3/01/2007

Injured Patient

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.

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