I paid $14,000+ to ruin my life - Los Angeles, CA

Provider Review

• 16 Jun 2017

So straight to the point, Hamilton ruined my life. This is not a bad review simply because this doctor preformed a cosmetic rhinoplasty and didn't give the exacts nose I had in my mind. Or ethically attempted a surgery that failed. This is a bad review because Hamilton charged me $14,000+ and preformed a radical, unethical, outrages surgery on me and failed to explain 90% of what he was planning to do. A brief history I was assaulted coming out of a party in downtown LA which resulted in my nose getting broken. I had surgery at UCLA with Dr. James Bradley in October 2013 because I could not breath out of one side. The surgery with Dr. Bradley resulted in a small septal perforation (a hold in the cartilage wall that divides the two nostrils) that caused a whistling when I would breath. I was given no real fallow up care from Dr. Bradley as he moved right after my surgery. The Fellow that I did see was texting on her phone and not listening or bother to look inside my nose when I told her about the whistling. I discovered I had a hole about a year later so I had another surgery at UCLA with Dr. Wayne Ozaki to fix the hole. I don’t know what happened but Dr. Ozaki told me he tore my mucosa and that surgery ended up making the hole much bigger. Which brings me to Dr. Jason Hamilton. I found Dr. Hamilton at the recommendation of a Doctor on the East coast (that I found out later had never even meet Dr. Hamilton) that I wanted to do the surgery be he did not take my insurance. Hamilton sliced my forehead open 5 inches behind the hairline to and drilled into my sinuses to feed some sort of scope into my sinus cavity, to procure cartilage. He cut out my entire nasal structure (healthy cartilage of my dorsum, septum and nasal tip) and left my nose a mushy flappy mess. My nose is now shorter from the profile, wider from the front view, I can’t breathe out of one side and the other whistles and my bridge has collapsed. Hamilton trimmed my columella and anterior nasal spine. Because there is much less cartilage and bone in my nose there is no support for my upper lip and it has sunkin in where the columella mets the upper lip resulting in trouble talking. One eyebrow is lower than the other, the skin on my forehead is loose. The site around the scar is balding and the top of my head is completely numb. Consultation My consultation with Hamilton was very short. He seemed like a nice guy but didn’t make eye contact with me or appear to listen when I was explaining about what happened to my nose. The examination of my nose consisted of a camera “scope” that was stuck up my nose to see the perforation, he did not feel my nose with his fingers like other doctors have done. It was my understanding that he was going to put a cartilage graft over the hole and he said he needed to get the cartilage from my sinus cavity. He then gave me a whole shpeal and said (and this is almost verbatim) "that the best way to get the cartilage he needs, was to make an incision down the center of my face and extract the cartilage. He said if the procedure was done this way the surgery would probably only take 10 minutes but because people don’t want scars down the center of their faces he would need to make a small incision (and he held his fingers up about half an inch apart) behind my hairline that I wouldn’t even notice." To me a 5+ inch visible scar behind my hairline is not small and I and others notice it. The entire consultation Dr. Hamilton didn’t appear to be listening to anything I said. He gave me next to no information of what the surgery entailed and even downplayed what was going to be done. When I walked out of his office I wasn’t feeling comfortable with having this doctor do the surgery but I was kind of stuck because there are only a handful of surgeons that specialize in septal perforation and all the other ones where out of state and where not covered by my insurance. Cranial flap The incision I found out later called the cranial flap is a procedure that Dr. Hamilton invented (there is no insurance code for the procedure). Every Ent and plastic surgeon that has examined me after this was done, are taken aback by such a radical approach the standard of care for this procedure is to either do nothing, graft a piece of cartalage over the hole, or close the hole with mucosa. Not to cut out the nasal structure and replace it. As I’ve already said the entire top of my head is numb, one eyebrow is drooping, the scar is visible and hair around the scar has not returned. In addition, the skin on my forehead feels and looks like its hanging off the skull and the muscles are spasming regularly. I now have chronic migraines and I think it might be because he drilled into my sinus cavity and used a bone substitute filler. I have structures between my eyebrows under the skin that were not there before and its where my headaches are focused. Hamilton denies using bone filler and changes the subject when I ask him if he drilled into my sinuses. I have asked other doctors about this and they say that he would have had to drill into the sinus to do this procedure and that he would have had to use bone substitute. Replacing my septum What I thought Dr. Hamilton was going to do is what Dr. Ozaki tried to do which is graft a piece of cartilage to close the hole. Dr. Hamilton approach to this is again radical, which is cut out the nasal structure entirely (something that no other Doctor that I can find recommends) and replace the septum (and maybe the dorsum). Which in my case had disastrous results. He cut out at least half of the length of my cartilage and replaced it with a much thicker and shorter septum that the skin is drooping over. Breathing Problems The nasal valve in my nostrils has collapsed and I have a hard time breathing and there’s a constant whistling. Upper Lip My upper lip is longer and unsupported because of the cartilage taken from my nose. I am having problems with talking and I can’t even whistle anymore. Columella and anterior nasal spine My columella (the piece of skin that divides your nostrils) was shortened which made my nostrils smaller and I think my anterior nasal spine was trimmed. Pictures/Video/Lies The first lie Hamilton told me is when he took the nasal cast off and it was revealed that there were stitches on the bridge of my nose up by my nasal bones. He said that when he was operating he has noticed that one of the muscles by the bridge of my nose was “detached probably by a previous surgery” and he reattached it at no charge…” because he takes care of his patients”. This didn’t sound right to me so I did some research and asked some doctors and that just didn’t happen. I made an appointment and asked my father to come with me. I again asked him about the stitches and he told me that he need to lift up the skin. I asked him for what purpose did the skin in that region need to be lifted and he said to see…? I then asked him why he had told me that he reattached a muscle? He said that there’s no muscle there to reattach? I asked him why he told me that he in fact did reattach the mythical muscle and he said “YES!”