Horrible experience

The procedure name was wrong in my medical chart. It was listed as nipple reduction instead of inverted nipple repair. Several years later I’m still dealing with the psychological effects of losing both of my nipples and accepting that they will never look “normal”, not to mention the financial aspects, as I spent thousands of dollars on the nipple reconstruction surgery including travel costs as it was out of state and required multiple trips across the country.

I went to Dr. Kurtzman for an inverted nipple repair surgery which is supposed to be a relatively minor in office procedure. This procedure is listed on the Kurtzman Plastic Surgery website so I trusted that Dr. Kurtzman knew how to correctly do the procedure. What happened to me has been a nightmare. My nipples were dark purple after the procedure and they eventually turned black and scabby and fell off. I was left with areolas with no nipples which was caused by necrosis. How does that happen with a simple inverted nipple repair?

I’m addition to necrosis, a couple of days after the procedure I had an infection in the area of both nipples. Dr. Kurtzman acted as if there was nothing wrong even after seeing pictures of how my nipples looked like black scabs. One nipple looked as if it had been sewn together. I was horrified and didn’t know what to do as every time I contacted Kurtzman Plastic surgery I was led to believe that nothing was wrong but I knew better.

At a follow up appointment a week after surgery (that was only scheduled because I kept calling about the concerns) one nipple was no longer visible and I asked Dr. Kurtzman was it still there and he said that it was, even though it really was not. I had an infection bilaterally at this time and the area was not cleaned or dressed at this appointment and I was not informed that the black scabby appearance was necrosis. I had to ask for gauze pads. I knew at that point I had to seek proper care elsewhere. I self referred to a wound care center where they told me that it was necrosis and helped properly heal the area where my nipples used to be.

I’ve since gotten reconstructive surgery elsewhere that involved a skin graft because I was so devastated by the appearance of the damage that was done. I’m also in the process of getting medical tattooing to restore color in the areola that was lost from the reconstructive surgery. All I wanted was to get inverted nipples that I’d been embarrassed about for years to look and function normally and I paid to end up with no nipples. My experience has been extremely traumatic and the fact that I was not given an apology, acknowledgment that something went wrong, or offered a refund is deplorable.