Botched plastics surgery

2009-08-10T03:06:00.002-07:00

Botched plastic surgery

2009-08-10T03:06:00.001-07:00

When Lynn Dugan, now 62, went in for a facelift, she never dreamed she would wind up with a case of what was basically gangrene of her whole body.

Nonetheless, Lynn spent two months, including one month in intensive care, in the hospital recovering from Necrotizing Fasciitis, the so-called “flesh-eating disease” after a botched cosmetic procedure.

“I made some very basic mistakes when I had my plastic surgery and am telling my story so other women can learn from my mistakes,” Lynn told CosmeticSurgery.com. “If I can save another woman from an hour of what I went through, I’ll be happy.”

It started seven years ago when Lynn, who now works in ticket sales at L.A.’s Greek Theater, contracted for a facelift from a surgeon who, she says, had his medical license yanked by the state of California.

”I felt like I was starting to look like my mother and was anxious to have a more youthful look, so I interviewed only one doctor before going ahead with a facelift,” Lynn recalls.

“Several things from that first visit stuck in my mind. The doctor didn’t take my blood pressure, an EKG or any blood tests before the procedure. He did give me a prescription for antibiotics to take before the operation but the pills made me sick and, when I complained, he told me to forget about the antibiotics.

The operation took place in the doctor’s office. She later learned the assistant was the surgeon’s 22-year-old daughter and had no training in medicine. Afterwards, that Tuesday, Lynn went home, developed a fever in the evening and went to bed, feeling miserable. By the following Thursday, she was still suffering chills and fever, fuzzy thinking and weakness. She returned -- via a wheelchair, due to weakness -- to the doctor who told her she only had a case of the flu and to go back home. But her general malaise continued unabated.

By the following Saturday, her husband Doug, was beside himself with worry and concern and took Lynn to the emergency room of a local hospital. There, the attending physician removed the bandages, clipped the stitches on Lynn’s face and found pus oozing from the wound. A medical team then swung into action, fighting a massive infection that was diagnosed as Necrotizing Fasciitis, the dreaded flesh eating disease.

While Lynn remembers nothing about her 34 days in intensive care in the hospital, she later learned most of her internal organs began to fail, her toes were marked for amputation and her chest was opened on both sides for draining and air circulation. Later, operations were performed to take skin from her legs to replace the necrotized skin on her chest. Still later, she saw a more competent cosmetic surgeon who, over three more operations, stopped the infection, repaired the damage, removed the scars and made her look good again.

Is Lynn’s case rare? Absolutely. But can it happen? Yes. Cosmetic and plastic surgery have become so popular, the procedures are often served up as prime time theater – with medicine’s part standing somewhere backstage with the extras. Thus, many of us are caught up with the heady end results of a person’s new enhanced appearance that we overlook the fact that most plastic and cosmetic procedures are first and foremost surgeries. And, as with any surgery, there are small risks involved, even in the best of hands.

“Cosmetic surgery is real surgery even with the world’s best surgeon and there is always the potential for complications,” says Dr. Christopher P. Godek, M.D., a plastic surgeon in Toms River, N.J.

While some estimates figure about ten million Americans will go ahead this year with the cosmetic enhancements about which they have always dreamed, more than a few patients are reporting less-than-desired outcomes.

The range of botched cosmetic procedures today can run from the sublime to life threatening cases like Lynn’s.

“We’re seeing many more cases in emergency rooms of people returning from overseas with botched procedures that were done on the quick and by insufficiently trained surgeons,” says George Orloff, M.D., the physician who treated Lynn.