Horrendous Experience!!! Absolutely Horrible!!!

Provider Review

• 19 Sep 2017

I have to say this was the most Horrible, Scariest, Painful and Depressing experience I have ever had!! If you are going to do any work on your body, ESPECIALLY your face please do your homework and make sure you select the best Dr. I wish I would have listened to the other reviews. I just don't feel that Dr. Baker cared. In person he was nice and on paper he has the credentials. However, he does lack the artistic abilities a plastic surgeon should have. My lip lift was just pulled up from the middle with no symmetry or precision. From the beginning I was lied to by Christina his executive assistant. I found but Dr. Baker from a YouTuber posting her experience. There were no photo's of Dr. Bakers work on the website and Christina said due to patient confidentiality she she could not email me pictures they could send me pictures. However, Christina assured me it was one of his most common procedures, she stated that he did excellent work and said she would have several pictures for me upon my arrival from AZ to WA. She seemed very warm and friendly but it was horribly mean and deceptive for her to lie to me about all the photos she had. When I arrived all she provided me were 4 measly pictures including one of the YouTuber in 20's (that picture was at least 3 years old) and none of the pictures were current either! For someone who does "A lot" of lip lifts and procedures there was No Proof and NO PICTURES!!! Now I understand why. After the consultation Dr. Baker did the procedure. It all happened so fast I didn't realize I was never provided any Post-op information or instructions. A week later, the stitches were removed and I was scheduled to fly home a that afternoon. While waiting to have my stitches removed nurse informed me that Dr. Baker would use hydrogen peroxide or a solution to remove/soften the blood to remove the stitches. However, that is NOT how it happened. With tweezers he ripped off the scab/dried blood that had accumulated on top of the stitches. The way he ripped off the scab was so incredibly painful and after looking in the mirror at an exposed incision it did not look like it had properly healed. I did not feel right about going back to AZ. I had actually left the building left and came back I offering to stay an additional week to ensure proper healing and care but Dr. Baker said it was not necessary and advised I just go home. I was scared, worried and now I wish I would have listened to my intuition!!! I was ALSO told by the nurse that after he removed the stitches he would apply surgical glue. No surgical glue was applied primarily because I was going home and he knew it looked bad. Dr. Baker said he didn't want to seal in any bacteria or an infection. I offered to stay! Dr. Baker was aware of all of this. He should had anticipated this would happen... that's his job! All his other patient reviews talked about the surgical glue. I should have insisted because on my commute home just anticipated the open wound/incision he sent me home with looked worse as time went by. Again, I had expressed my concern and suggested to stay. I was scared...I practically begged. The only follow up call I received from Dr. Baker was a returned call because I had called crying due to a huge painful hole in my FACE!! Dr. Baker told me to keep applying the Neosporin and assured me he would do a follow up with me when he arrived to AZ on August 4-6th. I was truly surprised and disappointed that I never heard from Dr. Baker this purely displayed a lack of integrity and empathy!! The anticipated healing process was 2-3 weeks. I am not new to plastic surgery and I understand sometimes it can take a bit longer. However, he was totally negligent and the scar he left was huge, rippled and crooked. I also have have very resilient, strong skin that heals quickly. As a woman in my 40's I know my skin. Had this been anyone else with "Regular" skin it would have taken over a year to heal! Yes- It was that bad and deep. It's been 4 months and I am finally able to go out in public! The scar is still visible, lumpy and his incision was sloppy! I wish Dr. Baker would realize the importance of ones face. Your face is your identity. My decision in going to Dr. Baker has affected my entire life. It has affected my career, my finances and the way I feel about my face now. This whole process has been extremely emotionally and physically painful. Four months later the scar still hurts when I eat or talk and I still fear that the incision will widen or spread and the incision is still painful. Sadly, right before the surgery Dr. Baker jokingly said, “Im going leave the biggest scar possible.” Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. There has still been no followup. Now, I need a costly revision. This time I am going to pick the right doctor. Revisions usually cost more than double the initial procedure. It's common to be turned away by other surgeons since Several Plastic Surgeons dont want to touch another "Surgeons Mess" revisions tend to be more specialized and costly. **Please Choose your surgeon wisely.**