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They could go to the Dominican Republic, buy a set of Louis Vuitton suitcases, or invest in palladium. They decided to go under the knife. The convalescence turned out to be painfully long. Two would-be “swans” told us about their experiences with plastic surgery. Not as a warning. To sober up.
- «When I woke up from anesthesia, I felt one thing – sore ears. The doctor then told me that she had her own method of sewing. He puts the stitches on his ears so that they would not be visible. I had seams and no rejuvenation effects – Nina recalls
- After many additional visits, pain and stress, the woman decided to consult two other specialists. Their opinion practically did not differ: there were no indications for such an invasive surgery. A good plastic surgeon should say no
- Iga decided to undergo liposuction and abdominal plastic surgery. The complications after the surgery turned her life into a nightmare
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
Plastic surgery clinics convince us that beauty is at your fingertips and depends only on your creditworthiness. They do not say, however, that it is addictive, it is highly overrated, and a scalpel from the skilled hand of a “plastic surgeon” may miss you. I met two women who got cut for “yesterday”. Their “today” tastes of an expensive scar, the smell of frustration and the voice of legitimate complaints. Generally it is a mistake …
A face like Harley Davidson
– How much did I spend? The first facelift cost me 14. The next three fixes were included. Facelift after corrections made by another specialist amounted to PLN 18. A total of 900. As much as Harley-Davidson. Only that the second operation was not about aesthetics, but saving the psyche. In that case, money doesn’t count … If the problem is in your head, you will spend any amount.
Nina is a forty-four-year-old mother. Contrary to what they say about “the best age in a woman’s life”, with each passing day she felt that “yesterday” looked better. The skin became thin, gray and inelastic. The face was losing its oval shape. She read about the disappearing collagen and elastin fibers, looked in the mirror and saw one thing: sagging. Crow’s feet, puppet lines, “fuzzy” jawline.
The race against time started with a mini-lift where the skin in the lower part of the face was stretched. Local anesthesia, three hours and no spectacular effects …
– That’s what good doctors say: only a full facelift rejuvenates you for a decade, while «mini treatments» do not give you much. Three years later, I was determined to use SMAS – he says.
We owe our modern facelift to the Swedish plastic surgeon Dr. Tord Skoog. He was the first one in 1974 to describe the preparation and stretching of the myofascial layer outside the skin, also called SMAS (for short) (Superficial Musculo-Aponeurotic System). It is a kind of inextensible membrane that loosely covers the facial skeleton. Leather and fat pads are attached to it. Treatments on the SMAS layer tighten and lift deeper tissues, restoring a young-looking contour. The operation has different variants, and the best candidate is a person in their 50s with gravitational wrinkles: chin folds or hamsters.
– I know – 43 years is a bit early, especially since I’ve always looked after myself. Good creams, regular visits to a beautician, popular aesthetic medicine treatments. Nevertheless, it seemed to me that the outline became square. Minimal “hamsters” did not give me peace. Maybe I’m too critical of myself, but we women can tell ourselves everything … I insisted and it was over.
I felt one thing: sore ears
– I cannot say that I chose the doctor by chance. I was looking for good plastic surgery clinics on the Internet. The doctor’s name was high in the search results. Just like the films with her participation on YouTube. In one of the popular TV shows, she acted as an expert. Opinions on the Internet are only positive: “full professionalism”, “a doctor with a sense of beauty”, “care at the highest level”, “highly recommended”.
– Nice, pretty, young. I thought: a woman will understand a woman. I found out later that she didn’t have five years of experience … During the consultation, she did not say: let’s meet in ten years. On the contrary – she convinced me that it is worth it. There is no room for “no” in her office, everything is for “yes”. I made an appointment for the operation at the first consultation. The lifting was performed on Saturday, but the doctor also operates on Sunday. It’s as busy as a women’s toilet.
