65 Year Old Widow Conned into a Tummy Tuck :(

Dr. Donald Oshwald of Specialists of Plastic Surgery performed a complete abdominoplasty on me on 9/25/2015. I initially went in August 2015 to discuss having liposuction, to reduce the amount of my midsection. He told me that I was not a good candidate for liposuction, and instead recommended a full abdominoplasty, and that it would be $10,885.00-which was paid in full prior to surgery. After the surgery was performed, my stomach still was not noticeably flatter like so many others stated it should be, even though a large piece of skin had been removed during the abdominoplasty. However, he stated at every post op visit that everything was doing well, even though almost 3 months after surgery the incision had to be re-opened and dead tissue had to be removed due to not healing correctly, causing additional recovery time. I followed all of his post op care instructions to the letter, and still did not see the expected "flatness" in my stomach that is normally seen with a full abdominoplasty. At my post op visit in March, when I questioned him about this, he told me there was nothing he could do, that the sutures holding the muscles together in my abdominal wall had come undone, and that I needed to diet and exercise. This had never been mentioned previously, and I had not gone crazy on my eating habits, so I had not gained any weight since surgery. I had followed all of his post op care instructions, and they had been the complete opposite of exercising, I was supposed to use caution while waiting for everything to heal. I was cut from one hip all the way to the other hip. After he told me this I went home and was extremely upset and disappointed. I called back to let him know how disappointed I was, and again was told there was nothing else he could do. I decided to go to several other doctors at this point for their opinion. I was told by all three that I should have never have had an abdominoplasty, that there was too much fat tissue underneath my muscles in my stomach, and that it would never work, and never provide the results that I wanted. I would need to lose at least 50+ to get good results with this surgery. This was never explained to me by Dr. Oshwald, if it had been, I would have never had the surgery. I never even wanted an abdominoplasty to begin with, I went in initially for a consult about abdominal liposuction, and was talked into the abdominoplasty by Dr. Oshwald. I believe that he acted unethically in his practice by doing this surgery when he knew that it would not work as it was supposed to, and that I was taken advantage of. I am very disappointed by the lack of care for his patients that he has shown here in this situation. I will never recommend anyone else to this practice.