Tummy tuck disaster

[buglebe]

My daughter's friend had bypass surgery 3 yrs ago and lost from 450lbs to 200 lbs. She recently had 23 lbs of skin removed from her abdomen, butt, thighs and breast. As she is healing her vulva is pulled open and her urethra is exposed to the point she can't wear panties or anything that touches it. This will require another surgery to correct this. She was not told anything about the possibility of this happening. I feel sure she would have had the surgery anyway. She has since found out that 1 in 5 with this extreme surgery have this happen. Has anyone heard of this before? I think everything should be explained to the patient, I mean every possibility. I know of another person who had surgery done by this same dr and she was not told the extent of her surgery. She was quite surprised to find the extent of her surgical incisions. This is a very popular plastic surgeon here.

[Njean31]

My daughter's friend had bypass surgery 3 yrs ago and lost from 450lbs to 200 lbs. She recently had 23 lbs of skin removed from her abdomen, butt, thighs and breast. As she is healing her vulva is pulled open and her urethra is exposed to the point she can't wear panties or anything that touches it. This will require another surgery to correct this. She was not told anything about the possibility of this happening. I feel sure she would have had the surgery anyway. She has since found out that 1 in 5 with this extreme surgery have this happen. Has anyone heard of this before? I think everything should be explained to the patient, I mean every possibility. I know of another person who had surgery done by this same dr and she was not told the extent of her surgery. She was quite surprised to find the extent of her surgical incisions. This is a very popular plastic surgeon here.

i'm sure he explained the complications to her considering she would be highly susceptible to having some of them due to the amount of skin he was going to be removed. 23 pounds? i don't know how she could have been surprised to find out the extent of her surgical incisions. i hate to be ugly but how did she think they were going to remove that much fat? magically?

you say as she is healing her vulva is exposed...that is called wound dehiscence, which in fact is a very real possibility in any surgery, especially this one where so much tension is going to be involved. she had to sign a consent form. this is a part of that consent. it would be on there. it's on any and every surgery.

[Memedav]

Sounds like an ordeal, I will definitely keep her in my prayers. I have a friend who also had bypass surgery and she lost a little over 150# and so far has had a breast lift/augmentation, arm lift and inner thigh lift. She had some issues with the inner thigh lift because that area is prone to more dampness and harder to heal. I've never heard of the problem that your daughter's friend is going through, but it sounds extremely painful! Did they take too much skin and pull it too tightly or maybe it's from swelling? Does she have drains for the fluid? I hope she gets better soon and doesn't need that 2nd surgery in the end. Also my friend has some serious scars too, but says she would much rather have those than the excess skin. Her Doctor showed her pics of past patients and had her do 6 months of pre-surgical counseling to help her plan for the changes that were ahead.

[Shann]

That really sucks for your friend. I think anyone who gets surgery needs to do research on their own to learn more about what's at stake and what the procedures are like. Yes it's the Dr's job to explain these things but a lot of times they aren't as thorough as they should be, that's where doing your research comes in handy. It also gives you q's you should ask before getting the surgery.

[jnc880]

well i have never hear it happen but thanks for the heads up my friend who i call mom the lady who helped me by my laptop is having this done and i think ill give her a heads up:) thank you

[Mom2Shaun]

YIKES! That sounds just awful!

[buglebe]

i'm sure he explained the complications to her considering she would be highly susceptible to having some of them due to the amount of skin he was going to be removed. 23 pounds? i don't know how she could have been surprised to find out the extent of her surgical incisions. i hate to be ugly but how did she think they were going to remove that much fat? magically?

you say as she is healing her vulva is exposed...that is called wound dehiscence, which in fact is a very real possibility in any surgery, especially this one where so much tension is going to be involved. she had to sign a consent form. this is a part of that consent. it would be on there. it's on any and every surgery.

I feel very sure he didn't explain all the possible complications to her. I am an RN and I have been with doctors when they explained the possible complications to patients and I have seen many, many of them gloss over the possible problems. I didn't say SHE was surprised with the extent of her surgical incisions, I said the other one was. No it isn't wound dehiscence, that is when the wound opens up and the wound has not opened up. Her vulva has been pulled open but the incision is not open. Consent forms do not mention possible complications. Consent forms only state the name of the surgical procedure to be done. You might have hated to be ugly but I thought you were a little all knowing and rude.

[Njean31]

I feel very sure he didn't explain all the possible complications to her. I am an RN and I have been with doctors when they explained the possible complications to patients and I have seen many, many of them gloss over the possible problems. I didn't say SHE was surprised with the extent of her surgical incisions, I said the other one was. No it isn't wound dehiscence, that is when the wound opens up and the wound has not opened up. Her vulva has been pulled open but the incision is not open. Consent forms do not mention possible complications. Consent forms only state the name of the surgical procedure to be done. You might have hated to be ugly but I thought you were a little all knowing and rude.

