Cosmetic surgery transformed my happy, healthy life into a perpetual nightmare. Many well informed patients with realistic expectations are injured & abandoned by surgeons whose true colors are revealed when cosmetic surgery goes awry.
If you are thinking of having cosmetic surgery, read this website first.
This is what I looked like only a few months BEFORE my facelift at MGH:
(Note: The above photos (post-op revision) have not been updated since 2007. Thus, they do not depict the devastating degeneration of my condition. I simply do not have the energy or strength to do this by myself any more, and do not wish to impose upon my friends any further. It takes considerable time, effort and for me, a great deal of physically exhausting discomfort to take a series of photos or video footage.)
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On 11/24/1997 I had a facelift & lower blepharoplasty. 8 weeks later, I had a rhinoplasty at the same clinic, Mass General’s Plastic Surgery Residents’ Clinic. Massive swelling after the nose job, supervised by Dr. Joel Feldman, permanently damaged all soft tissue involved in the face/neck lift,hanging sack of flesh, leaving my face a stretched and detached from the underlying muscles. I trusted the surgeons at MGH when they said 8 weeks was sufficient time between operations. These doctors would never subject private patients to operations within this imprudent time frame. I was a guinea pig. In the duplicitous setting of the major teaching hospital, even the best Chief Resident is forced by superiors to use experimental techniques without knowledge or consent of the patient. This is the way they teach young doctors to lie. I witnessed it first hand and live with the consequences every day.
These pages tell the devastating tale of a life altered by cosmetic surgery and corruption within the medical profession. This website contains photographic documentation, medical records and correspondence which uncover the reality of the injury as well as the malicious means doctors and their attorneys engage when outspoken patients reveal professional duplicity and incompetence.
In April 18 2001, I traveled to Indianapolis for a “revision” facelift to re-establish adhesion of detached soft tissue. I awoke from this operation unable to breathe with my tongue obstructing my airway, inability to lift my head, close my jaw, severe pain & pressure in my ears, tinnitus & hearing loss. Since then, I have not had a single moment without suffering worsening of all these “symptoms” … Photos: Neck Gridlock
If you think the horror stories only happen to other people, think again. I was an extremely well informed patient- the “perfect candidate” for cosmetic surgery. I cut doctors more slack than most because I lived and worked with an M.D. for 12 years. I was the last person something like this could happen to… but it did. There is only one way you can guarantee this never happens to you. Refuse to subject your healthy body to an operation you do not need! Nobody NEEDS a facelift, nose, job, or any other cosmetic procedure. I am here to tell you that your concern about your appearance is your major problem, not your appearance. Stop looking in the mirror, stop comparing yourself with others, and start to appreciate and respect your healthy body. Don’t gamble your most precious asset, your health, for anything.
This study was done in November 2007. I have since lost even the small degree of support to the floor of the mouth and ability to close my jaw that I had at the time of this study. How long can one human being beg for medical help when the worse the condition becomes, the more I am treated with disdain. If corrective surgery had been done early after the revision face lift, when I first presented with these dreadful, life-robbing symptoms, the supportive tissue which was obviously under extreme tension would not have progressed to actual tearing of the tiny muscles which support the floor of the mouth and hold the internal structures of the neck in place.
I find it quite absurd when surgeons tell me that the “platysma” does not effect the tongue, when they have not taken their own hands to appreciate the amount of counter tension which I have been forced to demonstrate in an elaborate manner, is effecting all the soft tissue to which it is connected. This is not rocket science, yet will I actually have to die before the damage I have been trying to get a doctor to feel with his own hands, and then employ logic into the analysis to conclude that I am literally fighting for every breath?
Let there be no mistake about this: I have suffered for 8 years, forced to mutilate my own flesh to continue breathing, while doctors saw this and did nothing. My tragedy speaks volumes about the medical profession’s dangerous tendency toward strict lethal linear thinking and confirmation bias. The mental incompetents in this scenario are doctors, not I. For their narrow minded, sanctimonious thinking, I HAVE SUFFERED NEEDLESSLY.
