I find Dr McCarthy to be a highly educated and communicative surgeon. He is a leader in his field which provides a great deal of confidence. Most importantly, he focuses intently on individual patient needs !

Dr. McCarthy is a very skilled surgeon. He has a calm confidence and kindness that helped me overcome my fears. He answered my questions and explained my procedure, which was a mitral valve repair. I had a good experience with him, the medical team, the nurses, and all staff at Northwestern.

It has been five and a half years since my Aortic Valve replacement. My experience with Dr McCarthy and his staff has been nothing but outstanding. The preparation, the surgery and follow up has been more then I could have expected. I did have a Pacemaker and defibrillator by medtronic implanted two months ago and it has really improved my situation. I am doing things better then I have for quite a while. I recommend Dr McCarthy whenever someone asks me about my heart surgery.

Our family is forever grateful to Dr. McCarthy and his team at Northwestern Hospital. He operated on my mother, who traveled from out of state for her valve surgery. I now understand why Dr. McCarthy and his team are ranked as a top 10 cardiac surgery program! His caring and commitment to his patients are exceptional.

Dr. McCarthy is an excellent surgeon. He and his team took incredible care of my friend. I realize no one ever wants to NEED a cardiac surgeon, but if you do, I would choose Dr. McCarthy every single time.

Incredible surgeon and person! He and his team are wonderful and Northwestern Medicine is the place you want to be when you need cardiac surgery. Keep up the great work!

Avoid this extremely questionable physician. He arrogantly managed to shorten the life of my friends grandfather due to a non-consensual implantation of his faulty patented device during open heart surgery. His valve ring implant has been shown to cut aortic blood flow in patients by well over 50%. Hardly a proven device of cardiac improvement. You dont have to search far to find that his the growing number of his victims are high (they were as many as 700 by 2012, and likely have only been increasing over the last 15yrs or so). Apparently hes got too much power & money at stake to do the right thing by anyone, particularly when it comes opportunities to secretly install (and charge for) his dangerous device.

Great doctor, zero complaints, great customer service and overall made the whole process of getting my surgery much less stressful.

An exceptional surgeon and leader. Anyone would be lucky to have Dr. McCarthy as their physician.

I dont write many reviews but wanted to say I enjoyed my dealings with Dr. McCarthy. He always explains things thoroughly and knows what he is talking about.

My experience with Dr. McCarthy was very unsatisfactory. I found him to be uncommunicative about what he knew of my condition and unresponsive to my questions. He would not discuss any treatment alternatives nor would he discuss why he refused to consider open heart surgery for me which is why my cardiologist referred me to Dr. McCarthy in the first place. He wouldn’t even share his notes on my visit with my cardiologist. All he did was refer me to a heart failure doctor without any explanation of why I should see him or why I needed an additional test. A few days later, I received a call from Bluhm Cardiovascular canceling that test, scheduling a different test and changing the doctor I am to see. Again, no explanation. Just show up, take this test, and I’m now going to see yet a different doctor whose specialty I have been unable to determine.Needless to say, I have a lot of questions and chief among them is: Does anyone there give a damn about me as a person? I am confused and frightened and in need of straight talk and straight answers.

What a terrible person and surgeon. Doesn’t care of patients one bit. My sister had several complications after a valve surgery with him but he never acknowledged. Never bothered to sit down with family and explain. Stay away.

Very pleased with the results from my open heart surgery to replace an aortic valve and repair an aortic aneurysm. Dr. McCarthy and his staff were professional and extremely informative with my wife and my family while I was in surgery and afterwards.

I was very frightened to receive my 3rd open-heart surgery. I was primarily worried about the pain, since the last one I had at the Cleveland Clinic was extremely painful. Also, I was concerned about simply surviving, since Id never heard of anyone getting more than 1 or 2 open-heart surgeries. The doc and his team were superb. First, they arranged for me to meet a wonderful former patient who had 4 open heart surgeries!!! We met for lunch and it was such a relief to speak to her. I am 62 and she is too. Next, I started talking to a staff member who is a psychiatrist whose role it is to work with patients like me, in the cardio thoracic department. She taught me meditation and was a wonderful source of comfort for me in the weeks preceding the surgery. Finally, the nursing care I received after the surgery was unbelievably good. I felt like I had my own personal nurse while I was in the cardiac unit. (MY pain was NOT an issue!) The docs nurse practicioners were stellar. The care I received was 100% better than what I received at the Cleveland Clinic. I am now doing great!!!

Dr. McCarthy is a wonderfully skilled surgeon; I wouldnt send my family member to anyone else.

I would not trust my heart surgery to anyone else.