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POSTED UNDER Body Lift Reviews

Experience with him and his office went from great to terrible with each surgery I had

ORIGINAL POST

This Was Not a Pleasant Experience

CatwalkHoney
I went to Dr. Rankin to get excess skin removed after having had a severe weight loss 6+ years ago. We had agreed to remove excess skin from my arms, breast, extended stomach to also lift the hips and buttocks (with diastasis recti repair), and thighs. He told me we could split it into two surguries and if I chose to do only the front part of my extended tummy tuck, he could be more aggressive with the back side of it with my second set of surgeries. He did the breast and front part of tummy tuck (drainless). Within a couple of days, I had severe swelling and got seroma and had to go to his office multiple times to get it drained. My scar under my breast was a lot lower than the bra line, my nipples are noticeably uneven, and the wrinkling of the skin on the top of my breast wasn't improved any because not enough skin was removed. He assured me he'd fix that during my next set of surgeries with a fat transfer. I had a huge lump in the top of my abdomen and I thought I had a hernia, they rest assured me it wasn't (it did eventually go away after a couple of months). The stitches in my diastasis recti repair came undone before my 6 week recovery period and now my top part of my stomach bulges out and sticks out further than my lower part of my stomach. The incision for my stomach was incorrectly placed - my pubic hair reaches the incision which is only an inch or so below my below button - so now I always have to make sure that my waistline on my shorts/pants doesn't fall under an inch below my belly button without the fear of letting my pubic hair be visible. Also - my belly button is off-centered and I have an extreme amount of excess skin that is left behind. (More on this later.) My lower front and upper left quadrant sticks out noticeably more. My curvy waist is no more - I loss some of it somehow after the surgery.
Surgery time for surgery #2 comes around (arms, thighs, and the back side of my tummy tuck). He tells me that I'm better off just doing the backside, and saving the arms/thighs for a third surgery. (He very well knew that my arms was the thing I wanted done the most.) He does my surgery for my buttocks/sides with fat transfer. After my surgery, I don't notice a huge difference at all - my buttocks now have deep cellulite or dimples that weren't there before. Although my saddlebags are significantly improved, my buttocks are worse than before and the right side of my body protrudes out more than others (not enough skin was removed). I had expressed my dislike for the dimples and cellulite on the side of my body and he was supposed to remove enough skin to pull the skin upwards and eliminate that (you can tell in the pictures that it wasn't done correctly).
I start to ask about my stomach being re-done, as I'm unhappy with it and the deep dimples that were left on my buttocks. He re-assures me that he will fix my breast with fat transfer and the dimples he will address by "popping" the muscle that was holding it in place with a needle during the last set of surgeries. Scheduling my last set of surgeries however, was a nightmare and his office kept giving me the run-around. After numerous discussions back and forth, they tell me that they won't put me on the schedule for my arms/thighs (which was being covered by insurance) if I don't pay them $7k for him to fix my stomach simultaneously - and he flat out refused to address my breast being uneven and the dimples on my buttocks. I call them out for attempting to extort me- and they put me on the calendar for surgery for Dec 31.
Surgery # 3 comes around - and my arms look okay initially after surgery. After the swelling goes down, I realize I still have quite a bit of skin left near my armpit area - he had assured me that doing my scar that way was going to eliminate a slope by my underarm but my results show differently. I have a part near one of my elbows that bulges out. My one thigh has a huge indent on it and my contour looks terrible - with one of them still having too much skin by my knee that I have a pretty noticeable bulge there. The lumpy appearance I had on my thighs was supposed to have been eliminated by him also creating an incision on the inside crease of my leg to "lift" the skin - pictures and videos will show there was no improvement in that aspect. I ended up having an abscess that got infected in my inner thigh - I ended up at an ER for treatment.
I wanted to trust in this doctor in knowing that he would fix any of his errors or oversight in the previous surgeries. I kept asking about my stomach and after a few months of them gaslighting me about my results- he finally admits that the diastasis recti repair is more-than-likely failed and needs to be re-done, and that my tummy tuck should have been a fleur-de-lis (which is initially what I asked for and he told me I didn't need it). Him refusing to put me on the schedule for my arm/thigh surgery (being handled by insurance) unless I agreed to the $7k for my stomach to be repaired simultaneously took away from any joy I had about the process of skin removal after such a huge successful weight loss. My experience with him and his office went from great to terrible with each surgery I had.

CatwalkHoney's provider

Timothy M. Rankin, MD, FACS

Timothy M. Rankin, MD, FACS

Board Certified Plastic Surgeon

4.6 | 20 Reviews
PROFILE

CatwalkHoney rating for Dr. Rankin:

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Replies (2)

March 12, 2022
I'm in a situation similar to yours, I feel like these doctor think because we lost a lot of weight we will just accept whatever the outcome of surgery is. I lost 150 lbs and had a ton of loose skin, I had arm lift and tummy tuck, flankoplasty with liposuction to my back and I'm extremely unhappy with the results. My belly button is off center and my stomach looks twisted to the side, one of my arms is still flabby and big now after the swelling went down. I too explained to my doctor about my issues and they keep telling me it's because they removed so much skin and to give it time. I'm having all the same issues as you and will be following you to see how you make out. I wish you the best and thanks for sharing your experience, You've help me gain some courage to go back and talk to my doctor and his staff again about my concerns.
July 27, 2022
Yes, they think that they can play god with your body and that any improvement justifies all their mistakes and negligence. And yes, they have lower regard for people who were once overweight. They just exploit us for expensive surgeries and draw it out into many procedures to drain our bank accounts.
UPDATED FROM CatwalkHoney
11 months post

Adding photos and video

CatwalkHoney
Photos and videos after all surgeries were completed. The videos showing my stomach is me sucking it in as much as I can to me relaxing it and letting it protrude out in its natural state.
The pics of the backside show all of the dimples that were left behind after surgery. My buttocks definitely looked better prior to surgery.
The arm lift was ok, but one of my elbows bulges out and the contour is not the best. He left a lot of skin in the armpit area despite telling me was creating the incision there to remove the excess skin and improve the contour.

Replies (1)

September 26, 2022
I recommend you Dr.Parhiscar in Walnut Creek. I was 220 pounds over weight I lost 80 pounds I had so much loose skin and he gave me that snatched hourglass look that changed my life forever.