One of the biggest mistakes and regrets of my entire life

Surgery with Dr. Davis was a complete waste of time and money. I consulted with Dr. Davis about gynecomastia that I had gotten during puberty and was finally able to afford surgery to remove it as insurance does not pay for the procedure. The consultation was fairly straightforward, we talked about how he would remove it. First, an incision around the areola to remove the fibrous tissue. And then liposuction to contour the chest. This is standard procedure and I felt comfortable moving forward so I decided to book, even though I was getting snake-oil salesman vibes from Dr. Davis. The procedure itself is very straightforward and he was board-certified so I figured nothing would go wrong. I went in for a pre-op visit a week or so before my surgery date to go over all the informed consent things and details of the procedure. When I got to the office, I was told Dr. Davis was on the phone speaking to an airline about a mixup with some tickets as he was planning a vacation to Hawaii. Considering I had my appointment weeks in advance, I feel like Dr. Davis could have taken that call at another time. Instead of waiting for him, his wife who is also his main assistant decided that she would handle my appointment instead. At the time I didn't think much of it, she seemed well informed and did let me know all the general things about the procedure. However, I could have gotten all that information from a simple google search. That pre-op visit was supposed to be with my surgeon to discuss details of the surgery and plan for the actual procedure. After about 45 minutes, Dr. Davis came in and instead of apologizing for missing the appointment, complained about how difficult the airline was being. Now we get to the day of the procedure. Dr. Davis does not do these procedures in his own office, so I showed up at the facility that the surgery was being done. I got checked in, then eventually as taken into a room to get ready. The nurse gave me clothes to change into, and then put the IV into my vein so they could eventually give me anesthesia. I waited for about an how with a needle in my arm until finally Dr. Davis came into the room. This was the first time since my first consultation that Dr. Davis looked at my chest. He drew some lines on there, and then started talking about some lipo suction canula that he could use to remove the gyno without cutting into areola. This was NOT what we had discussed prior, but he started throwing around a bunch of medical jargon and told me it would work, and if he could not remove all the tissue with the canula he would cut into my areola and get it out. I agreed to this, though looking back I should have protested and insisted on the areola incision. Fast forward an hour and a half and I woke up from the anesthesia. Dr. Davis came and told me the surgery went great, and that he was able to remove all the tissue using the liposcution canula and did not cut on my areola. Even while being drowsy from just waking up from the anesthesia, I was bummed to hear that and instantly became skeptical that my surgery was successful despite the Dr.'s claims. Shortly after that I was on my way out, and on the drive home kept telling my wife I didn't believe the tissue was removed since the Dr did liposuction only. She told me to be positive and have faith in the surgeon. Within a few hours I began feeling intense pain in my chest, which even the percocet that I was prescribed was not able to help. From my research, gynecomastia surgery results in some minor pain for a few days and then subsides. I experienced intense pain in my chest for 5 months and by the 6th month the pain was tolerable. If anyone even bumped into me for months it was extremely painful and sensitive. I have a very high pain tolerance but still struggled with it. The reason I had so much pain was due to the way Dr. Davis did my surgery. Usually in gyno surgery, the surgeon will cut an incision on the areola and remove 95%+ of the breast tissue so there is nothing to heal other than the incisions themselves and the scar tissue that builds after the surgery. However, Dr. Davis did not do this for. Instead, he used a liposuction canula to as he later told me to "poke hundreds of holes into the tissue". This was not only an extremely traumatic procedure due to the very aggressive liposuction being done, but the majority of the breast tissue remained inside of my chest. So now I had breast tissue that was extremely damaged from a metal rod being inserted into it over and over, but was never removed so I felt the entire healing process. The breast tissue was extremely tender and sore for months and as time went on it became more and more pronounced as it healed from the damage the Dr. had done. Had he removed those glands fully initially, this would have never happened. After about a month or so it became evident that I still very much had gynecomastia. At my post op visits I was vocal about not being satisfied and that I could definitely still feel the breast tissue on both sides of my chest. Dr. Davis came up with reason after reason for what I was feeling, insisting that there was no way it was breast tissue as he told me he removed "90 to 95%" of the tissue. This was a blatant lie that he told shamelessly straight to my face. Ironically, Dr. Davis may have removed at most 5% of the breast tissue and left the other 95% inside. The pictures on my post will prove this. After another few months or so of me still very clearly having gynecomastia, Dr. Davis finally started to accept the possibility that I still had breast tissue that needed to be removed through surgery. He told me "I'll have to go in and formally get it out" - why was that not done the first time? That was what I paid him for. At this point I was extremely disappointed, surgery and recovery were unbelievably difficult and I was going to have to go through it again to get the results I should have had the first time. Dr. Davis agreed that I needed a revision and was willing to do it, but there were some caveats. First, I would have to pay an additional $3,000 for facility fees that could not be waived. To me that was unacceptable, if Dr. Davis had any honor he would have worked to either waive that or pay it himself considering the awful job he did on my first surgery. Second, I had to consider the fact that he had me on his operating table once and was not able to fix my issue - so why would I believe he could get the job done on a second try? I was not willing to risk wasting another 6 months of my life recovering from a failed surgeon. I ended up getting gyno surgery with a different surgeon - that review is on my profile if you are interested. My experience with that surgeon (Dr. Mordcai Blau, White Plains, NY) was night and day from the snake oil salesman Dr. Davis. At my first consult with Dr. Blau he could not believe that I had a previous gyno surgery as the breast tissue that remained was so clear he saw it as soon as I removed my shirt. At this point I was in fantastic shape, other than the fibrous tissue behind my areolas. Dr. Blau removed the tissue and my recovery was extremely easy, how I had expected my first surgery to go. I am 2 months post op from my secondary procedure and am fully healed and living my life normally again. Had I decided to give Dr. Davis another shot, I am confident I would not be in this place today and would still living with gynecomastia. He simply is not qualified to be doing gynecomastia surgery and should not be offering it. It is sickening that he is advertising himself as someone who can fix gyno for me. In conclusion, deciding to have surgery with Dr. Stephen Davis was one of the biggest mistakes and regrets of my entire life. It was a complete waste of time and money that I will never get back. Dr. Davis will face no repercussions for the absolutely disgraceful surgery he performed on me, so the least I can do is voice my experience. I would never in 100 years recommend Dr. Davis to anyone for any procedure. He is a liar and a con.