Dr Mario Almanza (Sleeve) and Dr Martn Yañez (Plastic Surgery) in Tijuana Are First-class Operators!! - Tijuana, Mexico

I would be very interested in communicating with Edward B. in Cape Coral Florida...I am seriously considering surgery with Dr. Yanez as I have already had surgery with Dr. Almanza and am more than pleased...how can we begin communicating... Pat

Pat, I am and remain immensely pleased with Dr Almanza. His work was trouble-free, went exactly as promised and expected and the results, which are now nearly four years in the running have been permanent and life-changing. I regret the accolades for Dr Yañez. He and his staff were most accommodating until they got my money. I saw that team through the filter of my experience with Dr Almanza, who works down the hall in the same hospital. Yañez was presented to me as Almanza's associate, but he is not at all affiliated with him despite the advertising. The nursing staff told me that to resolve the pain of days one and two I should get up and walk around, just like Dr Almanza's team tells you to after bariatric surgery. Sure, I was amazed that by day three I was able to walk around pain-free, except that it turns out that the stitching on the inner thigh began to unstitch and I could feel the suture with my fingers. The location of those stitches can't be seen without a mirror between your legs, but I could feel something amiss, so I told the doctor. Without even looking, he replied that that can't be. He was so matter-of-fact about it that I assumed that my fingers were misinforming me. By the end of the week the hole had opened up a lot, so that I was able to put my fingers inside the hole in my thigh. I reported this to the doctor, and the result is that he put a small piece of gauze with tape (the tape was 'micropor' - the kind they use to affix cotton to your arm after drawing blood and which comes unstuck at the slightest movement). He told me that I shouldn't have been walking around because that's what happens. I then told him that his own nursing staff was great and most responsive, but that they need some training, because it was they themselves who really pushed me to walk around in order to resolve pain. Again, his immediate response was to refute my assertion that they need to be trained in this regard, and simply restated that I need to stay in bed and not walk around. I told him that in that case I would need pain meds 'walking around' was the way I was resolving pain ACCORDING TO HIS OWN NURSE"S INSTRUCTIONS. You simply CANNOT stay in bed after this surgery without serious pain medicine. They've peeled and sliced your skin all the way around you and no matter what position you're in you're resting the weight of your body on a point of severe trauma. My pleas for more pain meds were met with stall-tactics but no results. There was a patient who had arrived a week before me and who had a bit less work done than I. Her stay was set for 10 days. Mine was originally set for 7 days but then cut back to 6. As I was negotiating to have this surgery, I noticed the change (it didn't come up in discussion, rather on their website you see in your page on the left the surgery date and number of days. I noticed that mine had gone down by one). When I asked about this, I was told that the doctor said that six says was all that was necessary, so I accepted it. In short, I was sent home (in my opinion) WAY too early, with a hole in my right leg that hadn't been tended too and which was treated like a minor cut that would heal on its own. My flight home was characterized by 8 hours in airports and on two planes. By the time the first plane landed my shorts were soaked in blood and drainage fluid and I as freezing for being soaking wet. Thankfully, I had a spare in my carry-on, so I changed clothes in the bathroom in time for the next flight. By the time that second plane landed in Ft Lauderdale again, my shorts were entirely soaked and this time the airline seat was also clearly soaked to the point that the stewardess came up to me as I was returning to my seat from a trip to the bathroom to ask if I was alright. I really wasn't. I was shaking uncontrollably for how cold I felt. I was desperate to arrive in Florida for its 90 degree June temperature but it turns out that nonetheless, upon arrival I was freezing and had a fever of over 101. My attempts to reach out to the Yañez team for assistance or advice amounted to I suggestion that I apply Neosporin and to have me drive over two and a half hours (by the doctor's own admission, contraindicated) to a friend of theirs who looked at the hole,. This doctor applied the same gauze with the same tape that any lay person could tell you wouldn't hold five minutes on a blood-draw site - let alone in your inner thigh where there is so much movement and friction between the legs. Most importantly, this doctor fervently, repeatedly, insisted that this was very minor and that I should calm down and not worry, everything would be OK. The fever was probably just the result of that bug that was going around, and by the way - stop using the neosporin because those triple-antibiotic creams can cause resistance to antibiotics. I expected that this last service would be free since Yañez sent me off prematurely and I had been complaining about this issue left untended to, but I was quickly learning to lower my expectations. Another $100 down this money-pit. Oh yeah, I forgot: I was quoted $6945 for this work and I agreed to that. The work described was very explicit during negotiations. The catch is that Yañez does not use the same terminology that the vast majority of others I had researched use. For example, he doesn't use the term 'lower body lift' . Dr Campos for example, does use that term. I had gotten four explicit quotes from other doctors. Campos in his quote was very explicit, having personally sent me an e-mail using the term 'lower body lift' and then actually describing what that meant. Since Yañez was using different terminology, before accepting his own quote I told him my problem with his terminology and actually copy-and-pasted Campos' message in an email to Yañez, asked him to confirm that this is what he would be doing. Although the reply came back 'yes', after I committed myself financially by paying the deposit, flying to Tijuana, renting the car and hotel in Lauderdale, I was told that the surgery would be an additional $2600. In the states I simply had to go to the ER. I normally resist doing that, so tried an Urgent Care facility. They wouldn't touch the problem and told me that it was VERY serious. They pointed out that the hole was very deep and long and in a place (between groin and anus) that was highly prone to infection and therefore particularly susceptible to gangrene if left untended. They said that the wound was too deep and long to be properly tended to by anyone other than the ER. The ER was even more concerned. They said that the only appropriate thing to do was to admit me for at least two nights. They would need to prevent infection and no, they could not sew it back up because that would almost certainly seal in infectious bacteria that was already brewing deep inside. The affected tissue would need to grow itself out and if I was concerned about damage to the original work I would need to treat that as separate surgery(s) later after this heals. Their assessment of the existing condition? An expansive seroma and an excess of necrotic tissue. Like nessy4 (see her reply to this posting on June 9th), I had to follow-up with one surgery already and another I'll have to schedule when I can afford it, an additional, unexpected month of time I had to take off from work (I'm still in the doghouse with my employer, who didn't know I was doing this surgery while on vacation) and twice-weekly appointments to a wound clinic. I'm still pulling away necrotic tissue. When I look at the area with a mirror it looks like I have two a**holes. My insurance will not cover any of this work, citing it as a self-inflicted injury from optional and unnecessary care. nessy4's following statement sums up my experience very well: "This doctor is awful at after care, and once he has your money he no longer cares. A butcher in my opinion and I truly hope no one else deals with what I went through." I only wish I wouldn't have been so premature with my original posting complimenting Yañez - I assumed that being an associate of Almanza the seriousness, concern for patients and professionalism would be the same.

