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Nightmare - he did things to my nose I never asked for or wanted
PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU DECIDE - I am going to share my nightmare experience with Dr. Romo and his office on as many review platforms as I can because I do not wish what I have gone through on anyone else.
Let me first start off by saying I wish I was more confrontational and outspoken about his inappropriate touching of me in his office. He was overly touchy-feely, which comes off as creepy when he is repeatedly telling me how gorgeous I am, and during my last follow-up when I voiced my complaints to him, (that was a nightmare itself which I will tell you about), the visit ended with me in tears. He hugged me and KISSED my temple area. This is out of line but even if passed off as "oh he is just being comforting" does not work as he bolted out of the room pretty fast after that to not deal with my tears over my nightmare with him, and the whole visit before that he was cold and honestly pretty rude to me.
Here is what happened. I was looking for a revision rhinoplasty expert - I traveled long distance just to seek out the best as I did not wish to need another revision again. I found Dr. Romo and from good reviews I felt confident. I met with him twice before surgery - and spent in total over two hours discussing and planning surgery. I made a binder with photos and written points, including sketch, of EXACTLY what I was contracting him to do. He told me he never saw a patient do that before to which I explained that I want this to be my last surgery and therefore I am being as thorough as I can be with what changes I want and making sure he understands me.
The changes I was seeking were to correct a hanging columella, round out/soften a pointy tip, correct flared nostrils, use ear cartilage to lessen harsh alar crease lines, build up/widen one side of my lower nose to match adjacent bulged side, and an upward rotation to create more nostril show/less droop. I was EXTREMELY PRECISE and going into surgery, he assured me that we had an understanding and that he understood each of those points and would do his best to achieve them. He spoke negatively of his Irish wife (why do I know that she is Irish? Because this shows how much he spoke of her in relation to my surgery) and said that because of his wife, who I am like, he knows how women can be about needing to be heard. He made me feel like I was pestering him by making sure we were on the same page. He went off on unrelated tangents a lot and I tried to pull him back to the task at hand - my surgery. I found this quite bizarre. But I read so many good reviews that I overlooked these red flags and gave him the benefit of the doubt.
I also understood that this being not my first revision, there were risks and maybe if he opened me up, he would see that those things could not be done - hence me asking (in email, phone, in person, I have proof) that if he did open me up and see that the surgical plan could not be performed, if I would be refunded for unperformed procedures. He told me AND my boyfriend (who was witness to everything actually) that YES, I would be refunded if that was the case. Fast forward to my surgery, afterwards while I was coming out of anesthesia, my boyfriend asked him how it went and he told him that it went fantastic, better than expected, and that he was able to address every concern of mine and make all of the changes discussed. He also told him my blood supply was surprisingly very good. (Let me add also that cartilage was not an issue. This was the first time my ears had ever been used to harvest cartilage so I had two ears worth of cartilage to work with for techniques. He harvested from one). I was over the moon happy to hear this. I had my cast and dressings in so I could not see my nose but hearing this was...like nothing you could imagine after having previous unsatisfactory revision.
Dr. Romo told me that 90% of plastic surgeons do not know what they are doing and the surgeon is the largest part of why a surgery will fail or succeed. This gave me faith in him and I was so excited to see my nose once the dressings and splint came off. The day it all came off, I was not expecting random people videotaping to be in my room. I never signed HIPAA disclosure of my image, so I told them nervously to blur out my face but truth be told their presence gave me anxiety and who knows what came of that footage as I never saw it after that. It was unprofessional to spring that on me and catch me off guard like that without asking first.
When the dressings came off I was underwhelmed but held out hope that with time healing would prove me wrong. I taped my nose vigilantly as instructed, and once I saw up close that my nostrils appeared to be exactly the same, I did not see the upward rotation we discussed, I emailed Dr. Romo asking about this. He responded and told me it needs time to heal, etc. and did not bother to tell me "hey I did not change that stuff," just told me to be patient. Well, I gave it more than the 6 months he said. I waited even longer to revisit. By then, it got WORSE. I liked it better with the swelling! With the swelling, it at least looked filled in, alar crease lines not so bad, and a bid wider like I wanted. But as swelling subsided, I saw my alar crease lines were still bad, the concave side had not been filled in, and my upper nose area was NARROWER. I was horrified. My hanging columella was much better and the tip was less pointy but still not that much wider, but other than that, nothing I wanted had been done and he did things to my nose I never asked for or wanted!
