Thanks David for the information about the hyfractor. That certainly makes sense. Keep your presence known with the derm who did this to remind her of the damage she caused and not one dime would come out of my pocket for any procedures or medications that would be needed to help this along. Would love to know the general geographic location of the poster.
I have not been reading any posts for the last weeks or so, but this hyfrecator horror story is beyond belief. I can literally feel all of us on Hairtell “shaking.” Seeing your photos has “ruined my day!” I can oly imagine how you feel …
You need to see a REAL Plastic and Reconstruction surgeon (not a “Cosmetic Surgeon”), and not another dermatologist. (Frankly, I am not a big fan of dermatologists anyway. LOTS of reasons for this.)
Bottom line is that you will have permanent marks from this medical malpractice injury. You must consider suing the physician that did this to your beautiful face. A lawsuit is appropriate and reasonable: a physician, that did not know what the hell she was doing, has injured you permanently. If this is not “medical malpractice,” I don’t know what is?
You are going to need further treatment and the lawsuit can pay for that. Furthermore, you have actual (legal terms) “pain and suffering” at the hands of a physician, and you must be compensated. I ran this by my attorney, and he’s thinking at least “six figures.” Yeah, the money will help. (You may contact me if you need a legal reference in your area. GO FOR IT … please!)
Your only remedy at this point is further qualified treatment (plastic surgeon) and the courts. Good Luck!
O my god! I did not expect such a terrible overtreating that I have seen on the pictures, first of all on the first picture.
I would totally agree with Michael Bono in all points he stated. The person that has treated you didnt know anything about electrolysis!
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curlygirl, please consider everything Mr. Bono has written.
Something else:
of course not. She gave You cortisone immediately after the treatment. In my opinion a clear sign that she must have recognized the overtreatment, even in its severity. And this heavy stuff is the way to go, not this toys named dermatix.
You should visit another physician as soon as possible and try to get real treatment to support the healing. Maybe already the plastic surgeon, although it appears to early to do anything beyond supporting the healing as good as possible.
If i see the first picture i might come to the conclusion that physiscians should be forbidden to remove hairs.
As an addendum to my first post:
I am not advocating surgical intervention at this point; a plastic surgeon would not do that now. However, these “plastic and reconstructive” guys are familiar with BURNS and how to treat the aftermath of such serious injuries. (My own Dr. Chapple still travels to “war zones” to treat children and adults who were burned and injured in war. The man is a “saint.” All for free of course.).
You have very severe burns and you need expert support of the skin to maximize optimal healing. Beate is correct in noting that the physician clearly understands how serious these wounds are. Get to it ASAP!
Continue taking photos and contact an appropriate lawyer.
I have spoken today with Dennis Merenbach a well-known “malpractice” attorney (and sent your photos): You do have a case.
However, it’s totally up to you. Contact me privately if you wish more information. I’m ready to help you and fight for you if that is your decision. Don’t be intimidated by any doctor! They are just human too. You have been injured and you must “be made whole!”
Curious if any colleagues have been presented with similar markings on clients? A beautiful young Indian woman came in recently with a horribly pitted chin. Her husband said this happened after thermolysis in India. I admit that I imagined her treatments and healing must have been similar to this.
curly-girl: I am so sorry this has happened to you. This is not the results you should expect from a good electrologist.
Curly-girl, where are you?
Although this is somewhat off subject, this hyfrecator event (and seeing Robert Zemeckis’ movie “Flight”) reminded me of one of my pet “issues.” In the bigger scheme of things, Americans (I say this only because I know “my people”) typically seem unwilling to take responsibility for anything they do … when it has a negative outcome. (I have seen this pervasive attitude in South America too. Commonly not, however, in Germany! Germans take responsibility for their actions.) It’s got to be cultural.
I remember way back in electrology school, a patient would come back having gotten “bad treatment” from one of the students. The teacher would immediately ask the client if she had been in the sun, washed with soap (?), put on make-up or done a hundred other things. In fact, the student screwed-up and overtreated the skin. But it was always “blame the patient first!” I thought this was bullshit!
I’m just about finished with a gigantic case that was perplexing. A wonderful woman from Spain had (actually) a beard. But her skin reacted poorly to treatment (yes, I tried everything including the IB probe). At first it “freaked me out,” but within several weeks following treatment, the skin looked perfect again. She said: “Well, it’s really ‘my fault’ because I didn’t tell you I had 15 laser treatments before seeing you. That’s probably the problem.”
Hell no … even if the laser had done something (debatable); it was MY responsibility to have asked her in the first place! Unless a patient does something “horrific” after a treatment, the treatment outcome is always my responsibility. (We got this Spanish client going with some amazing products that really helped the situation, she’s perfect and very happy.)
I’ll wager that the dermatologist that “destroyed” this girl’s face never admitted her mistake. She probably said that the reaction was not uncommon, something to do with her sensitive skin or blah blah blah! No, she screwed-up and needs to “step up to the plate.” She needs to send the client to THE expert in her area … and pay all the expenses!
If practitioners would take responsibility, “OWN their mistakes” and put 100% effort into making the damaged client “whole,” there would be way fewer law suits. I cannot buy the “it’s not my fault” thinking that is pervasive in America! (I think that’s what the Republicans were trying to say in this last election … however; they got side-issued by their own inability to stay on message.)
Mike, would you mind to share some amazing products? There are so many different products on the market today that it is very difficult to find something good!
