Hey everyone, my name is Lauren and I go by Lo. On August 1st of this year, I traveled from Tennessee to California to have a breast augmentation. I had a certain size in mind, but the doctor mentioned going quite a bit larger. I thought “doctor knows best” and went along with suggestion. He told me that I had to wear a special $150 French underwire bra 24/7 for the next three or four months, which I found to be very bizarre since my incision was under my breast. It was extremely uncomfortable, and I had mentioned a couple of times my concern about it constantly rubbing on my incisions and causing pain.
Three weeks after my surgery, the entire incision under my left breast opened. I was freaking out, seeing as that I’m 3k miles away from my surgeon. When I finally got in touch with his nurse, she said not to worry and that he would contact me asap. After two hours had gone by, I contacted them again since I had a gaping hole in my chest and was worried my implant would fall out. An hour after that, I was finally called by the doctor, who said everything’s fine - I don’t need to go to the ER. I don’t need to see a doctor. Just “get some Steri-Strips and tape the skin together .” This sounded insane to me. He had pictures of the opening and said it’s fine, just low activity for the next month or so while my body heals itself. Over the next few days, it seemed like a large pocket had developed around my breast with liquid that made loud sloshing noises every time I moved and was very uncomfortable. My nurse friends said it was a seroma and it might need to get drained. He told me to stop listening to other people and that it would go away. He said all the swelling was either A) I had a capsular contracture, and that my implant was being pushed up (which it definitely wasn’t) or B) that I had an infection, only my breast would be getting larger and larger every day (which it wasn’t) and he said those were the only two options. I said well if neither A nor B is happening, then there has to be a C. He was adamant that it was only those two things and to just basically sit on my couch and don’t do anything and let my body heal.
After 2 1/2 weeks of being told this (we would have phone calls or zoom calls every four or five days) I finally told him I would feel better if I saw someone in person. He suddenly said, “well, I actually don’t know what could be happening since I’ve never had this happen in my entire career…” yet for almost 3 weeks he’s telling me “what it is” and that “everything’s ok, not to worry”?? He said if it would make me feel better and put my mind at ease then I should go see someone even though they’ll say the same thing. I saw a local doctor and he was shocked at my condition. He said there’s no way that my body would’ve healed itself, that this is a major open wound and that my incision wasn’t fresh enough that it could’ve mended itself back together. Not only that, but he said he could completely see my implant, and to make matters even worse, he said that the other side also had a small hole and was about to completely open as well. He said that the doctor put in way too large of implants for a person my size, and that it stretched my skin out so thin that my breast tissue couldn’t support the weight of the implants (I’m 97 pounds and 8% body fat, he put in 650cc implants) He said he couldn’t believe that my doctor had told me not to go see a professional over this and that my implants needed to be removed immediately. He said he was surprised I hadn’t gotten a serious infection by this point. If I hadn’t taken it upon myself to finally go see a surgeon in person after weeks of being told I did not have to, I would’ve still been sitting on my couch in hopes of healing, but instead rotting away. The doctor who originally did my operation told me that if I wanted to go back to have him fix my breasts that I would have to pay for an entirely new operation at the cost of $13,000. My implants should not be falling out of open incisions three weeks after my operation when I have not done a single thing except for sit on the couch and follow ill advised instructions. Not only that, but he put two different sized implants in and one of them is substantially larger and looks completely uneven and wonky.
I had to pay $5500 to have my implants removed today. I am in excruciating pain, I have draining tubes sewn into my incision on each side which I have to drain every two hours for the next week. I spent a good amount of time on yelp looking up the California doctor, and there have been multiple reviews stating the same if not very similar incidents where he puts way too large of implants in his patients and when the patient is in tears, devastated by their bodies being ruined, he has said he will fix them for an additional large fee. I am in an incredible amount of pain physically and emotionally, and I’m going to be left with horrible scars underneath my breasts. I am looking to retain a lawyer because I believe I need a legal representation in this case. I know some people reading this will think “well, it’s elective surgery, that’s your problem”, but for someone to be so unprofessional, botch a surgery, gaslight their patients for weeks because they’re hoping the situation just goes away, scar their body and given advice that could’ve potentiality lead to major illness or even death - only to say “oh well, I mean, I’ll fix it for thousands more on top of the thousands you JUST paid me” is just vile.
I work in hospitality and haven’t been able to work for 2 months and won’t be able to for the unforeseeable future. I’m hoping to find legal help to hold him accountable and deter him from doing this to other unsuspecting women who just want to feel better about themselves. This will be quite expensive but I know the outcome would be worth it to make sure he’s not ruining other bodies and finances. Shame on him and his whole team.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, anything helps!!!
Lo
Organizer
Lo Watson
Organizer
Smyrna, TN