an amazing way of treating people,” Shah said. “Something as simple as oxygen, we take it for granted because we breathe it all the time. If it’s given in the right way, at the right ratio, the wound healing is (accelerated). We get amazing results.”

Critical to the facility’s operation is Shah’s staff, which includes doctors Asher Shahzad, Farooq Shaikh, H.K. Poon and Kristi Kaminsky and physician assistants Clint Anderson and Stephanie Wallace, each further supported by registered nurses.

Bellueme said Shah knows a lot but is the first to admit when he needs help.

“He’s not prideful,” she said. “If he didn’t know something, he’d get on the phone while I was right there and call and ask however many doctors he needed to, to get an answer for you. I even texted him in the middle the night, saying, ‘Oh my God, I’m blind in one eye. What do I do?’, and he texted me back. … He’s so smart, but he’s not full of himself.”

Shah is affiliated with Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, MountainView Hospital, Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals and Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center. Many of them continue care at his facility.

“We make sure that their treatment is properly managed and monitored,” Shah said.

For more information, visit cidsinfusion.com.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.