It is physically impossible for me to keep my jaw closed. I could not breathe when I was being told my airway was “wide open”. They are wrong. In fact, as imposible as it was for me to breathe, it is also impossible to determine that fact from this knid of study, and they know it. I believe I have been the victim of “confirmation bias” for years. Reports by doctors who believe I cannot breathe as I claim have been IGNORED by the surgeons I consulted. I am certain that if I had to wear a cervical collar or back brace, I would die from asphyxia. This seems to be viewed as some sort of histrionics on my part. I have NOTHING TO GAIN from trying to convince a doctor that I suffer from something I do not. This is NOT psychosomatic nor is it a “spasm” of muscle which can be treated with Botox. My platysma muscle is literally tearing and this is easily felt upon palpation, but I cannot get any doctor to take his/her own hands and feel this. Only my primary care doctor actually did this for me, but she is not an ENT specialist and said she did not know exactly what she was feeling. This is not her area of expertise, but when I have asked ENT surgeon to feel this, he refused. Instead said he could “see” tension and wanted to use Botox. I refused. If he could not feel the separation of the platysma muscle which must be grasped firmly and DEEP beneath the detached laxity of the skin which only APPEARS to be just beneath the surface of skin which looks like a “platysma band” when my head is held in the neutral position, I would not allow this Botox, which has the potential to paralyze the little muscle control I have left which enables me to swallow. For my instinct of self preservation, I am labeled “uncooperative”. I cannot allow a surgeon to inject a needle full of Botulism toxin into my neck when he refused to palpate this muscle first. He assumed the banding APPEARANCE on my neck was the muscle, but it was only the skin. This muscle sheath is already compromised and stretched to the limit of its extendability. It CANNOT contract because the muscle fibers are already stretched to the limit. It is HYPOELASTIC. The only means to relieve the tension which was fixed in this hypoelastic tissue is with surgical release. Once released in full width, it would then have to be tailored to form the necessary support to the muscles which support the floor of the mouth and act as a “containing sleeve” for the internal structures in the neck.
When I followed recommendations regarding rigorous stretching, the more I stretched and massaged, the more I lost support to internal structures in neck, and the more difficulty with breathing became. I refused to swallow barium with head up because I have been very diligent about NOT allowing aspiration. My reflexes scream DO NOT swallow in positions which I can feel will produce aspiration. There seems to be a basic problem with them BELIEVING that I cannot breathe and swallow when I say I cannot. “Example: when SPL says she cannot tell if I am “just doing that” or if I really cannot initiate a swallow.
In all fairness, the SPL did not have any input from an ENT doctor, and said she cannot evaluate breathing. Yet I have tried for years to get airway evaluation by ENT surgeon who has evaded this. I no longer have the physical strength to go to fruitless consultations or studies. My case has been biased with erroneous reports and I am helpless to change this.
Below: Photo shows what I have had to do to breathe and swallow with my head in a normal (neutral) upright posture. Perhaps you can see the degree of pressure and upward thrust of this bamboo back scratcher, which I use because the curved shape provided the support necessary to replace the function of the damaged muscles. In my opinion, any doctor who claims to have performed an “examination” on me would have to “palpate” or take his own fingers and place them exactly in the area to which I must apply this pressure to feel for himself what happens when I take a breath or swallow. Any so-called “examination” which does not include this is INADEQUATE. Not a single ENT doctor or surgeon I consulted has ever done this. What does it say about a surgeon who spends over an hour with a patient who is pressing this piece of wood HARD into their neck and never once tried to feel what she is doing? That is exactly what happened during my last appointment with Dr. der-Sarkissian. Is it any wonder he can “honestly” say he does not know the cause of my inability to breathe?
This is what I used for the MBS study in 2007- I must now use this external "prop" to maintain an open airway whenever I must keep my head held upright in a normal position. A considerable amount of constant pressure is necessary to replace the lost support to the floor of the mouth. I also must use this while sleeping, and stabilize its position using small sandbags. This is how I have survived so long... through knowledge of my own anatomy and my own wits...
