Medical Errors

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
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Let’s start off this post with a shocking statistic reported by Scientific American:

“Preventable medical mistakes … are responsible for about 200,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to an investigation by the Hearst Media Corporation.” It’s safer to be a soldier in Afghanistan than to be admitted to a hospital!

And still: how we trust the medical profession! (I’m stirred up after a conversation with Dr. Chapple yesterday.) See, a few years ago, a “new, simple” plastic surgery technique exploded on the scene. It has a trade name, but I don’t dare use it, because the procedure is still being done in vast numbers.

Basically, a surgical “wire/thread” is inserted into the face that has tiny “hooks” going in one direction. After these are threaded into the face, you pull back on them, they anchor themselves in the subdermis and you pull up — giving you and “immediate face lift!” (A similar procedure is done to hold up a sagging neck. It’s supposed to replace the “Z-plasty.” It does not, and it’s a ridiculous procedure!)

When I first heard about this procedure, I though: “That’s not going to work! The hooks will not stay anchored in the fat at all.” And, I was right — these things have to be removed after a couple years (or redone). Why did I, a simple electrologist, know this and the surgeons did NOT know this? Hummmm, fast money?

Seriously, do you really want “permanent threads” in your face? (I’m not proud to say this, but I assisted another surgeon and saw this procedure on the neck.) When I questioned him about this, he said: “Well, we can ‘firm it up’ in a few years, I suppose.”

My point is this — to the patient. Please, before you submit your precious body to ANY procedure, try to “do your homework.” Indeed, the game is stacked against the patient. But a real expert will not be put off if you really GRILL them on the procedure you are about to have. Try to get it in writing if you can. Don’t sign the release forms, or write in your own concerns and make them sign it. Make the bastards pay if they damage you or take your money doing a procedure they know will not work.

I had ankle surgery last year that went well. I interviewed (interrogated) six surgeons before I went ahead. The guy I “grilled” thoroughly enjoyed meeting me: we talked about the procedure in depth and he did the operation. The good guys do not mine talking, because they have nothing to hide.

Just my morning rant. Thanks for listening.

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I was recently surprised to read several different marketing brochures regarding “dermal fillers” in my dermatologist’s office. In absolutely NONE of these brochures was it mentioned that these fillers are generally absorbed by the skin after approximately six months. In short, none of these fillers are even remotely “semi-permanent”. But the marketing information never mentions this, only the detailed medical literature documents it. Any patient (“customer”) who doesn’t perform their own due diligence researching these things would not have a clue how temporary their results might be.

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Yes, Mr. Caith, you certainly “got that right.” However, several fillers are quite nice. At the moment I prefer “Radiesse” — it seems to last reasonably long (a year?), and the tiny “calcium micro-balloons” could give a “seed bed” for “permanent” collagen formation. (I had some done — labial creases — and it’s still okay. BTW, don’t overdo this stuff! And, lip fillers? There “otta be a law” … 50-year-old women with gigantic lips? Madonna Mia!)

A very new, actually permanent, product is “Constructa” (I think I have the actual name wrong, I only learned about it yesterday. It’s not on the internet yet). This was developed for people with HIV because even the fat grafts do not last (they get destroyed), so you get the “AIDS look,” i.e., no fat in the face. Actually, I do not know what this material is (synthetic I assume), and the doctor is only now using it for “extreme” cases.

Thank God for the internet, because now we can look up everything. It’s soooooo easy!