Body Lift: Stories

I've read that good/positive reviews can be "bought", similarly as can "prestige status". I went in to Dr. Siamak Agah to look and feel better, but now not only do I look and feel unbelievably worse, I am now unable to raise my arm beyond shoulder level and have been told that I am likened to a burn victim because of how much skin was removed and the severe contracture I now have after the surgery. Additionally, that if I did not get it released, it would likely result in my shoulder freezing and serious orthopedic issues. But because I spent my savings to have the surgery, after care, anesthesia, medications, etc. I am unable to afford to have the revisions I critically need.

In addition to my arms, I am now unable to cross my legs or separate them fully because of how much skin was taken and pulled from there as well. I believe it is also evident in the after pictures, but part of my female anatomy was impacted and is now pretty much non-existent; the resultant negative impact of this, should be fairly evident. effects of this which . I now also basically do not have a (rounded) buttock and have to wear a garment not only to give the appearance of having one, but to relieve the pain from the stretching/pulling of the scarring

I am in constant pain. The emotional, physical and financial negative impact this has had on my life is substantial and I will never be the same. I feel so horrible about myself and I wish so badly I would never have had the surgery with Dr. Agah.

More surprisingly, I have been blamed for the horrible results I have. I may not have been perfect, or great before, but I certainly was not damaged and/or deformed. Form your own opinions, but I believe the results speak for themselves.

Hi everyone;

I wanted to thank you all for your kind, empathetic personal messages and extensive support. To me, the most important thing you all can do in support of not only me, but to anyone else that has been victimized, is to spread awareness. Since I have received so many personal messages, I wanted to address them here since most ask similar questions and make similar remarks. These are my opinions and comments;

Jen, I can’t agree with you enough: Generally, I have also found that people do not make negative reviews unless there is merit. And that one would think that a Dr. who truly and sincerely believed in what he was professing, saying that he wants to help women to look good and feel good about themselves and of the importance of self worth and not of monetary gain; would never, ever leave a patient like this and would not allow a patient to suffer the mental, physical and financial trauma of this magnitude; being left so compromised and disfigured. Additionally, since the damages are so costly, both physically and emotionally and will cost a substantial amount to attempt to correct, that those characteristics like integrity, morality, compassion and the Hippocratic Oath would/should come into effect... I believe you are correct in that this should speak volumes about the Dr...

What I wish I would have done to save myself the physical, emotional and financial pain? To do extensive searches; go to places like the OC Court website (https://ocapps.occourts.org/) and do a search on the Dr to see if suits have been filed. Go to the court (s) and look up closed cases..... Be aware of online reputation management services which remove negative feedback and comments and that raving, positive reviews, as well as photos can be "bought" and contact people who have left any negative reviews one can find. Yes, I have been contacted by other women with similar complaints about this Dr.

As far as the media he will not remove of me, I was asked to do a filming statement about this Dr. in exchange for revisions. This segment appears on the show "The Doctors". Firstly, I listened to a statement that is made saying that this Dr had performed 30 surgeries on me (“the same patient”); this is an absolute false statement. Secondly, not surprisingly, you will not see "after" results of me, for seemingly obvious reasons... I have requested that this Dr remove this and any other advertising where he uses me (never uses after photos in these either) , but he has declined to do so...

The $54,000 is approximate; the surgery itself was in the high $40,000's, the balance went to after care, anesthesia, surgery room, meds, etc. Also, for a costly Emergency room visit at MV Hospital where I was treated because of my open, oozing gaping wounds that were infected and not healing and where gauze was sticking to the large open wounds (pictures of this available upon request). My aftercare provider, because of the severity of the situation and out of serious concern for me, took me to the ER after her many unsuccessful attempts to contact Dr agah to let him know.

Regarding the initial after care facility I was sent to, unfortunately, I trusted the Dr and his office that they would set me up and send me to an established, upstanding, equipped, facility. However the institution I was sent to by Dr. agah/his office was an upscale house in Laguna Beach, which the owner was using as an aftercare facility. Shockingly, after major body surgery, the owner picked me up in a sports car. When we go to her house, to my disbelief, I had to walk up 2 flights of stairs to get to one of the bedrooms I would stay in; which was excruciatingly painful, as one could imagine. The bedroom I was taken to had no accommodations for a patient like me who had just had major surgery. They did not have hospital beds that would accommodate a patient that just had major surgery. The bed I was required to get up to, was a high, elevated post bed. There were no steps, or any aids to assist me to get up to the bed. The owner cupped her hands so I could step into them to try and boost me up to get into the bed. This, after enduring major arm, leg and body surgery... The house was a modern upscale house and there were no handles, rails, etc in the house to hold onto. The floors were hardwood and the bathrooms were marbled, making it easy for me to slip. The process was repeated each time I needed to get up to go to the bathroom, obviously putting unnecessary tension on the sutures and potential for slipping and causing more serious damage. There were no phones, nor TV’s in the room. I could barely move, let along get up without assistance. I was totally dependant on getting the “care” and assistance from the owner and the 1 other individual I saw occasionally helping at the house and had paid substantially for this care and service. Yet, there were several occasions where I needed and called (begged) for help, only to be ignored and have the bedroom door shut telling me they “did not want me to disturb other patients”. The owner was Persian, so the menu was basically a Persian cuisine, which was not palatable to me after surgery because it was too heavy and spicy. I was not able to eat several of the meals.

