Here's the situation...
I was born with a very weak chin, which gave me an awkward profile. For years I debated doing something about it so finally I broke down and went to a plastic surgeon, who examined me, and reccomended
a silicone chin implant for me. I never had a cosmetic procedure so I asked him how safe it was, and he assured me it is a very safe and simple procedure, etc. Therefore I agreed to the procedure.
After the surgery I noticed a severe assymetrical bulge on the left portion of my lower gumline. It felt tight and sore and looked very odd.
I followed up with my surgeon, but he assured me it was just a fibrous tissue capsule that had formed around the implant, and will dissipate quickly.
Well, about a week ago, I had some pain, the bulge became more severe, and to my horror, when I looked in the mirror inside my mouth, i discovered that THE ACTUAL IMPLANT had broken through my gumline, and was partially protruding out just below my teeth, exactly where that so-called "fibrous tissue capsule had formed"...the doctor was wrong..the bulge, had been the IMPLANT ITSELF, which had been aligned incorrectly, and therefore extruded from my mouth. Not only had the doctor misaligned the implant, he wasn't even competent enough to realize that's what it was on a follow-up.
I then immediately had to get the implant removed, and was smart enough to get it removed by a triple-board-certifed plastic surgeon.
The surgeon explained to me the following:
There's two ways to put in a chin implant...externally, by making a small incision just behind the chin, or internally, by making an incision in the gum tissue beneath the lower teeth. He explained that it is FAR safer to make use the external incision because it forms a much tighter pocket around the implant, and leaves nowhere for the implant to extrude easily (unlike through the gumline from the inside). He ALSO
explained that it is INCREDIBLY INCOMPETENT to implant a LARGE chin implant through the mouth, because the larger the implant, the more it tried to extrude itself. And my implant, he discovered after removing, was one of the LARGEST implants on the market.
Now I have to wait 3 months while the first failed implant heals before then getting a 2nd implant, which will cost an additional 4 thousand dollars. In addition to the obvious pain of removal, the psyhological horror of seeing an implant rip through your gum and hang out of my mouth, the embarassment of the next 3 months having a noticeably
distorted profile from what people had grown accustom to, and an increased risk of chin ptosis or "witch's chin" in the future due to the immense muscular gloving created by using an internal access point on such a large implant....in addition to all that, I now find out that
this was all on account of an incompetent surgeon ignorant to proper incision technique on an implant my size, never once stated to me the external incision was far safer (which would have made me request it), and then worst of all, eliminated any chance of being able to avoid removing the implant by failing to realize the misalingment even upon follow-up examination.
I know I signed informed consent forms like any operation, but the concept was that I was signing off on the inherit dangers of a procedure being attempted within normal protocol...NOT a procedure that was being done completely wrong, that I had no way of knowing short of being a doctor myself, or being told by another doctor after the fact.
Do I have a case here? Between the first surgery, the removal, and the 2nd surgery which I'm getting in January, the total medical bills will amount around 10,000 dollars. What I think I want to propose to a med-mal lawyer is that the incompetent doctor absorb the 10K in medical bills, and an equal amount in pain and suffering, to avoid me taking this to court.
I think a 20K settlement for this ordeal is a reasonable out of court request.
If you are a legal expert, tell me
#1- if you think the doctor's gross ignorance regarding correct methodology for a procedure he reccomended is a form of medical malpractice. and...
#2- If it's close enough that if he has any sense he'll agree to my reasonable demand to keep me from flooding the the internet with bas PR for him and taking him to court.
dontknow86
Im so sorry this happened to you. I think you have a case.
Orignal From: Do I Have A Medical Malpractice Case?
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