Patient Stories

I am a person who would always have sinus infections. Anytime I got a cold, I knew it would linger at least a month. Anytime someone coughed on me, I worried. The original cause was a childhood accident — I face-planted into the side of our (stone) house playing freeze-tag at the age of eight. At the age of thirty-nine, after three months of not being able to breathe out of the left side of my nose, I knew it was time. My father, a physician himself, had always said that if I was going to get my septum fixed, I should have it done by a plastic surgeon. Then I happened to meet Dr. Zimm, and somehow knew he was the doctor I wanted to trust to operate on my nose and face….

Relative to many medical environments in New York, the first consultation was a dream, and I am not exaggerating. Dr. Zimm spent so much time with me, listening to me. He explains things extremely clearly but also substantively. It was probably the first time in my life I actually understood why my sinuses were the way they were and how to fix them. His patient coordinator Jennifer is absolutely lovely and extremely good at what she does. His offices are a great environment.

As we discussed the surgery, I felt more and more fortunate to be working with Dr. Zimm. I was really impressed by how much he knew about state-of-the art surgical techniques and practiced them. He is clearly an extremely skilled surgeon. He is also a very intelligent and kind person. As someone who doesn’t love the idea of surgery, I felt comfortable and confident.

My sinus recovery after surgery was really smooth and not painful. Because Dr. Zimm uses special new stints, I didn’t have any cotton packing in my nose and could breathe a lot better than I thought I would. He and Jennifer had made sure I had everything I needed and that I knew how to take my medications.

Since my sinus surgery, I have been breathing better than I thought was possible. I am definitely one of those people who didn’t know what ‘normal’ was and was putting up with a lot of discomfort — especially because it had gradually gotten worse over time.

My story includes much more than my planned sinus surgery, and I’ll include some of that here because it demonstrates how much I appreciate Dr. Zimm. Through the process of getting sinus surgery, I realized that I actually had an entirely separate medical condition that manifested itself through a bad reaction to anesthesia. It is extremely rare — literally one in a million. Dr Zimm and his anesthesiologist not only delivered me safely through my own separate medical problem (and bad reaction to anesthesia), but Dr. Zimm also expertly operated the best way possible on my sinuses given the circumstances. What happened to me probably happens to a doctor once in his career — but it means that I got to see how Dr. Zimm was in a crisis, and he was incredible — in addition to his talent in surgery itself, he is the kind of person you would want to have along if you encountered a bear in the woods. He also visited me in the hospital. Twice. And sent his resident to check on me too. He and Jennifer were fantastic as I finished my own medical odyssey and got well generally.

I am genuinely grateful to have been under Dr. Zimm’s care and to call him my ENT. I would recommend him to anyone — of any age and for any kind of surgery. As someone who works as a professor and an artist, I can say that Dr. Zimm sets a high bar for engaging with people and teaching them about their condition, for putting people at ease and building trust, and for clearly being passionate about both the artistry and the technical dexterity of his work. I couldn’t recommend him more.