Can ANYONE breathe if the support to the inner structures of the upper airway and floor of the mouth are severely compromised? They cannot. In the past week I have lost the ability to drink from a straw (It is now IMPOSSIBLE for me to close my lips around a straw, and worse, I CANNOT suck in if I try. I would NOT be able to have a PFT because I would not be able to close my lips around the mouthpiece. I could possibly FORCE my mouth to close around it for a second or two, but I certainly would NOT, CANNOT, TAKE A BREATH. Am I really supposed to believe that a surgeon who has performed complex operations on people with throat, neck and mouth cancers, horrific traumatic injuries to these areas, cannot figure out which muscles are DAMAGED BEYOND MY ABILITY TO REPLACE THEIR FUNCTION by my own wits, as I have been forced to do for years? I even pointed out that the very things I MUST do to continue breathing are causing FURTHER DAMAGE, yet I have been left in this LETHAL CYCLE OF DESTRUCTION?
This is a story about Dr. Raffi der-Sarkissian, who appeared in HBO’s documentary ‘Plastic Disasters’ with me. The filmmakers wanted doctors I consulted to participate in the film. I asked my ENT doc, who said he was camera shy, but agreed to give a phone interview, but that isn’t what they wanted. They wanted a doctor willing to go on camera. My ENT suggested Dr. D.. because, to use his exact words “Dr. D. likes the camera”.
I am posting this story, which appeared in the Patriot Ledger in 2005 because I want readers to think about why a surgeon who performed these near miraculous reconstructive surgeries claims he cannot identify the VERY REAL PHYSICAL ABNORMALITIES which force me to mutilate my own flesh in order to continue breathing and swallowing. I saw Dr. D in June 2008 in the presence of my friend and his secretary. I had the traction hooks in my ears and the wooden back scratcher pressed to my neck to breathe. I will not repeat the details of my condition as that information is on this website . Dr. D knows very well that he has been playing a game of ambiguities with me for years.
I am tired of people asking me WHY I have not sought treatment for my condition. I have. Why don’t you ask the doctor whom I once trusted enough to beg him to operate on me with a guarantee that I would never hold him accountable if I became worse or even died for his trying to help me.
Yes, I refused to have a sleep study he suggested because it is UNNECESSARY, particularly in light of his not performing an adequate physical exam coordinated with simple x-rays and/or fluoroscopy which would be more appropriate and ACCURATE in determining the progressive loss of support to inner structures in the neck which are necessary for breathing and swallowing, to name only two of the severely compromised functions from which I suffer and have taken me closer to death’s door than Dr. D wants to recognize, let alone admit.
In the HBO film, he said he would perform a postmortem exam on me “to see if something had been done improperly or pulled too tightly”. Why not operate on me while I am still ALIVE AND TRY TO **SAVE** MY LIFE INSTEAD? I begged him to do this with no strings attached… no risk to him professionally. Why? Because I deserve the chance to live. I did not get in a terrible car accident or have two tons of dry wall mangle my face, as some of his “miracle patients” have. My injuries occurred because I trusted a surgeon who lied to me about what he was going to do- then executed my surgery in a fashion so negligent and bizarre that serious consequences were inevitable .. The cause of MY injury makes me “unworthy” of Dr. D’s life saving skills.
To readers who write to me asking why don’t I “just get it fixed”… please direct that question to Dr. Raffi der-Sarksissian. I ‘d like to know why he refused to help me more than you do.
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SAVING FACE: Facial reconstruction specialty is more than skin deep for Quincy plastic surgeon
By TERI BORSETI
For The Patriot Ledger
Kristen Vanick calls the surgeon who rebuilt her face an ‘‘angel.” In 2002, Vanick, now 22, suffered serious injuries when a dump truck hit head-on the car she was driving on Route 18 in Abington.
‘‘Every bone in my face was broken,” Vanick said. ‘‘They say it was like a pile of confetti. None of the doctors would touch me.”
Vanick was taken by medical helicopter to Boston Medical Center. That is where Dr. Raffi der Sarkissian was called in. Der Sarkissian, a cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon, was the only doctor who offered hope to Vanick’s parents.
‘‘He told them that he fixes faces and that he knew he could put me back together,” Vanick said.
So deft at his craft is der Sarkissian that he has been featured on ‘‘Dateline NBC” and will be the spotlight of an episode of HBO’s ‘‘America Undercover” documentary series on the realities of plastic surgery and botched procedures. It will air in the spring.