I'm so sorry all this happened to you...we can keep in touch if you would like some support...I would like a scar revision on my right arm...botched plastic surgery here in Canada...I would also like lipo at the side of both of my knees and my back done to take off the big fat pads that never go away...any advice...Pat

I'm not trying to be mean nessy but any surgery can give you those issues surgery is a risk. Now if you said he gave me lopsided boobs or a bad Tt that would be more the doctors fault but it sounds to me like you just had complications from being operated on which anyone could have regardless of who is your doctor. Did you see Martin or gustavo yanez? I'm sorry you went through this

Sorry TJLopez, but it's one thing to suffer normal 'risk'. It's quite another to have a doctor who ignores your complaint of an improperly-sewn wound that is opening further with each passing day after surgery, which he in my case had a full ten days to address before sending me on my way. Yanez failed to provide accurate information to prevent further complication, actively instructed and encouraged activity that is explicitly contraindicated to the given surgery and medical circumstance and in my case did so in order to cash in on more business to the detriment of my health - without at least informing me of the added and contraindicated risk. I suffered the same as Nessy at the hands of Martin and his brother and regret my early accolades of his team, which I based on my outstanding experience with Almanza, whom I'd been told was Yanez' associate though it turns out he's not. Nessy calls Yanez a 'butcher'. To me, a butcher is one who cuts up a piece of meat for his own purposes and profit without regard for the well-being of the piece of meat except as it suits the butcher's purposes. I therefore call Nessy's description succinct and more than accurate. Put yourself in his hands at your own risk and I can only hope the best for you, which I sincerely desire. Best wishes on your journey. BTW: Yanez himself sent me a private message a couple or few weeks ago - nearly a year after surgery - asking how I am doing. I've yet to answer his message, still trying to calm down from the insult. He ignored my several pleas for help and guidance and minimized the glaring complaint of a poorly-sewn wound that was opening up before his very eyes. He could have helped back then. The best he can do now is pay the thousands in medical bills I had to handle once back home in the states and restore my position with my previous employer, who was not too happy to lose me to bed-ridden status for over two months beyond what had been anticipated and planned for and therefore cost me a well-paid position that my employer could not reasonably hold for so long. And then there's the bait-and-switch problem, in which he quoted me a price for surgery before he had my deposit, got me to commit with said deposit and flight across country, only to charge me $2600 more than we agreed before I spent the money and time to plan to get down there. If his business was in the states I could sue and win. In Mexico however, he's free to wait for the next pigeon.

I'm sorry you went through that. How are you now?

Why no pics ?

Do you have any pictures of this botched surgery? I have seen your reviews on several sites, but I have yet to see any proof ie. pictures

Thank you for that correction. Follow The Journey At:
Loretta95812
https://www.realself.com/user/429082