? I also asked him in that meeting if he trimmed my columella and anterior spine and he said he did not. I requested the video of the scope that filmed the perforation and nasal valve inside my nose and when I received the video after 3 months of calling 3 times a week, the video had been edited. The one video that showed my collapsed ​nasal valve been edited to cut out that part. He also edited the pre-surgery video to not show that nostril so there would be no before and after to compare. He has stated that my nose is exactly the same size and shape it was before surgery. That my nostrils are not any smaller and he does "not see" that the bridge of my nose has sunken in or saddled. Before photos were taken of my face from all angles and when I received the photos after waiting 3 months to get them my nose looks smaller and wider (the photos look more like what he thinks the end result would have been after I’m done healing…of course you can see through the photos this did not happen). I think the photos have been Photoshopped and there is some evidence to back this up. I ran the photos through an image authenticator online. It detects if an image has been altered. The authenticator could not verify that the image had not been altered. I put a lot of images through this authenticator​ some I’ve alter in Photoshop some I have not it seems pretty accurate. Breathing Problems The nasal valve in my nostrils has collapsed and I have a hard time breathing and there’s a constant whistling. Upper Lip My upper lip is longer and unsupported because of the cartilage taken from my nose. I am having problems with talking and I can’t even whistle anymore. Columella and anterior nasal spine My columella (the piece of skin that divides your nostrils) was shortened (which I can prove) which made my nostrils smaller and I think my anterior nasal spine was trimmed. Pictures/Video/Lies The first lie Dr. Hamilton told me can when he took the nasal cast off and it was revealed that there were stitches on the bridge of my nose up by my nasal bones. He said that when he was operating he has noticed that one of the muscles by the bridge of my nose was “detached probably by a previous surgery” and he reattached it at no charge…” because he takes care of his patients”. This didn’t sound right to me so I did some research and asked some doctors and that just didn’t happen. I made an appointment and asked my father to come with me. I again asked him about the stitches and he told me that he need to lift up the skin. I asked him for what purpose did the skin in that region need to be lifted and he said to see…? I then asked him why he had told me that he reattached a muscle? He said that there’s no muscle there to reattach? I asked him why he told me that he in fact did reattach the mythical muscle and he said “YES!”? I also asked him in that meeting if he trimmed my columella and anterior spine and he said he did not. I requested the video of the scope that filmed the perforation and nasal valve inside my nose and when I received the video after 3 months of calling 3 times a week, the video had been edited. The one video that showed my collapsed ​nasal valve been edited to cut out that part. He also edited the pre-surgery video to not show that nostril so there would be no before and after to compare. He has stated that my nose is exactly the same size and shape it was before surgery. That my nostrils are not any smaller and he does not see that the bridge of my nose has sunken in or saddled. Before photos were taken of my face from all angles and when I received the photos after waiting 3 months to get them my nose looks smaller and wider (the photos look more like what he thinks the end result would have been after I’m done healing…of course you can see through the photos this did not happen). I think the photos have been Photoshopped and there is some evidence to back this up. I ran the photos through an image authenticator online. It detects if an image has been altered. The authenticator could not verify that the image had not been altered. I put a lot of images through this authenticator​ some I’ve alter in Photoshop some I have not it seems pretty accurate. If Dr. Hamilton had described 1/10 of what he was planning on doing I would have never agreed to this surgery. I beleve Hamilton was experimenting on me with a new proceture that he developed and according to OHN website the wording for nasal perforation on the site has changed and they don't appear to do this surgery any more. Also, I the physician’s assistant and anesthesiologist where talking before my surgery. I overheard them say that Hamilton has a consultation scheduled during my surgery and they didn’t know how that was going to work because the surgery takes more time then they have scheduled. My nose can not be fixed and I am not doing well because of what this man did to me. My quality of life is horrible as I don't really leave my apartment anymore unless I absolutely have to. After the surgery Hamilton's demeanor completely changed, I have known some sociopaths in my day and his disposition in the days and months post-op gave me the same feeling. If you are considering getting a cosmetic rhinoplasty I would highly recommend that you reconsider. I know a lot of doctors and plastic surgeons in that community are known to be a different bread,(and not a good one) chances are these doctors don't care about or have your best interest at heart. If you have had trauma, need a functional rhinoplasty or have a birth defect I would recommend you find another doctor then Hamilton...any other doctor...