A camera crew has been following der Sarkissian and filming him in the operating room. Der Sarkissian said much of his work is repairing damage resulting from prior surgery. He said the documentary will educate the public about the risks and complications of facial plastic surgery, something mainstream makeover shows gloss over.
‘‘These reality shows have minimized the risks of cosmetic procedures and that just drives me crazy. I’ve built a reputation by fixing other people’s mistakes, and these were things that didn’t have to happen,” he said.
The ‘‘Dateline” segment der Sarkissian was featured on was a story called ‘‘Sudden Impact,” which looked the ramifications of drunk driving accidents.
‘‘It focused on the number of lives that are affected, the cost of care of injured individuals, the legal issues, how many drunk drivers are given minimal punishment and are repeat offenders, and how the news headlines don’t really address the trail of destruction that is left after the initial incident,” he said. ‘‘The headlines might read ‘two dead and three injured, alcohol suspected,’ but few realize the anguish and suffering experienced by the families of the deceased or the long road to recovery for the injured.”
Der Sarkissian’s patient who was featured spent 2½ years rehabilitating after her accident. When she first came in from the accident scene she had fractured facial bones, eye sockets, jaw bone, and blindness in one eye. She required a tracheotomy to stop the blood flow through her carotid artery. Der Sarkissian wired her jaw shut and repaired the facial bones with plates and screws. He reconstructed the eye sockets and the affected eye required a high dose of steriods to restore vision.
‘‘Today she is a beautiful, robust young woman who has finished college and is just the picture of perseverance and thankfulness,” der Sarkissian said.
Der Sarkissian is affiliated with Quincy Medical Center and Boston Medical Center. He spends most of his clinical time in his office in Quincy and operates at both QMC and BMC.
A labor of love
Vanick was in a coma for a month while doctors operated to repair broken bones in her arms, legs and hips. Her face was shattered - broken cheekbones, eye sockets and jawbones. Most of her teeth were knocked out. A week after the accident, the swelling had subsided enough for der Sarkissian to begin the reconstruction. Twenty-three hours and 200 Titanium screws later, he was finished. Numerous implants and bone taken from her skull were used to repair some damage.
‘‘The surgery was long but I enjoyed seeing the form of Kristen’s face gradually take shape. She had absolutely no facial structure left when she came into the hospital but I knew I could put her back together because this is what I do,” he said.
Growing up the child of an architect and fashion designer in New York, der Sarkissian said rebuilding faces is a blend of both disciplines - art and science. Art is something der Sarkissian never let go of.
‘‘I can go into a museum or gallery and look at a painting for hours. I also sculpt in my spare time and working to recreate the face of a person who has been disfigured is really a blend of art and science,” he said. Der Sarkissian got his bachelor’s of arts degree from Columbia College and his medical degree from State University of New York/Buffalo. He is also fluent in Spanish, French and Armenian.
Miracle worker
In practice for 15 years, der Sarkissian has seen his share of severe facial trauma. A year ago 9,600 pounds of granite fell on and crushed the face Michael Wologevicz. Wologevicz, a kitchen designer, was not expected to live, never mind look like himself again. The accident occurred while he was unloading the granite for countertops. His neck and collar bone were broken and his face was compressed to just 3 inches wide. Later, his head swelled to the size of a basketball.
‘‘I looked like Quasimodo. My jaw and palate were ripped off and one of my eyes was hanging out of a crushed socket,” he said.
Der Sarkissian operated for 14 hours. He took tissue from Wologevicz’s stomach to rebuild the deep depression under his eye. He also used a zigzag stitch pattern on Wologevicz’s head to avoid leaving him with a bald spot. Wologevicz’s hair has grown back in a way that covers the scar.
‘‘My face was a pile of mush and it’s nothing short of a miracle that today I look almost the way I did before the accident. No one can believe it. An X-ray of my face looks like the Terminator,” he said.
Der Sarkissian has traveled the world teaching his craft and repairing faces and other defects. He has worked pro-bono in Southeast Asia and South American and will be traveling to Ecuador in March to construct ears out of rib cartilage for children born without an ear or ears.
