Referred to Dr. Maffi via the world-famous Dr. Daniel Baker.

Provider Review

• 15 Apr 2018

A few months ago, I contacted the (Manhattan) office of Dr. Daniel Baker to ask for a recommendation for a plastic surgeon in the Phoenix area (I had, in the past, been a patient of Dr. Baker but, for this particular surgery, was in need of a plastic surgeon who was Arizona-based). For those readers who may be unfamiliar with Dr. Baker, Dr. Baker is a legendary plastic surgeon, who once graced the cover of (the erstwhile) Life magazine and who (among multiple other such feats) once reattached the dismembered hand of a 17-year-old New York girl, whose hand had been severed when she was pushed onto the subway tracks - as a train was fast approaching the station. After the girl (a flutist who was on her way to school that day) was removed from the scene and the train was moved from where it had come to a stop, police officers found the girl’s hand lying between the subway tracks and swiftly sent the hand to the girl’s hospital on some ice (which they had obtained from a bar nearby). At the hospital, Dr. Baker and his team were able to successfully reattach the girl’s hand - after a 16-hour operation. The above preamble is just to explain that, when it comes to plastic surgeons, my standards and expectations are rather high (with Dr. Baker also happening to have invented, on the cosmetic surgery front, a groundbreaking facelift technique - the kind of technique, it should be clarified, that makes it into the annals of plastic surgery history... not one of those catchy-named, “proprietary” techniques, of which one can find myriad advertised these days). So, when a member of Dr. Baker’s staff (the very gracious Shannon Hayes) took the time to reply to my request and send me an email with Dr. Maffi’s name, that recommendation, needless to say, carried a lot of weight. Unfortunately, after Shannon emailed me Dr. Maffi’s name, I was (not surprisingly, I guess) forced to wait several months for an appointment with Dr. Maffi, whose agenda, as I discovered, always happens to be very full. The good thing about the long wait was that, by the time I finally got to meet Dr. Maffi (the morning of March 7th), I had already had the chance to interview and research several other Phoenix area plastic surgeons (including a few with big presences on RealSelf) and was quite familiar with what my other choices might be locally. After meeting Dr. Maffi, I booked a surgery date right away (for a facelift). I found Dr. Maffi to be (like Dr. Baker) very genuine, direct, self-assured, confidence-inspiring, and self-possessed (as well as a man who keeps his ego in check). My original surgery date was to have been in late May (again - a bit of a wait), but, about a week after my first appointment with Dr. Maffi, I received a call from Dr. Maffi’s (indefatigable, good-natured, and always eager to help) patient coordinator, Wendy Krause, alerting me that a patient had just cancelled an early April surgery date - after a skiing mishap. So, naturally, I grabbed the early April slot straightaway and met again with Dr. Maffi in mid-March for my pre-op appointment. It bears noting that, once you become Dr. Maffi’s patient, he becomes very available to you. For example, right after my pre-op appointment, a burning question popped up in my mind - regarding the degree of improvement I could expect in terms of the nasolabial folds and marionette lines, and I really felt the need to have Dr. Maffi show me, with his hands, the level of lift that I might expect. So, I called Dr. Maffi’s office, and they made a space for me to see him - as his first patient, the following day (it should be noted that, by that time, I had already pre-paid in full for my surgery - so it was not as if they were trying to “clinch the deal”, so to speak). In the same vein, Wendy, the (very patient) patient coordinator, also made herself available seven days a week (via phone or email) to answer even the silliest of questions (on a side note, after one’s surgery, one is also given Dr. Maffi’s cell phone number - just in case). I had my facelift surgery two weeks ago, and, even though I only had a facelift performed and nothing more (not even a fat transfer), the surgery took about 4.5 hours to complete. The length of the surgery had to do, in part, with the fact that my inner tissues turned out to be unexpectedly fragile and thin, which made the operation more time-consuming and challenging. Additionally, Dr. Maffi regularly takes over an hour just to do the stitching (for a facelift) - as his stitches are famously tiny. After the surgery, I stayed at the recovery center next to Dr. Maffi’s clinic for three nights (that was purely my choice - as Dr. Maffi only requires a one night stay). And, during my three-day stay, Dr. Maffi came to check on me multiple times. Then, the morning after I left the recovery center, I became very concerned about what (to my untrained eye) appeared to be very odd and bumpy swelling. So, I called Dr. Maffi’s office in a state of alarm, and Dr. Maffi very graciously agreed to see me that very morning (he fit me in between surgeries). When I saw him, Dr. Maffi reassured me that the swelling that I was experiencing was totally normal and that, with time, it would go away (it is actually much better, already). The following day (a Saturday - no less), Dr. Maffi called me at home to check if I was doing okay. A few days ago, I had my stitches removed by Dr. Maffi’s nurse (the aptly named) Sunshine Coppock. Sunshine (an Angie Harmon doppelgänger) is not only true to her name due to her warm and sunny nature but also because of her very illuminating answers and explanations to any and all surgery-related questions. Plus (for those who may be wondering why Dr. Maffi does not remove the stitches, himself), it should be noted that, in addition to being very skilled at (among many other things) removing stitches (not an easy thing - given the minuscule size of Dr. Maffi’s handiwork), by the time one sees Sunshine for stitch-removal, one is already very familiar with her - as she is present in most of one’s appointments with Dr. Maffi. This morning (with today being a Sunday), after I washed my hair, I found some blood spots on my white towel (emanating from one of my ears). I immediately texted and called both Dr. Maffi’s and Wendy’s cellphones. A few minutes later, I heard back from both of them, and, a half hour after that, I was lying at Dr. Maffi’s clinic - having a few stitches added to my bleeding ear by Dr. Maffi (and a few extra stitches as well to the other ear - just to be safe). Additionally, Dr. Maffi checked all of my incisions/scars (which I was glad to hear were healing well). Dr. Maffi said that his office would contact me to book an appointment for a week later to have the stitches removed - plus another appointment (with him) in two or three days-time, so that he could check that my new stitches were doing fine. So, it goes without saying that I am extremely pleased with my choice of Dr. Maffi and I am deeply grateful to him and his team for taking such great care of me. Naturally, I am very thankful, as well, to (Dr. Daniel Baker’s) Shannon Hayes for steering me Dr. Maffi’s way; for, even though Dr. Maffi is evidently quite well-known in the Paradise Valley orbit (with, for example, Bentleys parked in the visitors’ spots outside his clinic being a quite common sight), Dr. Maffi (like Dr. Baker) does not assiduously promote himself on sites like RealSelf - such that, without the help of Dr. Baker’s staff, Dr. Maffi would not have been so easy (for a non-local like me) to find.