Traumatized!!

Treatment Provider

Provider Review

• 18 Jan 2018

So basically I went to Dr. Fuentes excited to get my nose done by him after months of doing my research. I had a hump on the bridge and and wide nostrils that I wanted to get reduced. Having family in TJ made the decision easier to make. ( I'd have a place to stay and recover). Plus I spent half of what I would have in L.A. I think it was $3500 to $4000 or something. I went in January 2017 for consultation and surgery. The place was really nice and so was the staff. Dr Fuentes however was very serious during the consultation. He was quick and to the point but he made me feel like I would be in good hands. I told him I was nervous about going under since I've never been anesthetized. The day of my surgery I went in around 7 am the surgery wouldn't start till 9. It was just me and a nurse in the facility. She told me to get into my gown and take off all my clothes. Then she sat me on one of the hospital beds. I was nervous but anxious to meet the anesthesiologist thinking that talking to him would make me feel better about going under. Long story short, I never got the chance to meet him or see Dr Fuentes or any of the staff that was going to work on me that day. Why? This nurse gave me a pill to relax and said I might feel nauseous. I took it thinking okay I'll feel more calm but I never would have thought it would knock me out. I now know what it feels like to get drugged. The pill worked instantly. I felt chills and was salivating excessively like when you want to vomit. And in a second I was out. Dead asleep. Everything was a blur after that. I woke up around noon with a terrible pain in my throat. I was terribly confused because the last thing I remembered was being with the nurse and taking the pill. After waking up everything felt shady. Like something wasn't right. The nurses looked at me like they had seen a ghost. I asked to speak with the nurse that gave me the pill to ask her what that was and why it knocked me out. The other nurses said she had left to go on her lunch. None of them wanted to answer any of my questions. Why my throat hurt so bad, why the heels of my feet hurt, why I was drugged. They just told me to go back to sleep. It was hard staying awake but after getting dressed I just wanted to leave. One nurse even asked me why I was completely naked and I told her that the nurse told me to take everything off and she explained that I could've kept my underwear on. That felt shady too. I didn't see Dr Fuentes at all that day. After the meds wore off the pain began. Not from my nose but from my throat. The nurse said it would go away and it didn't. That night I had a fever and was throwing up like crazy. I knew I had caught an infection. I emailed Dr. Fuentes a pic of my uvula ( the punching bag at the back of your throat) and asked if it was normal for it to be so inflamed and painful. Obviously it wasn't, he asked me to pick up a prescription for antibiotics. The antibiotics didn't help. I had the infection the entire week. Uvilitus is probably the most painful thing I've ever had. Swallowing my own saliva would make me cry. My pain threshold is pretty high so that's really saying something. Eating or drinking liquids was impossible. I knew it had to do with the intubation process of the surgery but never thought it would come to this. A week of torture went by and I was finally going to see Dr. Fuentes to get my stitches off and hopefully a clear explanation to my dreary experience. The doctor nonchalantly told me that I woke up mid surgery and pulled the tubing out of my throat. That abrupt motion caused trauma to my uvula and esophogus. I was out of words. How does a doctor allow something like that to happen?? Was I not given enough anesthesia? Did the drug I was given interfere with the anesthesia? I got no reply. He sorta just shrugged it off like it was no big deal. I don't remember waking up or pulling any tube out. It was shocking to hear. The only good thing from the horrid experience and pain was that I was happy with the result of my nose. He's a great surgeon. I see that now. Its been a year since my surgery but as much as I like my new profile I would not go back to this clinic. This most likely would not have happened to anyone else but it happened to me so just be careful if you go here.