sorry if you felt it was rude, i wasn't trying to be. I am also an RN and had the procedure done. when i had it done, "I" had to sign a consent form listing all the possible complications...i remember it perfectly because of course...DEATH...was listed as well as infection, hemorrhage, seroma's, wound necrosis, etc. i can't imagine a respected plastic surgeon not at least discussing this with her at the time of consent (not to mention having a signature confirming it was discussed). as far as it not being wound dehiscence, how did the vulva pull open? i know when i had it done, my vulva swelled up 3 or 4 times the normal size...it is so common they even have a nickname for it..a ken doll cause that's exactly what it looks like, all bulged out. maybe they took her drains out too soon and the area just split open from gross edema. maybe the dr wouldn't have discussed that with her because it's prob not too common, i didn't read of any of that particular complication from a website i lived at before, during, and after my procedure. it's called tuckthattummy.com. tell her to go there to the forums and she can find out all kinds of information there. did she make sure he was board certified? i went overboard on researching him and the procedure before it was done. i do hope she's able to heal up and this surgeon will correct the complication's for free. i'm sorry again, i guess it does happen. i do think though that patient's do need to do some research on their own because of this very reason.

i don't understand this statement you wrote back though. "I didn't say SHE was surprised with the extent of her surgical incisions, I said the other one was."

what other one?

[PrincessArky]

I am sorry she is having such a hard time

just another reason to do research research and more research when it comes to things like this.......I really hope she will heal quickly though

[buglebe]

"I know of another person who had surgery done by this same dr and she was not told the extent of her surgery. She was quite surprised to find the extent of her surgical incisions."

This is the other person I was talking about when I said SHE. This was actually my daughter and I was with her when he explained the surgery to her and I was there when he explained the incisions to her. No she didn't have the extensive surgery her friend had but the dr didn't explain the extent of the incision she was to have. We were both surprised at the length of her incision. I didn't mean to be rude to you, since you had the surgery I am sure you know what you are talking about. But the dr is board certified and I don't think he did explain it all as much as he should have. I have seen many drs not explain the surgery very well, and I was often left to explain it more in detail. My daughter had a breast reduction and a tummy tuck. The breast reduction was explained to her in full, it was the tummy tuck that wasn't explained in detail as it should have been. She didn't even have any intentions of having the tummy tuck until he talked to her. She expected to have a small tummy tuck with about an 8 inch incision and instead she had an incision that went all the way across her lower abdomen and onto her thighs. I have had many surgeries that weren't explained in detail to me. I only thought the reason it wasn't was because I was a nurse and the dr assumed I knew. I had my colon and rectum removed before I became a nurse and that one definitely was explained to me including the possibility of death and every other possible problem that could have occurred. I had a different dr from the plastic surgeon I discussed. I don't know if this girl researched this surgery or not but I know this problem was not mentioned to her.

[Njean31]

"I know of another person who had surgery done by this same dr and she was not told the extent of her surgery. She was quite surprised to find the extent of her surgical incisions."

This is the other person I was talking about when I said SHE. This was actually my daughter and I was with her when he explained the surgery to her and I was there when he explained the incisions to her. No she didn't have the extensive surgery her friend had but the dr didn't explain the extent of the incision she was to have. We were both surprised at the length of her incision. I didn't mean to be rude to you, since you had the surgery I am sure you know what you are talking about. But the dr is board certified and I don't think he did explain it all as much as he should have. I have seen many drs not explain the surgery very well, and I was often left to explain it more in detail. My daughter had a breast reduction and a tummy tuck. The breast reduction was explained to her in full, it was the tummy tuck that wasn't explained in detail as it should have been. She didn't even have any intentions of having the tummy tuck until he talked to her. She expected to have a small tummy tuck with about an 8 inch incision and instead she had an incision that went all the way across her lower abdomen and onto her thighs. I have had many surgeries that weren't explained in detail to me. I only thought the reason it wasn't was because I was a nurse and the dr assumed I knew. I had my colon and rectum removed before I became a nurse and that one definitely was explained to me including the possibility of death and every other possible problem that could have occurred. I had a different dr from the plastic surgeon I discussed. I don't know if this girl researched this surgery or not but I know this problem was not mentioned to her.

thanks for explaining that to me. i didn't read it well enough. i would think that this prob is not a common complication and maybe that's why he didn't include that. it sounds horrific actually and i do feel bad for her. i hope he will fix it for free. and i do understand the dr's prob don't explain every complication fully. i don't work in that field, i work in hospice. i've been lucky. i have had lots of surgeries as well and all the dr's seem to have covered the complications but i guess they don't get into the rare one's. please do tell her to check out that website. it is real people...just like here...a forum with people from all walks of life that have had it done. many many complications discussed, helpful hints, and pictures as well.

[buglebe]

thanks, and I will tell her to check it out. I think she needs all the support she can get at this time. She is a beautician, stands on her feet all day and is back at work.

[myspirit]

Poor thing, I hate bras and would love for my boobs to be where they use to be. I think I'll just get my nipples pierced, wear rings in them with a chain around my neck!

[YankeeMary]

I have to agree that now days with the internet everywhere, research on her part should have been done. The docs really can't tell you every single problem that "mnight" occur, that is unrealistic. She should have known by doing proper research that this could possibly happen to her as well as numerous other things. She also could have asked the doc more questions.
I really really feel for her and pray that she is able to recover quickly and finds some comfort throughout the day, it must be horrible for her. But I still can not see blaming the doc.

[Willow]

I've never had the surgery but I know about how long the incisions are because I used to watch Dr. 90210.