Der Sarkissian has taught at Boston and Tufts universities and lectures worldwide. He’ll sometimes have students create a nose from a lump of clay or an ear from a potato.
‘‘You only get one chance to fix someone’s face so you have to be well practiced,” he said of his teaching methods.
Cosmetically, der Sarkissian performs the all the familiar nips, tucks and lifts. He applies standard techniques complemented with the most recent ‘‘high-tech” innovations.
‘‘Plastic surgery is a great opportunity for me to improve someone’s appearance whether they were born with a deformity, disfigured in an accident, or just want to look younger. When I’m working to reconstruct a face, I apply cosmetic surgical principles, and when I am doing purely cosmetic work, my experience in reconstructing faces helps me get the best results possible. Once again, it’s about blending science with art,” der Sarkissian said.
He recently rebuilt the face of John Gatti who suffered amyloidosis, a rare condition similar to Bell’s palsy, which causes facial muscles to freeze. Gatti’s appearance began to change when he was 52. From that point on there was rapid deterioration. Gatti had one successful surgery to correct drooping eyelids that affected his vision.
Another more drastic surgery was needed, but initially, it was put off a few times because of insurance problems. Gatti said der Sarkissian got so frustrated watching his face get worse, that he said he would do the surgery and waive his fee. The 13-hour reconstructive surgery included a brow lift, upper and lower eye lift, face and neck lift and screws inserted into his forehead.
‘‘It is incredible that he got my face just about back to normal. He said he liked the challenge. He just really cares about people, his humanity is unreal,” Gatti said.
Der Sarkissian saw Gatti for a followup appointment yesterday. He came to the office dressed up in a jacket and tie and told der Sarkissian he feels like his old self. ‘‘He looks even better than his last visit,” der Sarkissian said.
Vanick said she owes her life to der Sarkissian.
‘‘There are just no words I can use to thank him or let him know how much I appreciate what he did for me. That man is my angel,” Vanick said.
This video depicts exactly what Dr. der-Sarkissian saw when I consulted him again last year. He watched as I demonstrated where and how tension and fixation the soft tissue has been pulling my internal and external anatomy to such an extreme degree that I am forced to press a piece of wood into my neck to breathe and close my jaw. As I became exhausted and breathless in my effort to show and explain this nightmare, he watched. He did not examine me by duplicating my own “corrective manipulations” to feel what muscles or their insertion into bone may be (is) torn or what function I am replacing by having to dig a piece of wood neck with force enough to exhaust me. The frustration, humiliation and utter hopelessness of his passivity is indescribable. I finally asked him to feel the force necessary to reposition the anatomy so I could breathe. He did this only after I took his fingers with my own and placed them against my jaw, held them in place for a few seconds without “palpating” or moving the fingers in a way which makes it impossible NOT to appreciate the abnormal detachment of the entire layer beneath his fingers from the bone beneath. The layer of tissue is so scant (due to Dr. E’s removing too much of it and “tightening” by pulling the DETACHED layer beneath the skin in vectors of tension even a mortician would not use in “setting the face” of a cadaver.
Dr. D never tested basic things directly related to my symptoms like asking me to protrude my tongue, lift the chin and protrude the tongue, etc. He did not even perform a basic exam of the neck that even my dental hygienist used to do before I was forced to stop having regular dental care in 2004. Instead, he said he “observed” my breathing and concluded that “anxiety” was responsible. This erroneous assumption is both arrogant and dangerous.
This experience instilled a real FEAR of what might happen if I ever collapse in some public place (a very distinct eventuality) and helplessly end up in the hands of doctors. If a surgeon who makes his living operating on the anatomical areas I must manipulate myself to breathe, while he looks on as if what he sees before him is “insignificant”, how can I trust any doctor not to cause more harm or injury should I end up unconscious in an emergency situation? I cannot. The thought is more than distressing.
The following areas of medical negligence are easily manipulated by doctors who never intend to treat “blacklisted” patients.
