11/08/2006

Becky Anderson's Story

Dr. West performed a tram flap surgery on me, when I was not a candidate. I’m a smoker and I have hepatitis C. I found out later. I consented to the tram flap not knowing that I wasn’t a candidate. I was totally unaware of the risk.

The first surgery Dr. West did was to cut my abdomen open to help the blood flow. Then Dr. Morse went in and did the bilateral. Then Dr. West went in and did the tram flap.

Dr. West constantly performed over a dozen surgeries on me after the tram flap. There are too many surgeries to remember but the majority of them were done at Mercy San Juan in Carmichael, CA. He kept debreeding and doing more surgeries. There were times where he cut dead tissue and placed it on my chest. He didn’t even bother to put it somewhere else where I didn’t have to see it. He would cut in different parts of my abdomen. I had tons of tunnels. I had to constantly do dressings for 2 years, wound care and had repeated repeated infections.

I was suppose to have chemo but could not because I was infected and had a massive open wound. My chemo was delayed by 2 months and I could only have 4 months instead of 6 months.

The very last surgery Dr. West performed was NOT CONSENTED.

He was suppose to remove the mesh and replace it; use the oblique muscles to cover a dime size hole, but instead he cut the muscle from my right leg and filleted me open. He did not have my consent to use my leg. He asked me and I said NO. He even measured my leg and said it wouldn’t work. He said the muscle was too short. This surgery was done at Sutter Roseville.

After this surgery, I was in and out of hospitals. There are just too many to mention in this complaint. Then I saw Dr. Klink after what Dr. West did to me. He worked at the Plastic Surgery Center in Sacramento. He did what he could to help me and removed mesh. It had stuck to the bowels and was colonized with MRSA. I was on a wound vac for one month at downtown Mercy General Hospital. After a month, Dr. Klink removed skin from my left leg to cover the omentum.

I don’t even know how I survived all of this but I am here to tell my story. And it needs to be told. During all this time that Dr. West treated me, he never treated me for infections. As a matter fact he never knew I lost so much blood and needed a transfusion. A doctor in the hospital ordered the transfusion and Dr. West walked in and said, “Oh, I didn’t know you lost so much blood.”

At one point while I was in the hospital, I went to the emergency room and they admitted me at Mercy San Juan in Carmichael. I called over and over to Dr. West’s office to tell them I was in the hospital. In the meantime, Dr. Kailath came to me and finally got a hold of Dr. West three days later. And Dr. West told Dr. Kailath he was on his way to see me. He never showed up because he got thrown in jail for a DUI. So he was on his way to see me and possibly treat me but he was under the influence of alcohol.









Dr. Kailath constantly told me to find another doctor and he even tried to find one for me, but no one would take me.

I will never ever be the same. I have lived like this since 1999. I don’t feel like a woman. I don’t look like woman. My intestines are on the outside of my body; it’s like an alien with brains. I can literally lie down and watch my intestines move. I have massive, massive scaring from my neck down to my knees. My pursuit for happiness, health and life will be forever altered because of Brian R. West. His license needs to be revoked or there will be more people like me or worse.

I eventually sued Dr. West for Medical Malpractice and he settled out of court with me for $250,000. However, the money will never bring my health and body back to normal.









5 Comments:

At 11/14/2006 12:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Becky,
I just became aware of Dr. West and the tortured lives created by his malpractice. From the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry that all of you have had to go through such ordeals. I am appalled at the mishandling and lack of handling by the Medical Board, the so called "Diversion Program", the practices and entities that have hired him after all these complaints and his colleagues who never reported him!
I read how you feel about your appearance today after the damage caused by Brian West, but I have to mention that you are a beautiful woman with the face of a cover model. You clothing covers up the damages and your intelligence, personality and demeanor add to your beauty and make you shine!
Linda Osborne
Stansbury Park, Utah
Email: L_Osborne@wirelessbeehive.com

 
At 11/14/2006 12:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Becky,
I just became aware of Dr. West and the tortured lives created by his malpractice. From the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry that all of you have had to go through such ordeals. I am appalled at the mishandling and lack of handling by the Medical Board, the so called "Diversion Program", the practices and entities that have hired him after all these complaints and his colleagues who never reported him!
I read how you feel about your appearance today after the damage caused by Brian West, but I have to mention that you are a beautiful woman with the face of a cover model. You clothing covers up the damages and your intelligence, personality and demeanor add to your beauty and make you shine!
Linda Osborne
Stansbury Park, Utah
Email: L_Osborne@wirelessbeehive.com

 
At 12/20/2006 3:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Having received the notice about Dr. West's practice, let me add my case. After mastectomy in March of 2000, and owing to his repeatedly botching the job, I was required to have four surgeries over a period of more than a year, and a final tattoing . My first reconstruction resulted in a big size difference and a terrible tightness, My last reconstruction involved yet another lift to try to make the breasts match. They never did and still don't.