– When I woke up from anesthesia, I felt one thing – sore ears. I remember telling the nurse about it. She joked that it was impossible – after all, I had a facelift, not ear plastic surgery. The next day I asked the doctor about the same thing, she replied that she had her own sewing method. He puts the stitches on his ears so that they would not be visible. It was, awful… Effects of rejuvenation? None – but after a month there were complications. I am not talking about typical complications such as: hematomas or scarring, but about stretching the earlobes.
She cut my cartilage out
About «pixie ears», the so-called leprechaun’s ears, about low falling petals, we can read on the pages of American medical journals. They belong to the so-called «Telltale signs of surgery» – signs revealing a poorly made facelift. They are the result of removing too much skin or too much tension at the suture line around the earlobe.
According to research, the described ear deformity occurs in less than 6 percent. patients. The problem is that pixie ears show up on skin facelifts, not SMAS. What was done to Nina in two hours? And what did she actually pay for? Hard to say…
– I remember that after the surgery, the nurse told me that the doctor stretches the skin so much that it does not leave a single wrinkle. In fact, for the next few weeks I had the feeling that something was hanging on my face all the time. Pulls me down. Not to mention, I could feel the seams under my fingers.
– Already during the inspection, the doctor suggested that she would perform a correction of the earlobes. The first and the second, two months apart, did not work. In the third one, which concerned only the right lobe, she simply cut out my cartilage! My ear was practically glued to the skull! Already at home, I panicked. I called her and said she had something to do with it! I don’t know what, I don’t know how, but I know that already … She invited me for another consultation, this time with another specialist. The doctor stated that all three corrections were a mistake and we had no choice but to wait six months. At that moment, I knew that they would not touch my face anymore, and that my leg would not be set in their clinic anymore.
I was mania
– Later that month, I went to consult two other specialists. I presented the medical documentation, showed the photos. Their opinion practically did not differ: there were no indications for such an invasive surgery. A good plastic surgeon should say no. In addition, the facelift itself was performed poorly – the ears that should have been released were sewn to the skin of the face. The only solution was to face another facelift next year, not to trim the petals. I wish I had found them sooner …
– Today I am three weeks after another facelift. Differences? Drastic – during the consultation, the doctor explained the course of the operation step by step. He spent 1,5 hours on me, not three hundred for a quarter of an hour, and when I was leaving he said: “see you later”. He reassured him that it would be fine. He said, don’t worry, this is not a life-saving operation. Only for me it was saving the psyche.
– The last year is one big nightmare. Just like every woman has hair that she tucks behind her ear, there was nothing to wear because of the cut line. I was going bald in the temporal area. A hair transplant was needed. Besides, I had a mania for hiding ears that almost reached the lower jaw. One look was enough and I panicked. I covered the distorted petals with caps, scarves, shawls. I wore a bob for a whole year….
– What do you pay attention to when you meet a new person? For the eyes, mouth, nose, hands? Me on my ears and I automatically compare to my own! I look at the earlobes of every new person I meet, and it has never mattered to me in the slightest.
– My personal life was a failure, my relationship almost broke up. My fiancé was sick of my approach: all the time talking, crying, looking in the mirror. I did not allow myself to take a picture with my profile.
– How do I look today? Much better, I don’t feel the pull down I felt all the time, but my ears will never be the same again. The doctor said what we got was the peak of the possibilities – the cartilage was cut, the flap was trimmed so many times. Now, if someone looks at it, it will simply say that my ears are not so pretty … I went for a facelift and was left without ears. This is how it can be summed up.
Metal cannulae
– What I went through was a nightmare – pain, stress, shame. I did not sleep for three weeks – I was so afraid that my skin would break during the night and I would not wake up anymore … – says Iga. She is a decade younger than Nina, but like her, she has experienced firsthand what it is like to “be a swan …”
A year ago, when most of us were throwing a pork neck on the grill, she decided to go under the knife, or actually under the metal cannulae. 22 thousand – that’s exactly how much she spent on liposuction with abdominoplasty (abdominal plastic surgery). In Poland, both treatments are often performed together.
