POSTED UNDER Breast Implant Revision REVIEWS
Made Me Leave when I Could Not See - Miami, FL
ORIGINAL POST
I am not one to leave bad reviews, I would much...
natashadahlyaDecember 5, 2016
$7,803
I am not one to leave bad reviews, I would much rather contact the company directly to let them know how I feel, but after multiple tries I received no response. Now 4 years after my surgery I am still left feeling really upset about what happened, including being rushed out of the surgical centre when I could not see. One of the nurse or receptionist, to be honest I couldn't tell you cause I couldn't see them, told me it was just because the anaesthetic hadn't worn off yet but that it was time for me to get out.
After meeting with a few doctors in Vancouver Canada I decided to fly to Miami to have my tummy tuck and liposuction done by Dr. Hitchstein. The initial meeting the day before my surgery was brief. I repeated myself a few times about wanting him to focus on my inner thighs for the liposuction and that I didn't want it done to my buttocks as I don't have much adipose tissue there to begin with, because I felt like he was not listening to me.
On the day of my surgery my time got bumped down to later in the day, I believe I was moved to the last surgery of the day and that's where the problems started. I would just like to state that I have had plastic surgery prior to this and have never had an issue with the results nor the doctor, this is not me being overly critical or sensitive. The way I was treated was absurd. I was woken up by a female from my surgery and told that it was time for me to go that I had to get out. I let her know that I couldn't see anything. She told me that was just because of the anaesthetic hadn't worn off. I let her know that I don't think it was safe for me to be getting up yet as with my previous surgeries they would have never let me get out of bed or leave in that state. The woman told me she would guide me to the waiting room where my mother and son were waiting and that they were now closed for the day so I had to go whether I could see or not. My mother guided me into a taxi cab to go back to our hotel. The taxi driver was quite worried about the situation as I was leaking a large amount of blood and liquids from my abdomen, enough that I was sitting in a puddle of it on his seat. I remember the taxi driver kept insisting he take me to the emergency room instead. When I woke up the next day my bed was soaked with blood and fluid. The doctor told me they could not get my incision low enough on my tummy tuck that I would have to come back to have it lowered, whether or not having the incision put in the correct place was covered in the fees I already paid I wouldn't know. All the bruising from my lipo was on my bum between the 4 inincision marks that were also on my bum, even though I told him specifically I did not want Liposuction there. A couple days later I flew home.
As my surgery healed I noticed absolutely no difference in my inner thighs. I talked to a lady at his office who told me they had taken out 250cc when doing the lipo. I'm not sure if that's standard it seems like not a lot to me, the only difference I see after the surgery is now I have no bum at all. He must've taken the full 250 mL out of the one place I told him not to.
My drainage tubes then got very infected and sore. I sent pictures to the doctor but I was told it wasn't infected and to just leave it be. I knew that was wrong so I went to the doctor in Vancouver who told me it was extremely infected, put me on antibiotics right away and let me know that it would most likely leave me scarred, which it did. The incision never seem to heal quite right after that, over the years I have now spent thousands on fractional resurfacing laser to decrease the scar.
I was feeling really uncomfortable with how I was treated and my results but every time I talked to someone at his surgical centre I was told he did not want to speak to me through email I had to speak to him over the phone. I'm assuming this is because he didn't want a record of his response to what had taken place. They kept telling me he would call me but he never did. I kept suggesting email as I'm sure he is busy but they just kept saying it had to be over the phone. Eventually I gave up. A year or so after I was still upset by the situation I tried calling again, my call is directed to some sort of out of office answering service. The lady there could not give me much information. She said she would request for him to call me, that never happened.
Eventually I stop calling because it seemed useless, I figured that one day I would just pay to have the surgeries done properly a second time by a different doctor. Now that I'm looking in to which doctor I will have re-do the surgery I find myself still feeling really negative about how I was treated and felt I had to share my situation for other people to read when researching potential doctors.
After meeting with a few doctors in Vancouver Canada I decided to fly to Miami to have my tummy tuck and liposuction done by Dr. Hitchstein. The initial meeting the day before my surgery was brief. I repeated myself a few times about wanting him to focus on my inner thighs for the liposuction and that I didn't want it done to my buttocks as I don't have much adipose tissue there to begin with, because I felt like he was not listening to me.
On the day of my surgery my time got bumped down to later in the day, I believe I was moved to the last surgery of the day and that's where the problems started. I would just like to state that I have had plastic surgery prior to this and have never had an issue with the results nor the doctor, this is not me being overly critical or sensitive. The way I was treated was absurd. I was woken up by a female from my surgery and told that it was time for me to go that I had to get out. I let her know that I couldn't see anything. She told me that was just because of the anaesthetic hadn't worn off. I let her know that I don't think it was safe for me to be getting up yet as with my previous surgeries they would have never let me get out of bed or leave in that state. The woman told me she would guide me to the waiting room where my mother and son were waiting and that they were now closed for the day so I had to go whether I could see or not. My mother guided me into a taxi cab to go back to our hotel. The taxi driver was quite worried about the situation as I was leaking a large amount of blood and liquids from my abdomen, enough that I was sitting in a puddle of it on his seat. I remember the taxi driver kept insisting he take me to the emergency room instead. When I woke up the next day my bed was soaked with blood and fluid. The doctor told me they could not get my incision low enough on my tummy tuck that I would have to come back to have it lowered, whether or not having the incision put in the correct place was covered in the fees I already paid I wouldn't know. All the bruising from my lipo was on my bum between the 4 inincision marks that were also on my bum, even though I told him specifically I did not want Liposuction there. A couple days later I flew home.
