No postoperative care

Where to begin? First let’s start with how strongly I feel that Dr Chaudhari is only concerned with collecting the fees for surgery. The consultation went well and I felt confident in my choice. I paid over $17K for tummy tuck, liposuction, breast lift with implant exchange. The day of the surgery, I introduced him to my husband while he was ‘marking’ me for surgery. The surgery was over 8.5 hours long and upon completion, Dr Chaudhari was too busy to step out into the waiting area and address my husband. I had no idea what implant size we actually went with or any other details.

I was his only surgery scheduled for that day. My first post op visit was not conducted by Dr Chaudhari- but instead his Medical Assistant Kathryn. Dr Chaudhari was in the office that day and walked past me but not so much as a ‘hello’: All subsequent post operative visits were conducted by Kathryn- at each visit I asked specific questions regarding my surgery and asked where his post op notes were. Each time I was told they did not have them and of course, I was never able to be seen by Dr Chaudhari. My 4th week post op, my incision opened and began draining green pus.

I emailed them due to it being after hours and was not contacted until end of day the following day- too late to be seen or have anything done. I went into the office to be seen by Dr Chaudhari- the first time he had seen me since my surgery- and he confirmed the wound area was infected. The area was ‘cut’ with no anesthetic even though I requested to be numb. I was told I was already numb due to the surgery. I was essentially shamed for being loud when he cut the wound further, swabbed it and then packed it with 8 inches of gauze due to other patients being in the office. I was then told to go get iodine gauze and begin packing the wound each day myself. I was to return in 10 days, which I did. I was told the wound would continue to heal (I was still packing it daily) and I was released from his care due to being 6 weeks post op. I was told no restrictions.

No additional post op instructions were given- I was not told to massage the area or to use silicon gel or strips. I was simply ‘cleared’ and asked to write a review in the office so I could receive a ‘free’ facial. Fast forward to now- I am on my 4th site that has opened along my incision in spite of being 14+ weeks post surgery. I once again reached out via email due to the office being closed. I sent photos along with my email. This was extremely painful and honestly looked terribly infected. When I did not get a return call the following day, I contacted them around 3pm and was told that Dr Chaudhari was in surgery and they could not do anything without him.

Kathryn explained that he would be in surgery the following day as well (Friday) and they could ‘probably’ see me around 3pm or 4pm. At this point, I made the decision to see someone else. No one contacted me on Friday which further solidified my decision that Dr Chaudhari was not interested at all in my post operative care. In fact, no one reached out at all until I posted negative reviews with photos on Yelp and Facebook. No one cared until the negative review was posted. Dr Chaudhari did not personally reach out until a week later as I was sitting in the ER getting more antibiotics and an ultrasound of the wound.

Had Dr Chaudhari cultured the initial ‘swab’ of the wound, we could have prevented months of additional complications By knowing which antibiotic was best for my staph infection. I am now under the care of another physician and I am in the process of filing a State Board complaint regarding the lack of aftercare. Surgeons have a legal obligation to provide proper post operative care and Dr Chaudhari has failed to do that. It is such a shame that he is only concerned with consults and more surgeries. I have consulted with an attorney and plan to do my due diligence in ensuring no one else is neglected this way.