A friend of mine had a terrible experience with this procedure and I will post her comments as they appeared on a similar blog. I will add to this tomorrow. She was served with legal papers ordering her to remove her blog.
.Dr. Lycka Horror Story
A description of my liposuction nightmare performed in my opinion, by a doctor who wasn't sufficiently trained in the procedure. As a result of this I am permanently disfigured. PLEASE READ if you are considering this procedure for yourself.
SmartLipo Surgery Disaster
My SmartLipo Disaster
This is a blog I decided to create so others could become aware of what has happened to me in the
Alberta Health Care System.
My goal of this blog is to try and prevent a similar experience from happening to anyone else.
I will now start writing my horror story as I remember it and I will include any and all pertinent details that I feel are relevant.
I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and I am a reasonably attractive woman who takes pride in the way I look, dress and present myself. I belong to a gym and have been working out since 1992 as I am rather obsessive about my physical shape.
No matter how long or hard I worked out I had a few unsightly bulges that were impossible to remove by burning over 1000 calories on a treadmill and pushing weights for an hour so I decided to get a procedure done called SmartLipo.
I went to the only doctor in Edmonton that was offering this, for a consultation. I was rather surprised that I had to pay $150 for the consultation. This was the first time in my life that I had paid money to see a doctor in Alberta.
He looked at me for about three minutes, assured me that I was an excellent candidate for the procedure and I'd be happy with the results.
I had to fill out a standard consent form and check and initial lots of points which should have been a red flag to me. For example
* I understand that the results are not guaranteed *
* I understand that the results may not be what were expected * and various other points that basically said the same thing in different words. When I questioned him about this he assured me it was just a formality and that my results would be excellent.
I forked over the $5500 plus GST and didn't get my $150 back.
He immediately booked me for surgery a few days later. I went home very excited about what I was going to do.
The day of surgery arrived and I was ushered into a room in the back of the office and told to pick out a sports bra to wear from a laundry hamper. I was also clothed in a pair of socks and paper panties.
I was awake and lucid during the procedure and at one point the instrument he was using came apart and fell on the floor. He reattached it and continued. He introduced me to his assistant who he introduced as his daughter and the pair of them spent most of the time having a conversation about which employee would be the best to train for a certain procedure.
When I questioned him about how SmartLipo worked he said that the fat was melted then sucked out and any that was not sucked out would be absorbed by your bloodstream and be flushed from your body.
I remember that I asked him specifically what would happen to the fat if it cooled down before it could be flushed from your body. He said he didn't know and then he became very aggressive and started hurting me with the instrument he was using.
Before I knew it he had finished and exited the room quickly to see other patients. His assistant also left and two nurses came in to clean me up and put a compression garment on me.
I had to wait for 15 minutes in a coffee room that was full of other patients then my husband came and picked me up. I was still very happy that I'd had the procedure and I expected spectacular results. After all.....it was the latest and greatest in Liposuction technology so what could possibly go wrong?
When I removed the compression garment and saw myself the first time I was a bit shocked but my husband told me not to expect too much too quickly as I was still swollen and healing.
I think my follow up appointment was a month after the surgery but I can't be sure. I was horrified at the way I looked and I expressed this to him. I got very annoyed and made him look at my *before* pictures and I asked him to explain to me how I could look about 100% worse AFTER the surgery than before the surgery.
He got very agitated and told me to wait six months as it takes six months for the final result and if it didn't get better he'd redo it.
He then left the room and slammed the door. The nurse in the room with me agreed that the results were terrible and that I needed to get it redone. This Doctor appears to be very patronizing and treated me as if I had no intelligence whatsoever.
My appearance worsened and worsened and I decided that I didn't want him doing any further damage to me so I contacted The College of Physicians and Surgeons and reported him as I feel he is unqualified and incompetent. I also reported the unsanitary conditions in his surgical facility and requested that they send in an investigator *undercover* or they would find out nothing at all as his assistant was his daughter and would obviously echo what he claimed to be the facts.
Needless to say, my case was dismissed for lack of evidence even though I had a statement from another doctor and pictures of the mess he'd made of my body. I recently went to a board certified plastic surgeon and was advised that I was permanently disfigured and that the ONLY way to correct the deformity would be to undergo a tummy tuck at a cost of $13,500 plus GST.
I was mortified. I have never had a child and never been overweight so HOW could I possibly need a tummy tuck.
This doctor explained to me that he sees *lots of horror stories* that need correction because the College of Physicians and Surgeons allows almost anyone to perform liposuction.
I got a second opinion from a plastic surgeon in Mexico and he told me the same thing. I needed a tummy tuck. I am devastated as a tummy tuck is major invasive dangerous surgery that leaves you with a hip to hip unsightly scar.
If I can save just ONE person from going through what I am going through, writing this blog will be worth it.
When I figure out how to post pictures on here, I will do so, and I know by doing that I will save a few people from ruining their bodies by letting an incompetent doctor perform surgery on them that he or she is not qualified to perform properly. Please do your research....check out Doctors on RATEMDS.COM and good luck with your procedures and results.
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