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Nightmare - left with an infection after surgery

ORIGINAL POST

nightmare

$11,600
NIGHTMARE I’m an ICU RN I recently moved here from Monterey so I didnt know the reputations of the Drs. Meeting this Dr he & his office was nice but nice doesnt good work. After speaking to many RNs/Drs around he isn’t the choice any would make. 8/19/22 I had surgery to have implants exchanged & scar tissue removed. Dr seemed confident in his ability. When I woke from surgery I had 3 holes in my tongue & layers of skin burned on my stomach where the cautery burned me during surgery. I had a drain in my L. breast d/t the scar tissue removal & the drain was too long because it came around the breast & dug into tissue. My friend who is an ER nurse w/ 35 yrs experience &works at Stanford came down to take care of me. surgery day she was worried because of how much bleeding I had. She does not scare easily. I’ve had many surgeries in my life but I was so weak & out of it more than any other surgeries. I returned to this doctors office several times in 3 wks d/t the drain causing continuous pain, bleeding & swelling. On 09/06 the Dr told me he was going to remove drain & put a new one. This was a lie & the nightmare began. I go in a room thats not sterile, no one is scrubbed in no gowns/hats No sterile field. I’m thinking that I’m just having a small incision & a new drain. Next thing I know the Dr is dropping my implant into a bowl. I immediately cry & say “I am going to get an infection“. The Dr said, “relax you’re not at risk for an infection”. I would have never agreed to have my implant removed in a nonsterile field. He put me back on Keflex. About 5 days later pus is pouring from my sutures & I notified Eliza. She tells me that its probably not infection. I reminded her I’m a nurse & I know what pus looks like I go to office & ofcourse its an infection. They put me on another week of Keflex. I question because why do the same Antibiotic if it didn’t stop the Infection. 3rd week of Keflex. I return Demanding we get a culture to properly treat it. The Dr says he can only get a culture if he makes a small incision& I tell him not to remove my implant. He tells me it’s only going to be small. Nope cuts me all the way open & touching all inside of breast. No sterile field. Atleast he didn’t take my implant out however he had lied. He put me on a different antibiotic. I return next week he said he didn’t have a hard culture result due to some mistake but it come back strep pneumonia.He put me on a different antibiotic for my 5th week. Another week & no success of infection going away. Now my hair is falling out in handfuls, the diarrhea is nonstop from all the antibiotics &the infection is pouring pus from this breast. It finally comes down to the implants have to be removed. This Dr tries to convince me to do it at his office under local anesthesia. I refuse & ask for it to be done at the surgery center & he says no. I ask for it to be done at French hospital where I was working in the ICU and he says no. I asked for my surgery center & he says they won’t be able to fit me in there. Thankfully the surgery center I work at was able to move surgeries around &fit me in so the procedure could be done correctly & sterile. I asked to have the capsule removed since I was removing both implants & he refused. I asked for a culture of the capsule then & he said ok. He agreed to this but during surgery didn’t do it. Thankfully my surgery center is amazing &everyone rallied around me &was there to support me & kept offering to have the other local plastic surgeon come in to take care of me but I had already paid $13,000 to this Dr &$1500 to the surgery center to have my implants removed I didn’t have funds to pay the better surgeon now. Dr must’ve been mad because the stitching he did is horrible & I haven’t seen him since. I’ve shown two MDs who work at the hospital in which 1 joked “did he let you practice & stitch it yourself” Everyone asked me over &over why I went to him & why I didn’t ask them 1st. Being new here ¬ asking coworkers was my first mistake as I would have gone somewhere else. Don’t rush it just to get it done.

Eclectic758051's provider

Charles Chalekson, MD

Charles Chalekson, MD

Board Certified Plastic Surgeon

4.7 | 71 Reviews
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Replies (1)

So sorry you've gone through such a horrible experience. I hope you're doing much better.