POSTED UNDER Eyelid Surgery Reviews
Left with Serious Deformity After a Painful Procedure
ORIGINAL POST
Left with Serious Deformity After a Painful Procedure
lovethatrailFebruary 29, 2020
$3,500
I'd like to start by saying that I hate leaving bad reviews. It always feels spiteful and tacky, but with medical treatments I feel like I have an obligation to others to share my experience.
In April of 2019 I went to have an upper blepharoplasty with Dr. Kapadia at his Wellesley location. I had mild skin sagging in my eyelids and he said I was a good candidate, I'm in my early 30s. Prior I'd done my research and wanted to make sure I went to an eyelid expert, which he seemed to be. Unfortunately most aspects of the experience were poor, leaving me with facial deformities that makeup can't cover and are highly visible from a distance, among other things.
Without getting overly verbose I'll cut to the highlights.
Arrival was ok and everything seemed fine at first. I was given a mild valium and made comfortable. Then Dr. Kapadia tried to numb me with local anesthetic. He did a few shots. Waited. Asked me if I could feel anything. I definitely could, especially in one eye in particular. He gave me another shot. Waited. I could still feel something. Third shot to a different area. At this point he seemed very annoyed, and despite still having mild sensation, I said I was fine. He started the procedure. At first it was ok. We chatted about school and finance. When he got to my second eye I started wincing and told him I could feel it, it hurt pretty badly. He gave me a quick prick and then just kept going. I ended up being able to feel a lot of the procedure. *The cauterization felt excruciating*. I was sweating profusely it hurt so bad and after being ignored and him clearly rushing out of annoyance to finish, I bit my lip and tried to tough it out.
As soon as the procedure was over, he just kind of said thanks and walked out. When I got into my ride I looked exactly how you'd think--swelling, bloody, shiny from topical ointment. The thing to note though, was that even with the dissolvable stitching in, puckering around my lids, and swelling--the outermost corner of both eyes had skin sticking out. Pointy skin pieces pinching out where the dissolvable stitches ended. Obviously at the time I figured it was all normal, this is what it looks like, I'll heal soon enough. As the next week went by I used an IR/red light to speed up healing. It worked super well. My followup with him wasn't for 2 weeks. So I sat tight, used the antibiotic cream, red light, and tried to be patient. Unfortunately as they healed a problem emerged. Those pointy flaps of skin stayed put. Not moving, not growing, just stayed the same as the rest of my eyes healed up super nicely and the inflammation subsided. By the end of week two I was very concerned. My eyes were basically totally healed, they looked awesome everywhere except for the far edges, outside my eyelid, near my temples. The bumps that were there day one (NOTE they were NOT granulomas because they were there moments after surgery and didn't shift or change as healing took place) were still there.
I went in to seem him, worried. They are impossible to cover up with makeup because they're large skin protuberances that look like large pimples. Because they're on the corner of the eye, when I smiled and scrunched up my face they looked AWFUL. They crinkled up and made it look like I had sagging skin around the eyes suddenly. I immediately asked him about it and he completely ignored me. He said granulomas usually go away--and I explained they were there since day one, in identical spots on either eye, so they couldn't be granulomas. The assistant in the office seemed kind of worried and followed up with a second question on my behalf, as she noticed that it didn't look normal. He flat out ignored me, and then without answering me on what it was said "We won't be able to go back in and fix anything until 4 months after anyway, so you'll just need to be patient.'' Then basically walked out after writing some notes on the computer. I was so upset that I didn't want to deal with him anymore. He made no effort to answer my questions or offer to help. And makeup won't cover them. I was forced to go back on my life with heinous bumps on my face, thinking I'd just have to live with it for a minimum of four months.
It's now nearly a year later, and I still have embarrassing, super visible bumps on the outside of both eyes. I had to wait (financially) before going to another plastic surgeon in NYC that's actually an expert. He said that it's just simply dog earring--which happens when the wound isn't sutured correctly and the skin is closed improperly-- a mistake that he said should never happen in this kind of delicate surgery...And in the most critical part of the wound, the outside--where it is the most visible.
Needless to say I'm very disappointed. I now have to get a second surgery where I have them recut and sutured, then go through healing time again, fingers crossed I don't get visible scarring. Its as costly as the initial procedure and embarrassing. And doesn't give me back the months I've spent (in a high profile job where I'm photographed a lot) with these awful things on my face, completely incapable of hiding them.
My father in law has a law firm that specializes in medical malpractice, so he's going to help me take legal action to try and get my money refunded to offset the cost of getting the error fixed. I'm not a litigious person, and don't want to scam money out of people, but I don't think it should be my responsibility to pay thousands more to fix such a silly mistake that, according to two other eyelid specialists, was 100% due to sloppy suturing, on top of the pain I experience during the procedure.
I know his credentials seem great, and there's always the urge to assume you'll be one of the lucky ones--but I found Dr. Kapadia to be the archetype of an arrogant and dismissive surgeon. And worse, for an oculoplastic surgeon, he made a rudimentary mistake that almost never happens in upper blepharoplasty procedures when done by someone who specializes in it. I now have to go through legal channels to try and get my money refunded so I can afford to get it fixed. I will update as the process unfolds. Happy to see that so many others had pleasant experiences, as that was not the case for me.
