Botched Liposuction and BBL

I noticed after I posted my critical review, Dr. Li blocked me from his Instagram profile. I am disappointed and hurt considering he’s my doctor and I’m his patient. I’ve never posted anything negative about him on his page and I’ve never messaged him negatively through there so I don’t know if he did this because he was worried I’d say something under his posts or if it was just a personal/petty way to get back to me because of my review on realself. Either way, I’m even more disappointed in my choice of a surgeon.

My stomach right now is much improved after my tummy tuck and revision liposuction with a different amazing surgeon but I’ve had many complications due to the amount of scarring and tethering that resulted from Dr. Li’s original procedure. I’m also still so sad that he left me with not enough fat to try to repair the bbl portion. My incision is higher than I’d like as well because of the tethering. I can’t undo my choices but want to help any future patients that are doing their research.

I was waiting for as long as possible before writing a review for Dr Li. I had liposuction and fat transfer (bbl) July 2020 after thinking about this procedure for years. I know many women travel to Miami or go out of the country for this procedure but I wanted to stay local for convenience since I have little kids. I had several virtual and in person consultations with plastic surgeons and Dr. Li made me feel very comfortable. He is a very kind, gentle, and humble surgeon. His before and afters were not as mind blowing and dramatic as some of the other more popular surgeons online but they were all noticeable improved and more importantly, I did not see any red flags with abnormal results or scars. He even commented on how he specifically performs liposuction to avoid the “Tara Reid” botched appearance that can happen from overly aggressive liposuction. I was a little hesitant given that he is relatively new in the field but ultimately I decided to have the procedure performed with him. I felt safe and the procedure I thought went smoothly. However, a few days after the procedure, I started noticing some issues and initially I thought it was part of the healing process. I still had a lot of fat around my back and bra roll area and that area was not as bruised and swollen as other parts of my body. My left flank/side had a long tube of scar tissue that was palpable under the skin (liposuction tract). My stomach was the most concerning. I had severe wrinkling, tethering of the skin, and adhesions. I showed Dr Li these issues and he was not concerned and had me just massage the areas. I tried to trust him but day by day as the general swelling improved, the stomach area worsened. I had several follow up visits with him and for the tube of scar tissue along my side, he performed a complimentary steroid injection. It made a very minimal difference but unfortunately left my skin atrophied and scarred with dents, leaving things worse than before the steroid injection. My stomach never improved and I was left with scarring my wrinkles, thin irregular skin, and severe irregularities. My back/bra roll area unfortunately didn’t improve so there’s still extra fat/rolls there while my stomach was overly liposuctioned. My actual butt is improved but only mildly. I still have hip dips and a lot of the fat resorbed. My stomach results however are the most devastating. I was in tears and in a bad mental state after spending the finances, recovery time, and emotional toll of surgery only to be left disfigured and unfortunately, botched. I'm glad that I am otherwise safe since I know there are worse complications, but having your problem area made worse instead of better really leaves psychological scars in addition to the physical ones. Dr Li has said repeatedly that he doesn’t think it has anything to do with his surgical technique and faults my body’s healing. I followed every recommendation post-op, including proper lymphatic massages and compression. I’ve since had numerous second opinions by other board certified plastic surgeons without telling them specifics and all had said that I look like I had overly aggressive liposuction. Dr Li would not give any form of a partial refund. They actually offered some scar cream at cost to me after all of this instead of offering it at no charge after everything I’ve been through. He recommended a tummy tuck to try to fix some of the scars but unfortunately I no longer have trust in him so ended up going with a different surgeon for revision. I think Dr Li is a very kind person but he is still relatively new in the field. I really did not want to write a negative review for him because he is a nice person, but after waiting it out for a year and having the follow ups where he refused to admit any responsibility for my scars, I felt I had to post an honest review in case it helps anyone researching. I don’t know if I pushed harder if I would have been able to get a partial refund to put towards my revision but I’m a very non-confrontational person and felt badly even bringing up these issues (even though I am the one left suffering from these results). The worst part of revision now is that I’ve had more complications due to the thin skin and tethering/scar tissue caused by his original surgery, and there’s not enough fat left to redo the bbl. I’ve spent 4 times the amount I did originally with his surgery now as well to try to salvage things. I really with I just went with my gut and picked a different surgeon from the very beginning that was more experienced with more befores and afters, even if it meant travelling a bit.