If you are interested, you will probably hear from your doctor that two in one means more spectacular effects and a shorter recovery period. What won’t he tell you? The “risky duo” exposes the patient to pulmonary embolism, venous thromboembolism, and the incidence of leaking serous fluid increases from 16%. up to 31 percent On the other hand: isn’t it better to earn more than less? Couldn’t “Dr. Doug Ross” have anything of “Bobby Axelrod” in him?
– I chose a clinic two hundred kilometers away – three hours by train. Why? She had great reviews on the internet and on Facebook. One big fairy tale – a wonderful, fantastic, genius doctor.
– It’s a pity I’m not perceptive – some of them were from 2013, when the facility did not even exist. Modern equipment, the idea of a place “overcoming all barriers” and the statuette of the leader awarded in one of the competitions convinced me….
It hurt when I drank, ate, even breathed …
– How long was the consultation? Less than a quarter of an hour … I heard from the very beginning that in my case (BMI 45), liposuction will not do anything, it is also necessary to have a tummy tuck. The first available date is in a year, but after a week there is a place. I had to quickly decide: yes no. I gave in. I was sure that I had one more consultation before such an invasive surgery. Nothing of that. Two days before, I had a telephone contact with the anesthesiologist who informed me that I should not eat and drink anything. A moment before entering the room, I was given papers to sign, a late doctor drew a contour on my stomach and at nine o’clock I fell asleep. I woke up around 17pm. Unbearable pain, just like the atmosphere. I couldn’t breathe and the anesthesiologist shouted: please don’t take the endotracheal tube out. I will not give you painkillers unless you take oxygen. I passed out – it later turned out that my nose was completely blocked with blood, possibly after being intubated incorrectly. It hurt when I drank, ate, even breathed. On the second day, the doctor examined the postoperative wounds with horror. They were blood red. “We need to get the anticoagulants quickly,” she told the nurse. It turned out they didn’t have them, so I got a prescription. I learned about perioperative thromboprophylaxis later.
Everything was black …
– For a follow-up visit, the doctor made an appointment for me not the next day, not seven, but NINE days after the surgery. I will not forget her faces after she unwrapped the dressing for the rest of my life. «I will not show your belly because you will pass out. Necrosis develops and everything is black ”. Then she gave me a prescription for two antibiotics and increased the dose of the anticoagulant from one to two tablets. She decided not to inoculate.
– I was supposed to come in a week, but two days before the visit, the wound started to ooze, or rather to pour plasma combined with blood. I called the doctor, panicked, she asked me to send me a picture of the dressing. I couldn’t come right away, so she recommended me to wear a diaper or a sanitary napkin. Do not touch under any circumstances. At her next visit, she said that for the first time in her career she had contact with “something like this”. She added that she had watched several YouTube videos about the treatment of necrotic wounds. This is what she killed me … The skin necrosis just spread – I had a black pan with a diameter of 20 cm on my stomach. She sipped the fluid and wrote down a prescription for more antibiotics.
I was able to see the insides
– Despite necrosis, the pressure dressing was changed from visit to visit. June, temperatures go up to 35 degrees so imagine what was going on. Only your imagination can work at this point…. It was raining so badly that I changed clothes five times a day. Two days after the second visit, the dressing began to fall off. I was afraid there would be an infection. I called the doctor saying that all the things I wear are totally wet. She suggested that I go to another specialist to change the dressing, or change the dressing myself. I was supposed to change and not watch. I watched – indeed everything was black. For the next month, I went to the clinic once a week to collect fluid.
