Face/neck lift fail

I had my face and neck fixed on October 21 by Dr brownrigg You can see how much better I look after the revision
When I posted pictures of the first surgery and the mess under my chin, thus is what one doctor had to say about Dr Bonaparte: ‘ I'm very sorry for your failed surgery experience you've had. As a triple board certified facial plastic surgeon it seems that a very accurate planned and delicate operation was not performed obviously. In my opinion submental fat tissue were removed, but the skin is not sufficiently released. "

Before and after pictures. Before and after pictures. Before and after pictures. Before and after pictures. Before next after pictures. Before and after pictures’

Wish i had left left my face alone.

The mark of a true professional and upstanding doctor is how he/she handles a poor outcome.

I was expecting to undergo a face/neck lift revision in April but last week , dr bonaparte’s office called me asking for payment for hospital fees. I was floored because last November he said he would cover them and do “whatever it takes to make [me] happy”. He tried to suggest that I was to blame for a bad outcome because I stopped wearing my compression bandage on day 5, but that’s utterly ridiculous. All you have to do is search this website to see that the use of compression is only to reduce swelling, and at best a questionable practice. I am a healthy. I don’t drink or smoke. The poor result has nothing to do with anything I did or did not do, except for my choice in doctor.

The following email was sent on Wednesday February 12, the day his office said I should expect him to call me. I’ve been waiting for a call from bonaparte himself since Wednesday February 5. Nothing. Nadda. Unbelievably unprofessional.

The email:
I am writing to express my concern and dismay at the recent turn of events. Last week your office called to make arrangements for me to pay for hospital fees for my upcoming face/neck lift revision. Naturally, I was shocked to hear that you have forgotten or changed your mind about covering these costs for me since the surgery failed through no fault of my own.

I asked to speak to you on Wednesday February 5 and it is now a week later, and still no call. It is the business standard to return calls within 48 hours. It would seem to me that this should certainly be the situation in cases like mine. Since you led me to believe that you rarely need to perform revisions on your own work, I can only assume I am your only or one of a very few who have had unsuccessful results. The fact that I have not heard from you, under these circumstances, makes me feel that I am not valued and neither are my concerns.

On November 7 when we last met at your riverside office, you agreed that a revision was necessary to correct the hanging flaps under my chin. You agreed that other than the bands on my neck there was no improvement to jowls and that the hanging skin under my neck is an unfortunate result of the surgery.

I stated that I would like to have the revision in office to avoid having to pay for hospital costs. You said it would be better to do it in a hospital and that you would cover the hospital costs. When I left your office, I felt somewhat better, and felt that you were willing to do your best to remedy the situation and covering the costs of the hospital was a gesture of goodwill. It did not occur to me to get this in writing. I was assuming, that as a professional, you would honour this promise. This does not seem to be the case. I have ONE cosmetic surgeon, and what happens in your office is of the utmost importance to me. AFTERALL, we are talking about my face. You are one plastic surgeon with many many patients and therefore what happens in your office with me is not the singular issue in your head. We had a deal and now it seems, according to your assistant, this is being denied.

Your assistant tried to make me look like I was an idiot when she said ‘this procedure is always done in the hospital. It is never done in office. I’ve NEVER heard of that” as if I was making this up. It is common knowledge and practice to have this procedure done in a surgical suite and was one of the reasons I decided to have the original procedure done with you, as I was told it was an option. She insisted that you never would have agreed to pay for hospital costs and that requesting payment was your directive. You can imagine how shocked I was.

When the results of the surgery were obvious and I realized I look worse now than I did before the surgery, I tried to maintain confidence in you and our relationship. All one has to do is spend a few minutes on REALSELF to see that patients who require major revisions such as mine, patients who saw no improvement or looked worse after surgery have serious doubts about having their original surgeon perform the revision. This is common sense. However, patients feel like they have no choice considering the significant investment they have already made, and so we reluctantly sign up to go under the knife with our original surgeon. You are further testing my level of trust by reneging on your promise to pay my hospital costs.

I would appreciate a call ASAP as this is a very distressing. If we are unable to come to an agreement, I will have to extend my upcoming retirement date by 6 months to pay another surgeon to fix the problem. This is no small matter to me.