Greedy Trial Lawyer
Plastic Surgery or Plastic Disasters?
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'Plastic Disasters,' a Documentary on Cosmetic Surgery, is the subject of a review in the New York Times. After reading the review I will not be removing any wrinkles, liposuctioning any part of my body or straightening my nose.
Cosmetic surgery is fast becoming the new national pastime.But like other body obsessions -- fitness, dieting or tanning, for example -- cosmetic procedures can sometimes cause extreme harm. That is the subject of "Plastic Disasters," an hourlong documentary on plastic surgery patients that [had] its premiere [recently] on HBO.
The film, directed and produced by David Heilbroner and Kate Davis, who won an Emmy Award for her 2004 HBO documentary "Jockey," positions itself as the antidote to television shows like "Extreme Makeover" and "The Swan." Those reality programs, both now defunct, promoted plastic surgeons as fairy godmothers, transforming patients (after hours on the operating table and months of recovery time) from frumpy Cinderellas to plasticized clones of Pamela Anderson.
"Plastic Disasters" takes the opposite point of view, that plastic surgery is not a welcome boost to self-esteem. The show posits cosmetic surgery as an agent of total ruination, leaving its victims scarred, both physically and emotionally.
The documentary is gruesomely compelling, complete with shots of gore and gangrene. It focuses on three patients who have had bad experiences: Mona, who had a botched liposuction; Tony, who undergoes a series of operations to correct a faulty nose job; and Lucille, who, after a nose job and two face lifts, is obsessed with her appearance.
Ms. Alley had liposuction at the Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery in Fort Lauderdale. At least two patients died soon after having surgery there; the clinic settled 18 lawsuits with patients who claimed their operations were botched, according to The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The center could have provided the filmmakers with a perfect case study on how the facility, abetted by lax state oversight, developed such a controversial reputation. But the film never asks why the Florida Department of Health and its Board of Medicine were slow to discipline some of the doctors from the center. Not one state or federal health official or representative from a medical association appears in the film.
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Comments
I am one of the subjects in the film "Plastic Disasters". I did not sue the doctor who destroyed my health and left me with lifelong pain, disfigurement, breathing and swallowing problems.
If you view this film, you will see the doctor watching, without comment or expression, while I fight my own muscles to close my jaw and struggle to breathe as the inner structures of my upper airway collapse. This doctor NEVER once took his own hands to pull up on the muscles in my neck, as I asked him to do, to appreciate the tension that has been pulling my tongue down my throat and preventing me from lifting my head or closing my mouth for 5 years. He ignored vital diagnostic reports from other doctors and had the audacity to say he found "no tangible abnormality". It is impossible to "find" anything "tangible" when you refuse to examine a patient in a manner appropriate to their complaint. It is impossible to identify a "tangible abnormality" when simple x-rays and fluoroscopic airway images are denied the patient.
I think it is fair to say that I, and the filmmakers as well, were misled by this doctor to believe he was willing to perform the proper tests the day we were filmed in his office. Perhaps he thought his practice would get some mileage out of his appearance on HBO.
For me, it was the determining experience that sealed my total mistrust of the medical profession. I no longer hold him to his promise to perform a postmortem examination after my death to find the cause of my iatrogenic injury. I now would not trust any practicing surgeon to operate on my DEAD body, let alone my living one, with hope of revealing the truth about my surgery.. or.. to save my life. I will leave my postmortem exam to a forensic pathologist and hope he has the courage to reveal the truth.
Posted by: Lucille at June 7, 2006 09:04 PM