– The fever persisted all the time – in the fourth week after the operation it reached 40 degrees Celsius. I think that in two months I took about 14 antibiotics. At the end of June, the Doctor kindly informed me that the necrosis had stopped and we would arrange the cleaning of necrotic wounds. What was my skin like? Like white jelly. After cleaning, three large holes appeared on my stomach, through which I could see my insides. The largest of them was 6X4 cm, like a ladle head. The thickness of the skin between them was about a centimeter. Please try to sleep soundly …
16 medical errors
– The last sutures were removed three months after the operation. In the meantime, I had recommendations to walk, jog on the treadmill, exercise on the stepper. At each visit, I was forced to weigh, it was suggested that I was depressed. A nutritionist from the clinic wrote a diet for me: sausages, white bread, tomatoes and grapes. Generally crap and all the allergens that give me rashes. During my last visit in August, the doctor offered me a corrective operation. She said she would cut the scars, make deeper cuts, the effect would be spectacular. She invited me in six months – I initially made an appointment for November. Influenced by my family and friends, I signed up for a consultation with another specialist. He said bluntly: if I go to surgery in six months, I will come out with my legs forward, and at best with another necrosis. Repair procedures are performed at least after one year. He calculated 16 medical errors – starting from the qualification for surgery, through the lack of administration of anticoagulants, to the treatment of the wound. He added that I am very lucky – I didn’t get sepsis or embolism and I’m alive. Next year he asked for a consultation on whether or not I qualify for scar removal.
I can dream about the beach …
– What does my stomach look like today? There are scars, the skin is numb, it is as hard as it was. The navel is an ordinary hole, placed crookedly, and I heard that it is sensational. Fat tissue was sucked crookedly, on one side I have sagging. I can only dream about going to the beach. No chance – one big shame. I trusted a doctor who turned out not to be a plastic surgeon. Only an ordinary surgeon who “actively participated in conferences and training in the field of aesthetic medicine”. Patients are offered everything from breast augmentation to labiaplasty. It will help in the treatment of haemorrhoids, eliminate phimosis and make a facelift. Mercy … How, where and with what to people? For four months I couldn’t work, I couldn’t study extramural. The operation wrecked my life and continues to crash. In France, the law is absolute: people who pretend to be plastic surgeons are disqualified from practicing and ending up in prison. There is no apology, there is a “free American” in Poland. I am 32 years old, I would like to start a family and… I can’t. My skin is too hard for pregnancy.
What does the lawyer say?
I asked the lawyers who run a blog about mistakes in the field of aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery “No beauty” for a comment on the stories of my protagonists.
– Aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery procedures are governed by slightly different rules than ordinary surgical procedures when it comes to examining the doctor’s liability for medical errors. There are three things to consider: consent to the procedure, the risk of the procedure, and the appropriate qualifications of the doctor. The patient’s written consent should be broad enough to include a description of the total possible risks and consequences of the procedure. I was surprised when, while reading the medical documentation of the invasive procedure, I come across a half-page consent to the procedure, which only has the common name of the document. The first time I saw the form (it cannot be called consent) with the enigmatic statement: “the patient was instructed about all possible risks of the procedure, for which the patient agreed”. Such a thing neither protects the physician from liability for possible complications, nor respects the patient’s rights. Such mistakes cost money. For the mere fact of a faulty consent, the patient is entitled to compensation in the amount of up to several dozen thousand zlotys – comments attorney Joanna Lazer.
Attorney Małgorzata Hudziak drew attention to two other issues: risk and specialization. – The risk of the procedure in the field of aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery cannot be higher than average. This means that it must be in reasonable proportion to the expected benefits of the procedure. In other words, if the patient would like to theoretically consciously risk her life by undergoing the procedure, the doctor should refuse to perform it. It would be illegal to perform such a surgical intervention. More and more often we see patients who, to their great surprise, only learn from us that the surgeon who was cutting was not a plastic surgeon. Unfortunately, the description of a doctor on a website often does not correspond to the information contained in the doctor’s register, from which you can read the doctor’s specialization. A general surgeon who performs a major procedure in the field of plastic surgery will have a big problem to convince the court that he had sufficient qualifications to perform it – explains Małgorzata Hudziak, legal advisor.
This may interest you:
- «The doctor squeezed the baby out with his elbow. I thought I was going to die ». Who pays for medical errors in Poland?
- Confession of Polish doctors. «There is no manpower, no equipment. Everyone is afraid »
- We said goodbye during our baptism in the hospital …
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