The first day/night after the surgery, I was in the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced in my life. Dr. agah finally came to the house to see me and ordered me to stand up. He appeared irritated at the fact I was not able to, but since I had just had his extensive "spiral thigh lift"; as well as arm and body surgery, I could not get up by myself. He later slated that I "refused to get up". At this point, because I was in so much extreme pain and so scared, I began gasping for air and was having difficulty breathing and because I was gasping and having difficult time breathing, I was unable to talk. The Dr. as well as the owner STOOD THERE WATCHING ME GASPING, and then Dr agah asked me if I was going to “continue to give the owner a hard time”.... He then turned to the owner and told her it was up to her if she wanted to allow me to continue to stay there. Since there were no phones in the room and my cell phone was dead, I could not call for help, or for anyone to come and get me out. He left telling me that “I’d better behave myself”. I had later contacted a hospital and spoke to a nurse about the incident. I was told I should have called 911 because I could have easily gone into "respiratory arrest”, because I had recently been under general anesthesia. It was and is, shocking and frightening to me that a Dr. would just stand by, watching something life threatening like this and do nothing …

The pain I was in the second day and night was just about the same. The owner made several attempts to contact Dr. agah to tell him I was basically screaming in pain, but was not able to. When she was able to finally contact him to let him know about the severe pain I was in, she said he did not want to offer any additional pain meds. The owner was kind enough to give me an injection of her own valium, which allowed me to finally sleep.

Doing web searches on botched plastic surgery will reveal many other women who have also had to suffer bad and/or permanent and/or uncorrectable damage. Aside from the emotional and physical impact of a bad plastic surgery, a corrective procedure is frequently required, which dramatically increases expenses and suffering.

I cant think of any other industry where one pays (someone) substantially to get good results/service, but if the job is done poorly and/or the results are clearly not what you paid for, and are seemingly apparently substandard; not only do you have to pay again to get what you should have gotten done correctly in the first place, but you have to pay again and possibly pay again until you get it done correctly and the way that was agreed to. And…. even after you do, the damage done may be too extensive to have fixed, leaving you in a place where you have essentially paid dearly to get damaged and/or bad results….

Cases like a woman where a Dr. took so much skin from her eyes (she was only 38) that she could no longer close her eyes. Or where another woman lost her leg after gangrene set in from a bad liposuction, or of a woman who lost both her breast after a surgeon botched the surgery. There are many other cases like mine and these others. Before and after pictures show the extent of the damage… However, these Dr’s get away with it because “things can happen”. Unfortunately I have found there is little, if any, protection legally because "it’s not a science" and many injustices are allowed because of loose parameters, which essentially gives Dr's without the best intentions, a very wide range of latitude and license to do damage without consequences...

Thanks again for all your support. Please write with any other questions/comments.

Update: I just saw another prominent, well-known Dr. who was shocked after looking at Dr. agah's "handiwork" and told me that he took away my buttock folds and did not anchor them properly and that's why I have the stretching/pulling. I was told that because Dr. agah took my buttock folds away, it would be difficult to re-attach them because my anatomy was compromised. Regarding my underarms, or I should say, Lack of underarms and webbing which has caused me restricted arms movement after Dr. agah's surgeries, I was told that a primary reason I have the severe webbing is because the sutures opened up (I had gaping, open, bleeding, oozing holes that I needed to go to the ER because we could not get Dr agah to respond).

I told him that Dr. agah sent me to an "aftercare facility" that was not equipped with appropriate hospital beds, but instead with large beds that were high and that they did not even recline, have steps, etc. to get on the bed and that the way they got me up to the bed is by having me step into the owner's cupped hands to boost me up (there was no one else there to help) to the bed; I also had to use my arms to do this. I told him that the bed did not adjust and that the owner had to pull me by my arms and that I had to use my arms to move at all, etc. He told me that it was likely that this caused my arms to open up because I had to use them extensively. Furthermore, I was told that Dr. agah should have used some type of arm "stocking"/support post op to try and prevent this from occurring. I told him the Dr. agah DID NOT use a support or anything.

Also, I came across the following "Yelp" review on Dr. agah, which I feel supports the experience and outcome and experience I had with him:

"Siamak Agha, MD, PhD, FACS
Category: Health and Medical Doctors Cosmetic Surgeons Cosmetic Surgeons [Edit]
http://www.plasticsurgerybodyconto…

Review from Taylor W.
Ventura, CA
11/26/2012

Not sure I believe all those great reviews... If they are true, then glad everyone was lucky . I had an horrific experience with Dr. Agha. I won't go into details except to say he ruined my body and my life. His confidence is far greater than his skill. He has a Dr. jekyll Mr. Hyde personality. He's fine if all goes well... but switches when there is a problem. That was my experience. It was hell and still is. I have PTSD from my experience with him."

Also, I just wanted update you to say that agah is definitely getting the recognition he seems desperate to get... but not in the way he wants!!! I have gone to now about 13 Dr's to try and get what he did to me repaired, all of whom have been shocked at the extent of the damage and what he has done to the degree that they have wanted to take pictures of me for medical journal's/teachings. Most of who have said that because he took too much skin and took away what is needed to reattach my buttocks, groin, breast, etc. that they could not help me. I was told from them as well, that I will likely need a skin graft because he did take so much skin. When they ask me who did that to me, I am more that happy to share that it was dr agah!!! So he is definitely getting the visibility/attention he seems to crave!!!
Kinda poetic justice, huh????