1. Delay in treatment due to incorrect diagnosis
2. Delay in treatment due to no diagnosis
3. Misinterpretation of diagnostic test or x-rays
4. Inadequate physical examination
5. Improper performance of diagnostic tests or x-rays
6. Inappropriate diagnostic test or x-rays
7. Misinterpretation of information from history or examination
I have been the victim of every one of these and more. In fact, as my condition got worse, my medical records ironically reflect the opposite. For example, the diagnosis on my first MBS study was “dysphagia”. Later, when swallowing was much worse, the diagnosis was “MILD dysphagia”. And the last one done in 2007 when it had already become impossible for me to swallow at all, even dry swallow, with my head in a neutral posture, without the aid of pressing the “wooden paddle” under my jaw because it was and is physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to prevent my tongue retracting and jaw pulling open, the report was so full of insinuations about “anxiety” that it may as well have said the problem was “functional”.
There is a distinct pattern and identifiable point when it becomes very evident that specialists begin to back-track on anything they may have written into the record previously which indicates a problem stems from surgical error or is iatrogenic in origin. That is when “functional component” begins to creep into the doctor’s notes. It is a blatant turning of the tables deliberately done to avoid proper diagnosis.
In my next post, I will show you the trail of medical records which reveals a glaring pattern .. a systematic method by which the patient gets worse and how every doctor reading the notes or reports of their colleagues actually influence the way they perceive the patients problem enough to change their original findings. This phenomena, which Dr. Jerome Groopman (”How Doctors Think”) calls “confirmation bias” can literally be fatal to patients.
The following is a post taken from a page on Awful Plastic Surgery which embedded some of my YouTube videos several months ago. This page generated lots of traffic to that site and many people who appear to take pleasure in attacking people like me. That is the sacrifice I have made in my efforts to inform the public about the many dangers involved in cosmetic plastic surgery.. I’ve learned the hard way not to allow pointless cruelty penetrate too deeply into my consciousness.
However, it is always encouraging to know that there are people who see the bigger picture behind what I do, as this post exemplifies:
Comment by J — April 23, 2009 at 11:21 am
The number of folks posting here making knee-jerk, and rather cruel, unqualified diagnoses and judgments regarding the patient is dismaying. Not one of the negative posters has even met the patient, nor have they spent reasonable time on her case, in order to give even a basic informed and impartial evaluation of her situation and condition. Many seem to be judging her based on their initial impression of whether or not they are inclined to like her. They also seem to be relying on their biases regarding women who have cosmetic surgery, and on their own lack of information about the potential devastating complications of such surgeries– and of the discouraging reality of lawsuits.
Medical insurance plans generally refuse to pay for most cosmetic type procedures not only because many are purely elective, and because the wealthy and powerful physicians charge excessively, but because there are many very serious complications that can result. It is increasingly recognized that some procedures can result in disfiguring and life quality damaging “collapse” manifestations in the area worked upon. This is especially true for cancer scar reductions, and liposuction.
There appears to be a misunderstanding that suing somehow adds credibility to one’s personal injury claim. Many physically, emotionally, and monetarily drained individuals do not sue for what should be obvious reasons– it is stressful, exhausting, and expensive. Also, most lawyers will not take on a case against a wealthy and glibly professional individual pro bono, or to collect a “bounty” later, because these cases can be very time consuming and extremely expensive. They can be papered for years (or until the patient dies), and have no guarantee that the high expenses and effort will be adequately reimbursed when finally all is said and done.
Another hidden “cost” to patients is, at times, doctors can and do act in collusion, or as a cartel, and refuse to even humanely treat a patient who complains about perceived malpractice, or being overcharged. Seeing as these doctors hold a monopoly on what they do, this is a very serious situation that needs to be addressed by public policy makers.
I don’t pretend to pass any kind of final judgment on the case in question here, because there needs to be a thorough investigation to even begin to evaluate the medical conditions and consequences, and assess responsibility– both sides deserve that. However, it is visibly apparent that something went wrong in a rather short amount of time after the surgeries, and it is having at least some degree of consequence on the quality of this patient’s life, and mental health. It may not have been malpractice, though. That needs to be determined. I believe that it is in the best interests of the public to find out what happened, and what is going on, so that such cases can be prevented in the future.
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