I made a brief video and sent it to him pointing some of it out, and they told me to come into the office. So I traveled long distance again and when I got there, he hadn't even watched the video and barely remembered the previous email. (I guess he didn't care or think it worthy of his time?) He was very rude. I began to what "What I wanted was ..." and he interrupted me with "Well I want a million dollars, so what?" I only got as far as bringing up the upward rotation when he took over the verbal outflow. It was hard for me to get a word in. Some things he said to me were "Okay well what I can do is put a little nail up here at the top and use a string to pull your nose tip upwards. There is no way to do this unless you move things around to account for the angle and degree of the tip being lifted." Later on I asked him, were you unable to do this? He said "I did it." The operative report I now have begs to differ. The process to achieve rotation he went on a tangent about was not in there, only a supratip lobule graft that obviously was not the same process he told me was needed to do what I wanted. Also, I held before and after photos of my nasal profile side by side - even other people agree there is no difference and it looks no more lifted upwards. But he claimed he accomplished this.
Other things he said were "I don't feel bad for you because you're pretty," "It's your opinion, other people can see it as the Mona Lisa and you might think it looks like a piece of [RS bleep]," "I tell people no all the time, you think I needed to do your surgery?" "I have Trans people ask me to make their nose more feminine like I can just do that," and when I asked if he would correct it like my paperwork stated, he told me I'm no longer a candidate for surgery. When I first walked in, he said it may not be off the table to make corrections, and as he got more irritated in the visit, it turned to that I'm no longer a candidate due to risk.
On my signed contracts it did specify that if additional revision was needed to correct anything I had one year; when I asked for him to honor this contract agreement he refused. He should not have included it in my paperwork if he would not honor it , as part of the reason I contracted him was due to that insurance of error giving me peace of mind. Without it, I do not think I would have opted for the surgery.
I spent the rest of that visit staring at the floor, mentally checked out as he overpowered me by rambling on and leaving me voiceless yet again. When I asked him why my nose was not built up more/widened, he acted surprised and like we never talked about it and like he knew nothing about it. He then recommended I go to a dermatologist for fillers. At my consult, he spoke badly about nose fillers. He contradicted his original stance and was now suggesting what he previously told me was not a good option. At this point I lost all trust in him and was utterly disgusted with how he was speaking to me. He mentioned me not having cartilage or good blood supply is a problem with surgically fixing the mistakes. I brought up that I had a whole other ear and rib, and my blood supply was good. He countered again - and my point is this: if this was truly my last chance, Dr. Romo wasted my limited blood supply on osteotomies and infracturing instead of performing what we actually agreed to and what his patient actually hired him for. If you need an analogy to why this is so wrong, imagine hiring a house builder and agreeing to red brick with two levels and a sunroom. But the house builder builds you a beige siding house that is a one level ranch but has a sunroom, right? You confront him about it, and he tells you that you still have to pay him because he built you a house after all. This is what this feels like. He performed a revision rhinoplasty but nothing like what I intended it to be or what he agreed to.
Getting onto the procedures he did without my consent that were unwanted, according to my operative report it was specifically osteotomies and infracturing of my upper nose to "create an excellent nasal contour" that was performed. Excellent to whom? Certainly not the patient. Narrowing was the opposite of what I wanted. The whole point was to build my nose back up from looking "operated on" with cartilage, not take more away from an area I was actually happy with. That entire section of my nose should not have been touched. The work I sought was for my lower nose only. I was not seeking functional work - only cosmetic.
Now that I have had surgery with Dr. Romo, I get more congested than ever. I feel stuffed up a lot and I have had three severe nose bleeds. My last nose bleed, about a year post-op, I was GUSHING blood from both nostrils for so long that I started to consider going to the emergency room! I never experienced this with previous surgery, only after my surgery with Dr. Romo. I now will have to pay money to have a dermatologist correct what he chose to do without my knowing it. It is within the standards of care that patients have the right to be involved in decisions about their care and I was denied that right.
I was also treated badly by the office following this, having emails go ignored for months when I asked about some options, and feeling avoided like the plague. The office went from treating me like gold when I was about to spend money to treating me like this. This was a total breach of contract, violation of patient rights, and the discrimination I feel regarding his remarks about women and promising that I was heard only to go ahead and go against my wishes, is nauseating. I have cried countless tears and am so depressed. I do not wish this experience on anyone out there placing their vulnerable face into the hands of a surgeon only to be dismissed and without a voice in the end. This was my face, not Dr. Romo's. My opinion is the only one that counts in the end because it's my nose that I have to live with everyday, not anyone else's.
Provider Review
Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon
135 A E. 74th St., New York, New York