*long review alert*
Doctor Merrit is a God send! I have 2 children age 11 and 6. They’ve both been going to the Pediatric clinic since birth and they’ve both used Doctor Merrit from day one. We’ve also had the chance to use almost all the other pediatricians at this clinic for last minute appointments, walk-ins or weekend appointments when our doc wasn’t in. I’ve had great experiences with all the other docs as well. We are extremely blessed to be a part of this clinic. Due to Doctor Merrits persistence, he found a hole in my sons heart. He heard a murmur from birth, but didn’t give it much thought at the time because murmurs are very common and often times go away by the age of one. When my son was about 1 1/2 yrs old, he was still hearing this murmur so decided to send us to Forest General Hospital for further testing to see what was going on. Twice, the test came back normal. By the age of 4, the sound of a murmur was still present and Dr.Merrit just wasn’t comfortable with the prior test results. He told me, like anything manmade, test results arent always correct and can sometimes give inaccurate results so he sent us back a third time. Well, I guess the 3rd time is a charm! They finally found the cause. He ended up having a very large hole in his heart. He sent to the Children’s Hospital in Jackson where they done a heart cath to try and close the hole up with an umbrella device, which didn’t correct it so ended up having open heart surgery to close it up. If it wasn’t for Doctor Merrits persistence, years of experience & knowledge, we could have went on in life never knowing he had a hole in his heart until it would have been too late. You hear of a lot of kids falling out dead due from heart failure, never knowing they had a hole in their heart. Sadly, this is more common than you would think. We are forever grateful for this clinic and our doctor. Also wanted to add, I read a few reviews about some having to wait 45 mins. I’ll say this, we’ve been going there since 2007 and have never waited over 15 mins! Now, if your a work in, walk in or weekend appointment, it is possible that you’ll have to wait a bit longer, but even then it’s not going to be a 45 minute wait.
I seen a few saying the clinic is crowded, I think the problem was that the clinic was just entirely too small. They now have a new, large facility that’s very nice. It’s very kid friendly as well. My kids normally love going to the clinic (unless it’s shot time or their sick of course) lastly would like to compliment the staff and say how friendly and helpful each and every one of them have been to us over the years. We’ve never encountered a rood staff member there. The Pediatric clinic is the BEST clinic around. You will not regret going.