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POSTED UNDER Butt Implants Reviews

Left with a sagging deformity on the right side after infection

ORIGINAL POST

Horrible Experience with Butt Implants by Dr. Alan Durkin

jamie718
$6,500
So...I've always wanted a bigger butt. I have 770 cc breast implants and I wanted a butt to make my body look more proportional. Dr. Alan Durkin of Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery in Vero Beach, Florida is where I had my breast implants and they turned out great. I also had liposuction done by him and it was a nice result as well. He said that butt implants would compliment my figure and well...I trusted him. When I asked for pictures of his previous butt implant surgeries there was an immediate red flag. He told me he had them on a laptop that he would need to bring in and show me. So, I never got to see any before/after pictures... honestly should have went elsewhere just from this alone.
But anyway...I decided to go ahead with the surgery since my breast implants/liposuction turned out well I figured butt implants would be too in his hands. I did a lot of research on this and saw that some surgeons do subfacial while others do intramuscular. This was another reason I shouldn't have let him do the surgery - more risks with subfacial but again, I thought he was a talented surgeon and all would be well.
The day after my butt implant surgery and my first follow-up appointment I looked in the mirror to see my new butt. I was happy with the size but...I noticed there was some strange dents in it (where the implant ended). This looked terrible to me...but I thought perhaps it would get better with time? The surgeon told me that was where my implants ended hence why I had the dent. He never measured my butt in our consultation to see what type of implant would fit my body...I told him I wanted the bubble butt appearance and we went with 425 cc round implants. Well apparently they don't fit my body well (or needed to be intramusclar placement) because the dents look horrible. But honestly, the overall result gave me the shape and size that I wanted and I figured I could have the dents filled in with fat transfer or some sort of fillers in the future.
All appeared to be normal until the 11th day post butt implant surgery. I woke up with a high fever which did not respond to Tylenol and immediately went to the surgeon's office. He didn't seem to be too alarmed by this and prescribed me antibiotics as a precaution. I was very worried based on how sick I felt but I trusted the doctor and hoped the pills would help me. A few days after this, my fever finally went away but my incisions started having large amounts of drainage. I had to change the pads over them constantly and I was worried again so I went back to see the surgeon. He examined me and reassured me that there was no infection. I thought this was very strange because my incisions looked very red and the drainage was abnormal.
The surgeon then left the room, and as I was putting my compression garment back on (this is supposed to be worn 23 hrs a day for 6 weeks post-op) there was immediately a large amount of pinkish cloudy fluid leaking onto the floor from my incision site — creating a puddle on the floor. The nurse in the room immediately went and got the doctor again. He examined me for the 2nd time within 10 minutes, but this time found that a hole in the incision site had opened up. I was starting to question his judgement at this point because he was about to send me home without noticing this even after I told him there was a lot of drainage while at home, and he saw the soaked gauze pad I came into the office wearing which the nurse removed and left on the table for him to see.
After inspecting my incision site and the opening, he assured me again it likely wasn’t infected, and still did not take a culture of the fluid even after I asked him to. He also advised me not to wear the compression garment anymore even though it’s supposed to be worn for 6 weeks. There was too much pressure on the stitches from the drainage so the incision couldn’t heal properly if the compression garment kept causing excess fluid to leave the incision. The surgeon seemed confused as to what was going on with the drainage and couldn’t provide me with any definite answers.
Over the next few days my drainage kept getting worse even without the garment on and I had to change my gauze over the incisions hourly, and I was experiencing more pain. I couldn’t even stand for more than 5 minutes without feeling the urge to pass out. The surgeon wanted to see me again for a follow up. When I woke up that day my drainage was even worse than before (this was 15 days post op). I looked in the mirror and noticed the other side of my incision had now opened up as well — so I had 2 large openings on both sides now.
When I saw the surgeon he seemed concerned at this point (I’m surprised it took this long) and his suggestion was to change my antibiotics (still no culture, however) and put me in the operating room (the office has its own OR). He wanted to attempt to cut out the “bad skin” that opened up and clean the whole area in order to save the implants. Based on everything I researched online and common sense, I felt this was definitely an internal infection and refused his offer-- I asked to get the implants removed because I was only getting sicker. He told me the soonest he can remove the implants was the following Tuesday when his anesthesiologist was available.
However, he examined me one more time with a non-sterile flash light pressed against my incision opening which nurses without gloves had been handling, took some pictures, then suddenly changed his mind and asked me if I wanted to get the implants removed while awake immediately in his OR room — to which I immediately agreed, fearing for my health.
He numbed me up with local anesthetics and removed the implants. Upon removing the implants, the surgeon stated that both the implants and pockets they were in looked heavily infected (no surprise to me, but it was to him). They put the drains back in me to remove any excess fluid and kept me on the antibiotics for another week. However, I had to wear the compression garment the whole time without being able to shower or have a chance to look at my butt. I had one drain removed a couple of days following the removal surgery, and was told I could shower.
So after finally being able to remove the compression garment following the implant removal surgery, I saw what my butt looked like. I was absolutely horrified to see the right side has a sagging deformity — as if an egg was implanted at the bottom of the butt cheek; I was in tears and nearly had a nervous breakdown. The left side looked abnormal as well (see last few pictures I uploaded).
I am still in the process of treating this terrible problem. I developed a deformity on both sides of my butt post butt implant removal --which the surgeon said is most likely a seroma (fluid build up) that would resolve within a few months. It has been 3 months now and I have not seen any improvement - and I went to see my local doctor for follow up. I was given a soft tissue ultrasound of the area and was told it is not a seroma but more likely a cyst that requires surgery on both sides. I've been referred to a general surgeon for possible surgery to remove this deformity. So here is another major problem for me.... I went to Dr. Durkin to try to make myself look better and in his hands he did the exact opposite. My butt looks horrendous now and it also hurts whenever I exercise or run.
My experience was an absolute nightmare and he did not offer me a refund. I'm not sure my butt will ever look how it did before he operated on me and that's all I want at this point :(