Dr. West left the tattooed nipple with a polka-dotted border. The scars around my other breast have an awful, sunburst look. Up until 3 years after the surgery, I would get small infections around it and the stitches would eventually pop out. The scar under my breast was, and still is, painful. Further, he destroyed any feeling in my natural breast without ever warning me that that would be the result. My heart goes out to all the women he treated. He took them during very vulerable times in their lives and made the nightmare all the worse.

When I asked my other doctors if all of this was normal, they all hemmed and hawed, seemed to suggest that what I got was as good as could be expected and that it would not be worth the effort to seek out improvement. Frankly, after what I had been through, I was fearful and reluctant anyway.

But, now that your notice has made me aware of Dr. West's track record and reputation, I cannot help but ask over and over again, where was, and is, the medical profession on this. Although I have received notices of Dr. West's bankruptcy, none of the doctors who have treated me have ever suggested that his work was below the standard that I would have a right to expect. They instead advised me to the opposite effect.

So, while my case is nothing like as bad as others that have been posted, I am nevertheless relegated to unbalanced breasts, devoid of feeling and with no support from supposedly honest and forthright professionals.

 
At 12/20/2006 3:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Having received the notice about Dr. West's practice, let me add my case. After mastectomy in March of 2000, and owing to his repeatedly botching the job, I was required to have four surgeries over a period of more than a year, and a final tattoing . My first reconstruction resulted in a big size difference and a terrible tightness, My last reconstruction involved yet another lift to try to make the breasts match. They never did and still don't.

Dr. West left the tattooed nipple with a polka-dotted border. The scars around my other breast have an awful, sunburst look. Up until 3 years after the surgery, I would get small infections around it and the stitches would eventually pop out. The scar under my breast was, and still is, painful. Further, he destroyed any feeling in my natural breast without ever warning me that that would be the result. My heart goes out to all the women he treated. He took them during very vulerable times in their lives and made the nightmare all the worse.

When I asked my other doctors if all of this was normal, they all hemmed and hawed, seemed to suggest that what I got was as good as could be expected and that it would not be worth the effort to seek out improvement. Frankly, after what I had been through, I was fearful and reluctant anyway.

But, now that your notice has made me aware of Dr. West's track record and reputation, I cannot help but ask over and over again, where was, and is, the medical profession on this. Although I have received notices of Dr. West's bankruptcy, none of the doctors who have treated me have ever suggested that his work was below the standard that I would have a right to expect. They instead advised me to the opposite effect.

So, while my case is nothing like as bad as others that have been posted, I am nevertheless relegated to unbalanced breasts, devoid of feeling and with no support from supposedly honest and forthright professionals.

 
At 12/25/2007 10:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ladies,

I am deeply saddened to hear your hearthwrenching stories, as well as ashamed to know I worked for the same company as Dr. West. The owner, and office manager were well aware of Dr. West's sordid past. But it was like the elephant in the middle of the room, nobody talked about it. I didn't know anything about it until i heard a rumor about it, and one of the other employee's told me their was a website dedicated to his former pt's he butchered. So I went ahead and had a look at your website I was in shock! I felt like crying! But then again like I said we all kinda knew his surgeon skills were less than par, simply because so many of his pt's came back for surgery revisions. When so many other Dr.'s surgies went without any complications and yet Dr. West had soooo many "infections" "spitting sutures" "wound openings". I told higher management what I had been seeing, how so many women were coming in wanting surgery trusting Dr. West and ending up with months of pain, infection, antibiotics, sometimes more surgery. But higher managment was well aware of what was going on but they brushed me off. They had no intention of letting dr. west go simply because he made them alot of money. He could "book" alot of pt's meaning he could convince women who had consultations with him to go ahead and have surgery with him. He is very charming, I'm well aware of that, but what this company did is immoral, unethical, and dispicable. The company went under, but it's under the same managment just under a new name. The point is the people who should be held responsible are these for-profit surgery centers that know his history and are going ahead and still letting him work! Their just as bad as he is. Thank god I no longer work for these people. Ladies I wish you all the best of luck and god bless you all.
-Anonymous

 

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