A Living Nightmare

It's taken several years for me to work up the courage to write this review. When I was a toddler I was in an accident that left me with some lumpy scar tissue and a slight droop/asymmetry in my right eye. It was a relatively minor issue but with age I noticed it becoming more uncomfortable and difficult to fully open my eyes.

I visited doctor Brenman, who talked a really big talk and claimed he could resolve the issue with a quick, simple in-office procedure. He carefully smeared other doctors, stating that they would want to do a more invasive procedure that would be too much risk and/or mess up the appearance of the eye.

When I asked about potential complications I was told issues are extremely rare, that there would just be some bruising in the area for a few weeks (I have the consent paperwork to back this up), and that if there were any issues I could come back in and he would resolve it for free.

Fast forward to today, and I've spent the past several years in and out of doctors offices, flying across the country consulting with some of the worlds best eye specialists. Why? My face is scarred, I have severe damage to the tendons in my eyes, permanent damage to eye function, and a host of other serious, practically unfixable problems with my eyes/face.

I'm currently having to weigh the possibility of major reconstructive surgery on my eyes/face because of the severity of damage done by Dr. Brenman's "simple" procedure. The past few years have been a living hell and, at just 30 years old at the time I encountered Brenman, I've got a whole lifetime of dealing with it ahead.

However, that's not the worst part. The worst part is the conduct of Dr. Brenman and his staff throughout the ordeal. His staff was unqualified and unresponsive, when I finally managed to see him his response was "well you have to be kind of close to you to notice", after which point I could never reach him again - no response to emails, calls to the office, complete 180 from the person I met when first visiting his office. The ironic thing was the last time I saw him before this he said "I always run toward my patients, not away from them." Wow. When I brought up the things I had learned from having to visit many eye specialists it became painfully obvious he had no idea what he was doing, which is terrifying for the patient.

To this date his staff has been unable to provide any operative reports or documentation, claiming they don't exist, which is illegal in the state of Pennsylvania. The only thing they could provide is a one page generic consent form with no useful information on it. This is amongst a host of other issues to the point this is just scratching the surface of my issues with this office.

To add insult to injury, the specialists I've spoken to have said all of this isn't the result of some freak complication or bad luck, but rather Dr. Brenman's course of action was entirely inappropriate for my situation, and it was entirely predictable that this would happen. Had I visited an oculoplastic surgeon (a specialization I didn't know existed at time and that Dr. Brenman made no mention of) this would have been a simple in and out with zero risk of these kinds of complications. Rather Dr. Brenman utilized techniques that are dangerously outdated, and entirely inappropriate for someone of my age, exhibiting my symptoms.

If you read my review and still want to go here I suspect nothing will sway you but the last thing I'll say is on a more personal note.

You can't imagine the emotional impact of being a young person with messed up eyes and scarring on your face. It affects everything - relationships, friends, socializing, your career, your family, everything. Exercise the utmost caution here or anywhere else. Don't let a Doctor's bravado convince you that any procedure is simple or without risk.