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Traumatizing BBL Reduction & Revision with Dr. Hughes — Do Not Recommend
After having a BBL with Dr. Shulman in New York back in 2018/2019, I became very unhappy with how everything started to look a couple years afterwards. BBLs might look good the first year or two, but of course gravity and skin always work against you so after a couple years, it started looking terrible and I longed for the days when my butt was smaller and my hips were smaller and everyone didn’t think I had a fake looking butt. I started looking around online for a doctor that would do a BBL reduction, but it wasn’t really en vogue at the time I guess because Kim K hadn’t started to lose hers yet. On RealSelf, I only saw a few reviews for what I needed and Dr. Hughes had three that looked good so I decided to have a zoom consultation with him. He seemed knowledgeable and on par with what I wanted so I booked my surgery on faith with him and I made the trip out to LA.
Honestly, I should’ve known when I arrived at this location that everything was sketchy and indicative of what was to come. I felt like I was going to a strip-mall side clinic or something where if I stood out front, I think I would’ve gotten mugged in broad daylight.. Now keep in mind I did end up having two separate reductions with him and both times he said he took out around 300 to 350 ccs per side, which include includes the butt and the hips. The first time was done with general anesthesia because he also used body tight for supposed skin tightening and you can’t do that with local anesthesia (because it’s too painful). After the first session with him after and everything healed at 6 months, I still felt like things needed to be reduced more and we agreed at the time that doing it in stages was better than doing it all at once to try and help prevent my skin from sagging. I reluctantly decided that I would go back to him for another round of reduction because I still wanted my butt to be smaller. In terms of the surgeries, the first procedure wasn’t exactly a picnic. I do recall the nurses could not find my veins to save my life and I was jabbed over what seemed like 10 times to try and insert the IV. When I finally got to the operating room, the anesthesiologist herself got frustrated with everyone and did it herself in one go. Prior to that they had me stand up completely naked, shivering in the cold and being brushed down with Betadine before I could get on the bed to have the IV inserted. I’ve never had to do that before (being brushed down conscious and naked standing up in front of everyone) so this was very weird and awkward for me. After the first procedure, no complaints really I just didn’t think we had enough positive change to really see a difference especially for $19k. I’m sorry but if I’m spending that kind of money, I need results. He said we could do a second round so I decided to do a second round.
For second round, I went back about a year later and this time there was no general anesthesia because we weren’t doing body tight (I don’t know why since I really stressed that I didn’t want saggy skin but Dr. Hughes acted like I didn’t need it which is still puzzling). I got to the clinic on time and Dr. Hughes was an hour late which I found really disrespectful and again, the nurses couldn’t find my veins which was really ticking me off. I’ve never had any place but here where they consistently could not find my veins in order to stick the IV and I’ve had surgeries multiple times with no issues. Also this time around it was just me, Dr. Hughes and a nurse in the OR and again it was local anesthesia. Dr. Hughes started injecting me with the pain medication locally into my butt which hurt but wasn’t so bad. After that everything went horribly wrong when he started injecting me with the tumescent fluid. I don’t know if the drugs weren’t working or just they didn’t give me enough, but it was probably the most painful experience I’ve ever had and I couldn’t stop sobbing. Finally once Dr. Hughes realized between my body shaking and gasps that I was sobbing he stopped, and he asked the nurse to inject me with more painkillers into my upper arm to basically knock me out. That still didn’t blunt the pain enough as I was very much lucid and I was still crying. I think it shocked them how lucid I remained throughout because they kept asking me if I was still awake. This was the real turning point because of the way he treated me was quite disgusting. It’s as if I was aggravating him because the drugs weren’t knocking me out and he couldn’t move on with the procedure because I still felt pain. Look I’m a pretty tough person and I like to think I have a pretty high pain threshold and this was absolutely agonizing pain. I still have scars on my butt from where they entered with those needles. I still can’t believe his attitude towards me. At the very end of it when I was still groggy and in a haze, I asked him “so did we accomplish everything we talked about?” and this man practically rolled his eyes at me and said sarcastically “yes we did everything as discussed.” As soon as he spoke to me like that, I decided I never wanted to see this man again or talk to this man ever again or have anything to do with his “clinic” ever again. After the way he treated me when I was at my most vulnerable, on an operating table naked and on drugs and being hurt by him, I’ve never felt more traumatized by a doctor in my entire life. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do anything with local anesthesia again given this experience. I also cannot and will not in good faith or conscious ever recommend this facility to anyone. You just don’t treat people like that. I am disgusted with it still to this day.