jamie718's provider

Alan J. Durkin, MD

Alan J. Durkin, MD

Board Certified Plastic Surgeon

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Replies (5)

June 26, 2019
Omg I’m so sorry this happened to you. I hope you sue.
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July 11, 2019
Wow that is so terrible I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I hope this doctor gets what he deserves for causing you so much physical and emotional harm.
March 19, 2024
He didn’t get anything. He keeps doing it. I developed an complications and an infection after dermafillers and I texted and called the office and they ignored all my calls . The receptionist said that if I needed any help I had to take an 8 hour drive to see him with an infection when timing was everything . I took antibiotics i had in the house for a week and thank God it cleared within a few days . I didn’t pay him to self medicate though and not receiving support was devastating.
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July 19, 2019
We are sorry that you feel your experience was a nightmare. We strive to provide only the best in patient outcomes and customer service. However, we are only able to manage issues that are brought to our attention, and many of the concerns you voice here are new to us, and are different than the concerns that were discussed and appropriately managed. We are happy and would eagerly entertain the opportunity to discuss these concerns with you in the future. Please let us know if we can help. If not, we wish you the best of luck with your General Surgeon moving forward.
March 19, 2024
How invalidating. She developed an infection for which antibiotics didn’t work. She came into the office with pus oozing from the wound and you send her home without evaluating the pus, without taking a culture? So the patient developed an infection that could heve been life threatening. She’s seriously lucky it didn’t develop into sepsis. Honestly there are significant concerns regarding the management of postoperative infection and decision-making in this case. So your response is invalidating and shows lack of accountability. Be accountable , learn something from these experiences. Follow up is crucial and this case is an example of how you failed at it. !
March 19, 2024
And you say say “
I’m sorry you FEEL this experience was a nightmare? IT WAS A NIGHTMARE . She was disfigured , bit it could have ended up in a tragedy bc of lack of prompt intervention!
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October 1, 2019
That is so devastating! I am sorry you went through all of that. I originally had round implants placed by a doctor that was highly recommended on real self at the time but after I had them done that's when the horror stories started to emerge. I had my 430cc implant for a little over a year and about 5 weeks ago I had them taken out and replaced with ovals by a doctor in Turkey. I was so worried that I'd be left with terrible deformities but he did an excellent job and they look so natural and shapely now- even when bending over. I know you are still facing a lot of additional stresses right now but when ur ready please know that there are doctors out there that are affordable and can restore and further enhance you. You are strong and you will get through this.
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February 16, 2020
Wow, that is tough! Did the Doctor ever tell you why the dents were so visible??