As my surgery healed I noticed absolutely no difference in my inner thighs. I talked to a lady at his office who told me they had taken out 250cc when doing the lipo. I'm not sure if that's standard it seems like not a lot to me, the only difference I see after the surgery is now I have no bum at all. He must've taken the full 250 mL out of the one place I told him not to.
My drainage tubes then got very infected and sore. I sent pictures to the doctor but I was told it wasn't infected and to just leave it be. I knew that was wrong so I went to the doctor in Vancouver who told me it was extremely infected, put me on antibiotics right away and let me know that it would most likely leave me scarred, which it did. The incision never seem to heal quite right after that, over the years I have now spent thousands on fractional resurfacing laser to decrease the scar.
I was feeling really uncomfortable with how I was treated and my results but every time I talked to someone at his surgical centre I was told he did not want to speak to me through email I had to speak to him over the phone. I'm assuming this is because he didn't want a record of his response to what had taken place. They kept telling me he would call me but he never did. I kept suggesting email as I'm sure he is busy but they just kept saying it had to be over the phone. Eventually I gave up. A year or so after I was still upset by the situation I tried calling again, my call is directed to some sort of out of office answering service. The lady there could not give me much information. She said she would request for him to call me, that never happened.
Eventually I stop calling because it seemed useless, I figured that one day I would just pay to have the surgeries done properly a second time by a different doctor. Now that I'm looking in to which doctor I will have re-do the surgery I find myself still feeling really negative about how I was treated and felt I had to share my situation for other people to read when researching potential doctors.
natashadahlya's provider
Replies (8)
The first fact is that we stayed in touch with this person with emails and calls for a year after the surgery and the last email we received stated that she was happy with the surgery but wanted a revision of her inner thigh liposuction. I tried to speak to her about it on multiple occasions personally but she never made herself available to talk. Overall our office contacted/emailed approximately 15 times.
Next fact is that the preoperative meeting is all about the patient and their questions. If there are many questions it can last an hour or be brief if there are none. Next fact is that I do my liposuction markings prior to the surgery and let the patients see what will be done if they want to modify anything. She was completely aware of and approved the liposuction goals. How could I not have listened if the marks were approved?
Next fact is that the buttocks were not marked and no liposuction performed there. I have never nor would I perform liposuction on the buttocks. I just do not do that in my practice.
Next fact is the recovery room time. This patient spent an hour and a half prior to being discharged! To put things into perspective that is about twice as long as customary in todays post anesthesia days with short acting anesthetics. Nobody rushed her out. The reason she was not able to see was because she refused to open her eyes! To act like that an hour and half after surgery is just plain childish. People react differently post anesthesia and I would never criticize anyone for it but if you complain about acting childish I have to call it as such.
Next fact is that drainage after liposuction is expected. I inject a large amount of fluid prior to performing the suctioning and most of that fluid leaks out over the course of the next 24 hours. This is never a surprise as it is written in all of the instructions and the nurses give a detailed description and even give a drape for the car ride home. This was not blood as it takes just a few red blood cells to give it a pinkish color. Getting advice from a cab driver is worth exactly what it is. Waking up with a large amount of drainage is normal and expected and the bruising from the procedure is always lower than where the actual suctioning occurs (gravity). The planned scar for the abdominoplasty was discussed with the patient and marked before the surgery. I explained that I would want to lower it after 6 months free of charge. She was made well aware of this prior to the operation.
Next fact is that after surgery there is a significant amount of swelling and you are not expected to see the results from liposuction until several months after. 250cc is a significant amount to be removed and would make a noticeable change. The drain is brought out through the same scar as the abdominoplasty so there was no additional scarring other than the abdominoplasty scar itself which I had wanted to revise anyway. There was no infection at the drain site as I closely followed it by pictures. If you go to an ER physician who has no experience looking at a drain site they will always call it an infection and prescribe antibiotics wether you need them or not. In this case it was not needed.
Next fact is that each individual heals their scar in a unique fashion. Using laser to minimize how you heal a scar is often a good idea but this is an adjunct to the surgery. This is the first time that I have ever had a patient complain that I wanted to personally speak to them. As I mentioned previously I tried to reach out multiple times but could never get her on the phone.
Next fact is that we have no answering service. Perhaps she called someone else?
Leonard M. Hochstein, MD
Leonard M Hochstein MD