And if that were not enough, it feels like I wasted $27k on barely noticeable results after two procedures with a doctor who traumatized me.
As the public, you be the judge but do you really think these results are worth $27k??? I don’t!
Honestly, I should’ve known when I arrived at this location that everything was sketchy and indicative of what was to come. I felt like I was going to a strip-mall side clinic or something where if I stood out front, I think I would’ve gotten mugged in broad daylight.. Now keep in mind I did end up having two separate reductions with him and both times he said he took out around 300 to 350 ccs per side, which include includes the butt and the hips. The first time was done with general anesthesia because he also used body tight for supposed skin tightening and you can’t do that with local anesthesia (because it’s too painful). After the first session with him after and everything healed at 6 months, I still felt like things needed to be reduced more and we agreed at the time that doing it in stages was better than doing it all at once to try and help prevent my skin from sagging. I reluctantly decided that I would go back to him for another round of reduction because I still wanted my butt to be smaller. In terms of the surgeries, the first procedure wasn’t exactly a picnic. I do recall the nurses could not find my veins to save my life and I was jabbed over what seemed like 10 times to try and insert the IV. When I finally got to the operating room, the anesthesiologist herself got frustrated with everyone and did it herself in one go. Prior to that they had me stand up completely naked, shivering in the cold and being brushed down with Betadine before I could get on the bed to have the IV inserted. I’ve never had to do that before (being brushed down conscious and naked standing up in front of everyone) so this was very weird and awkward for me. After the first procedure, no complaints really I just didn’t think we had enough positive change to really see a difference especially for $19k. I’m sorry but if I’m spending that kind of money, I need results. He said we could do a second round so I decided to do a second round.
For second round, I went back about a year later and this time there was no general anesthesia because we weren’t doing body tight (I don’t know why since I really stressed that I didn’t want saggy skin but Dr. Hughes acted like I didn’t need it which is still puzzling). I got to the clinic on time and Dr. Hughes was an hour late which I found really disrespectful and again, the nurses couldn’t find my veins which was really ticking me off. I’ve never had any place but here where they consistently could not find my veins in order to stick the IV and I’ve had surgeries multiple times with no issues. Also this time around it was just me, Dr. Hughes and a nurse in the OR and again it was local anesthesia. Dr. Hughes started injecting me with the pain medication locally into my butt which hurt but wasn’t so bad. After that everything went horribly wrong when he started injecting me with the tumescent fluid. I don’t know if the drugs weren’t working or just they didn’t give me enough, but it was probably the most painful experience I’ve ever had and I couldn’t stop sobbing. Finally once Dr. Hughes realized between my body shaking and gasps that I was sobbing he stopped, and he asked the nurse to inject me with more painkillers into my upper arm to basically knock me out. That still didn’t blunt the pain enough as I was very much lucid and I was still crying. I think it shocked them how lucid I remained throughout because they kept asking me if I was still awake. This was the real turning point because of the way he treated me was quite disgusting. It’s as if I was aggravating him because the drugs weren’t knocking me out and he couldn’t move on with the procedure because I still felt pain. Look I’m a pretty tough person and I like to think I have a pretty high pain threshold and this was absolutely agonizing pain. I still have scars on my butt from where they entered with those needles. I still can’t believe his attitude towards me. At the very end of it when I was still groggy and in a haze, I asked him “so did we accomplish everything we talked about?” and this man practically rolled his eyes at me and said sarcastically “yes we did everything as discussed.” As soon as he spoke to me like that, I decided I never wanted to see this man again or talk to this man ever again or have anything to do with his “clinic” ever again. After the way he treated me when I was at my most vulnerable, on an operating table naked and on drugs and being hurt by him, I’ve never felt more traumatized by a doctor in my entire life. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do anything with local anesthesia again given this experience. I also cannot and will not in good faith or conscious ever recommend this facility to anyone. You just don’t treat people like that. I am disgusted with it still to this day.
And if that were not enough, it feels like I wasted $27k on barely noticeable results after two procedures with a doctor who traumatized me.
As the public, you be the judge but do you really think these results are worth $27k??? I don’t!
Provider Review
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
12732 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, California