The thing is, each patient with a severe problem must be seen and evaluated by a specialist (as you know I prefer plastic surgeons).
Normal post-treatment manifestations can easily be remedied by any of the nostrums commonly recommended here on Hairtell (my own preference to use nothing post-treatment and to keep your “cotton pickin’ hands” off!)
Point, when there is a real problem, no “one solution” is going to work. Physicians have an array of products (prescription if needed) that we do not have access to. I don’t think we should recommend any products when someone is in real difficulty.
This particular patient used non- prescription products rich in “copper polypeptides.” But these products were specific to her needs at the time.
This is regarding a previous post by M Bono. Here is Australia, technically your treatment risk insurance, can be challenged,if liability is admitted. It is a condition of your cover that you make no admissions. Is this similar elsewhere?
Christine, I’m pretty sure that our insurance recommends the same: don’t admit liability! Most insurance companies tell you not to admit “guilt,” e.g., at the scene of a car accident that YOU caused. This is sort of institutionalized “no guilt,” and exactly what I was talking about. I don’t like this attitude in our “modern culture.”
In “accident” situations it often seems that all the involved parties worry mostly about themselves. The insurance company doesn’t want to pay, the person causing the injury doesn’t want higher premiums, or to be thought about negatively. And, everybody worries about attorneys getting involved. But what about the VICTIM? Too many times the victim is the last on to be considered.
If the parties considered the needs of the victim first, that would not only be the ethical way to behave, but also engender far fewer costly lawsuits.
I could not agree more, it is most unethical not to prioritize the needs of the victim. Modern culture is indeed, very strange.
Hi everyone! Thanks for your replies. I’m on vacation and wasn’t been able to log in. I’m surprised to see so many comments. I’m grateful for the support.
Yes, I have been consulting with an attorney and we are considering a lawsuit/settlement. The attorney advised me to wait until I have some kind of response or legal outcome before posting any more details online about her name, location, website, etc. The bill from her office clearly states Electrolysis, so regardless of the machine or technique she used, Electrolysis is the procedure that I paid for.
She mentioned that she had performed electrolysis many times before, even on her daughter. The machine she used was a tan box with switches in front of it. It also does micro-dermabrasion with a different wand attachment. I imagine it’s a multitasking machine and not strictly used for electrolysis only. 
I am hoping that the burn marks, indented scars and pitted skin will improve because it looks almost the same as last week. Even if it takes a year or more, I am willing to do everything possible to regenerate tissue where it was burned. I have hair growing out of the scars so I feel the procedure was useless because not even the hair was removed. I understand that hair grows in cycles but it’s so frustrating.
I have seen an improvement in the scar color this week (not as pink as last week). The chin area isn’t as damaged as the upper lip. I only have a couple of pitted scars on my chin and the hair lessened.
I am still using Retin-A at night. I am also using a DMAE Alpha Lipoic Acid & Vitamin C cream from GNC on the scars daily. I massage my scars with natural Aloe Vera Gel 4-5 times a day. I’m drinking vitamins and lots of water. I have stopped using the silicone gel because it says online that Mederma and Dermatix Ultra do nothing for indented scars. In a few months, I will look into other options like fraxel, resurfacing and dermarolling & dermaneedling. I have an appt. with a plastic surgeon next week.
If any of you have any tips on how to help the skin heal from the electrolysis burn scars and pits, please let me know.
As soon as I take more images, I will be posting them this week to keep you all posted on my Week 4 and Week 5 progress.
Great, you are doing all the right things. Go on-line and google “hyfrecator” and try to find a photo of the unit that was used on you. (There is no hyfrecator device I know of that also does micro-dermabrasion.)
Your lawyer is right about not posting any materials “against the doctor” specifically: name and location. Don’t do that.
Important for your attorney to find the actual name of the device because many of them are specifically NOT recommended for electrolysis! This would be very important.
You seem very level-headed and you are taking the correct action. Good luck from all of us.
Thanks for posting curly-girl. This may heal on its own. At this point, I don’t think anyone should be telling you what to do for your skin. Stay close to what the plastic surgeon advises next week. Will you keep this thread updated? There are many interested eyes watching your story.
May this all turn out well for you. Your story deflates all of us, but you seem to be doing all the right things, which is highly reassuring to all of us trying to help you with this “disaster”.
I completely agree with my colleagues here. The person who did this or is blind, or has no idea what she is doing despite having clear warning signs.
The following arguments may be of some use:
1.- The manifestations of a very dense white lesions in the first picture (minutes after) indicate a very clear overtreatment. If color were a transparent white, this would not have been very serious, because only the epidermis would be affected and this layer of skin always recovers. However, this dense white indicates involvement of dermis. This is the first thing you learn in school.
2.- The lack of inflammation in the limits of the lip (also in photo “minutes after”) are further evidence that things have gone wrong. In an area where the follicles have been treated very close to each other, as in this case, there must be erythema and swelling for 1 hour or 2 after (in the best case). If you look at the picture, there is only a little redness in the white lesions limits. The lip has not changed its form, and this is not logical after treatment with this apparent high current intensity.
I am sorry to say, it looks like you may be left with permanent scarring. Those deep indentations are a very bad sign. I would definitely see a plastic surgeon immediately to see what can be done to encourage favourable healing. I am guessing that down the road you may need dermabrasion or a deep chemical peel to treat the damaged skin. Be sure to take copious pictures to illustrate the damage that’s been done to you.