Should a Patient with Botched Surgical Results, Be Required to Pay for a Revision Surgeon?

This is a great question and one that should be answered BEFORE taking a patient to the operating room for the first time.

Each surgeon develops his or her policy regarding surgical revisions, and this should be communicated to patients at the very beginning. 

Plastic surgeons crave approval - we love to have happy patients. However, no one bats 1.000, and occasionally we end up with someone who isn't satisfied after their procedure.

My policy is this: if the result isn't what the patient would have liked, and I feel I can bring them closer to their goal with a second procedure, then I do the surgery without charging a professional fee. However, the patient is responsible for clinic and anesthesia fees. My office staff strive to make this as cost-effective as possible for the patient, so that theirs is the smallest possible cost. In my experience people have been very accepting of this practice.

Of course if you end up seeing a different surgeon, that practitioner is under no obligation to offer reduced fees.

Good luck!

Most surgeons cover their own fees and ask patients to pay actual costs, such as operating room expenses, in the case of revisions.  However every surgeon has their own policy, and these policies are usually in writing.

The question is was the surgery "botched" and actually performed below the standard of care?

Or were the patient's expectations simply not met?

Was there an asymmetry in the eyes or brows that prevented the surgical result from appearing symmetrical?

If the surgery were truly botched, a patient should not typically go back to that surgeon.

If however the patient suffered a complication that is known to occur with this surgery, this can happen to any surgeon.

For better or worse, a great deal of cosmetic surgery is subjective.  For this reason, it is impossible to offer a money back guarantee or any type of guarantee for that matter.  What you consider a botch, may in fact be a standard surgical result that simply does not meet your expectation.  You may have a benefit but wish to have more of a result.  You may have a complication that is expected and discussed in your surgical consent.  An adverse outcome does not mean that your surgeon did anything wrong in the performance of surgery.  Of course this is very different than a routine consumer purchase where we are accustom, and often promised, that the toaster, plasma tv, or cell phone we purchase will perform as advertised or the manufacture or retailer will make good on the item.

Take home lesson, your potential cosmetic surgery is not like a routine consumer purchase.  I know of no surgeons who extend personal satisfaction guarantees for surgery.  You undertake a significant personal risk having a cosmetic surgery.  Please pay close attention to what is told to you by your surgeon and their staff.  Carefully read and understand what your surgical consent.  If you have questions, have those questions addressed.  If you are not comfortable having the surgery based on what is described in your surgical consent and the informed consent process, please don't have the surgery.  There is no such thing as a risk free surgery, things can and do happen that disappoint us or even disable us as a result of any surgery including cosmetic surgery.  This is going to happen at some small rate unavoidably.  You assume this risk when having a cosmetic surgery.  Often your surgeon will be motivated to help correct issues and may even assume some or all of the expense of revising a surgery. The problems come when you and your surgeon do not agree on the nature of the problem or there is a break down in the relationship.

As Dr Rand correctly points out, in many cases, it is in your best interest to find the right surgeon to address your post-surgical concerns and this may not be the original surgeon.  Unfortunately many individuals in this situation find they do not have the financial resources to repair or revise a cosmetic surgery that they are not happy with.  It is worth noting that it is not unusual that the fix is even more expensive and surgically intensive than the original surgery.  You may be posting because you are in this dilemma.  Proceed cautiously and seek qualified second opinions before deciding how to proceed.