Botched Plastic Surgery

The first and most important factor in receiving the best possible plastic surgery results is choosing a skilled, experienced and knowledgeable surgeon. While many patients spend a long time researching what type of procedure they would like to have performed, looking at before and after photos and dreaming about the beautiful results following the procedure, it is important to keep in mind that without the help of a good plastic surgeon it is impossible to achieve the desired results. Also, patients tend to forget that like any other medical procedure plastic surgery carries a set of risks and entails possible complications so having a doctor who puts the patient’s safety first is paramount.

There are a number of reasons why plastic surgery patients can end up with an unqualified surgeon and a botched procedure. Costs of procedures performed by unlicensed or unqualified physicians can be much lower than those of US board certified surgeons as they are not bound by the strict medical regulations of the board. In other cases, patients who are normally extremely well-read up on the actual procedure they are planning to undergo fail to check the credentials of the surgeon as they have innate trust in doctors. In some instances the desire for a procedure can be so great that it overshadows considerations of safety and people are willing to settle for an unqualified doctor just to have the procedure done.

That is exactly what happened to Nafsika Lourentzatos, a New York City event-planner who dreamed of having her breasts enlarged from a young age. A friend told her of a procedure where silicone is injected to the breasts as an alternative to breast augmentation and the physicians she recommended were even willing to perform the procedure on an underage Ms Lourentzatos. After undergoing the procedure Ms Lourentzatos noticed no visible difference in the size of her breasts and felt that the procedure, which cost less than half of a traditional breast augmentation surgery was in vain but at least left her with no visible scarring or any other ill effects. Unfortunately, just a few years following the procedure she noticed lumps in her breasts and chest plate and had to turn to a doctor for help. It turned out that the injected silicone caused immeasurable damage to Ms Lourentzatos’s chest area and she had to have her breast removed to avoid the silicone entering her blood stream. What followed was a long series of painful corrective surgeries and a deep psychological trauma. She later found out that the “medical professionals” who performed her procedure were arrested in Colombia as they had no license to practise medicine in the US.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons cases such as that of Ms Lourentzatos are common and they advise all patients to check their surgeon’s credential s before embarking on a consultation. They stress the importance of confirming that the surgeon is a certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and if the facility hosting the operation is accredited.