In April of 2019 I went to have an upper blepharoplasty with Dr. Kapadia at his Wellesley location. I had mild skin sagging in my eyelids and he said I was a good candidate, I'm in my early 30s. Prior I'd done my research and wanted to make sure I went to an eyelid expert, which he seemed to be. Unfortunately most aspects of the experience were poor, leaving me with facial deformities that makeup can't cover and are highly visible from a distance, among other things.
Without getting overly verbose I'll cut to the highlights.
Arrival was ok and everything seemed fine at first. I was given a mild valium and made comfortable. Then Dr. Kapadia tried to numb me with local anesthetic. He did a few shots. Waited. Asked me if I could feel anything. I definitely could, especially in one eye in particular. He gave me another shot. Waited. I could still feel something. Third shot to a different area. At this point he seemed very annoyed, and despite still having mild sensation, I said I was fine. He started the procedure. At first it was ok. We chatted about school and finance. When he got to my second eye I started wincing and told him I could feel it, it hurt pretty badly. He gave me a quick prick and then just kept going. I ended up being able to feel a lot of the procedure. *The cauterization felt excruciating*. I was sweating profusely it hurt so bad and after being ignored and him clearly rushing out of annoyance to finish, I bit my lip and tried to tough it out.
As soon as the procedure was over, he just kind of said thanks and walked out. When I got into my ride I looked exactly how you'd think--swelling, bloody, shiny from topical ointment. The thing to note though, was that even with the dissolvable stitching in, puckering around my lids, and swelling--the outermost corner of both eyes had skin sticking out. Pointy skin pieces pinching out where the dissolvable stitches ended. Obviously at the time I figured it was all normal, this is what it looks like, I'll heal soon enough. As the next week went by I used an IR/red light to speed up healing. It worked super well. My followup with him wasn't for 2 weeks. So I sat tight, used the antibiotic cream, red light, and tried to be patient. Unfortunately as they healed a problem emerged. Those pointy flaps of skin stayed put. Not moving, not growing, just stayed the same as the rest of my eyes healed up super nicely and the inflammation subsided. By the end of week two I was very concerned. My eyes were basically totally healed, they looked awesome everywhere except for the far edges, outside my eyelid, near my temples. The bumps that were there day one (NOTE they were NOT granulomas because they were there moments after surgery and didn't shift or change as healing took place) were still there.
I went in to seem him, worried. They are impossible to cover up with makeup because they're large skin protuberances that look like large pimples. Because they're on the corner of the eye, when I smiled and scrunched up my face they looked AWFUL. They crinkled up and made it look like I had sagging skin around the eyes suddenly. I immediately asked him about it and he completely ignored me. He said granulomas usually go away--and I explained they were there since day one, in identical spots on either eye, so they couldn't be granulomas. The assistant in the office seemed kind of worried and followed up with a second question on my behalf, as she noticed that it didn't look normal. He flat out ignored me, and then without answering me on what it was said "We won't be able to go back in and fix anything until 4 months after anyway, so you'll just need to be patient.'' Then basically walked out after writing some notes on the computer. I was so upset that I didn't want to deal with him anymore. He made no effort to answer my questions or offer to help. And makeup won't cover them. I was forced to go back on my life with heinous bumps on my face, thinking I'd just have to live with it for a minimum of four months.
It's now nearly a year later, and I still have embarrassing, super visible bumps on the outside of both eyes. I had to wait (financially) before going to another plastic surgeon in NYC that's actually an expert. He said that it's just simply dog earring--which happens when the wound isn't sutured correctly and the skin is closed improperly-- a mistake that he said should never happen in this kind of delicate surgery...And in the most critical part of the wound, the outside--where it is the most visible.
Needless to say I'm very disappointed. I now have to get a second surgery where I have them recut and sutured, then go through healing time again, fingers crossed I don't get visible scarring. Its as costly as the initial procedure and embarrassing. And doesn't give me back the months I've spent (in a high profile job where I'm photographed a lot) with these awful things on my face, completely incapable of hiding them.
My father in law has a law firm that specializes in medical malpractice, so he's going to help me take legal action to try and get my money refunded to offset the cost of getting the error fixed. I'm not a litigious person, and don't want to scam money out of people, but I don't think it should be my responsibility to pay thousands more to fix such a silly mistake that, according to two other eyelid specialists, was 100% due to sloppy suturing, on top of the pain I experience during the procedure.
I know his credentials seem great, and there's always the urge to assume you'll be one of the lucky ones--but I found Dr. Kapadia to be the archetype of an arrogant and dismissive surgeon. And worse, for an oculoplastic surgeon, he made a rudimentary mistake that almost never happens in upper blepharoplasty procedures when done by someone who specializes in it. I now have to go through legal channels to try and get my money refunded so I can afford to get it fixed. I will update as the process unfolds. Happy to see that so many others had pleasant experiences, as that was not the case for me.

Replies (5)
Bumps like this after surgery can be due to several different causes, all of which can be remedied by a minor revision. As always, these types of revisions are done at no cost to the patient.
While I certainly understand your decision to go elsewhere I would still be happy to discuss this with you further offline.
Dr. Kapadia