I fired a pulmonologist for the same reason, combined with his erroneous recommendation that I have a bronchoscopy (lung lavage), which turned out to be an unnecessary surgical procedure. I learned through my journey with MAC and bronchiectasis that a bronchoscopy was not necessary and should not be the first step in getting a sputum sample from asymptomatic (non-coughing) patients. This pulmonologist put me through an unnecessary, risky surgical procedure that a respiratory therapist was subsequently able to obtain the necessary sputum with a 20-minute therapy session. And the pulmo was the second pulmo to recommend a bronchoscopy. I hope this post might cause others to inquire about alternative methods of obtaining sputum samples beside a risky surgical procedure.