Dr. Mitchell botched my lower blepharoplasty! One droopy eye and the other pulled tighter and made smaller, and upper lids pulled down into the corners. I now have asymetrical eyes and both need surgery. My left eye is smaller than before surgery and my right eye is larger. The lower lids are pulled away from my eyeballs.They both just look like I'm sad. I had eyes that were beautifully shaped prior to this and very symetrical. I just wanted the lower bags removed.
I went to two Oculoplastic surgeons for a consult, because all Dr. Mitchell would say at each follow-up was how much better I look and I'll be fine, and they have to repair the damage. (Of COURSE I looked better each time Mitchell saw me weeks and weeks after surgery...I was less swollen and bruised each week).
I had horribly drooping lower lids after surgery. The incisions and suturing was alarming! I was NEVER told at the consult that it is common to have your eye lids hanging open, pulled down and away from your eyes after surgery. I was told AFTER the surgey that 85% of all patients look like me after surgery. This is not true!
One eye has a zig-zag incision and suturing and the other even missing a suture leaving the incisions to over-lap leaving a ridge of skin on my left eye. THAT mistake has left a terrible scar.
At my two day post-op, I was concerned and had it brought to his attention the over-lapped, missed suture and over-lapped corners of my eyes where he sutured. He barely looked at them and from a few feet away just said to "give it time to heal". I guess missed sutures are no big deal. That was his pat answer to me about ALL my concerns.....to just "give it time", "let it heal" and "keep pushing" on my lower lids.
The scar where a suture was missed is VERY visible and people who know me (but weren't aware of my surgery) have asked if I had recently injured my eye because it's such a terrible scar that I didn't have prior. He even left a good deal of fat he didnt remove on my left eye. The other eye has been left with pimple-like bump scars due to how he did a saw-tooth incision and then suturing where the skin was all pulled tightly and bunched together into bumps instead of a smooth suture line. (I have lots of photos ).
I also told him that my vision is being affected by all the pushing (I assumed) on my eyes and moving them all day. That my eyes can't focus now but he also didnt seemed concerned and was dismissive, said he'd never heard of that and never had a patient tell him that before. I said there is a first for everything and I must be his very first patient to tell him the danger of all that pushing. (I have read where patients do get vision problems and I have been in contact with other bleph patients who have vision problems after a botched lower bleph, also).
He DID offer canthoplasty to me at one of my visits to repair the damage he did but after speaking to two Oculoplastic surgeons, that will not repair the damage. I need, in simple terms, a lift where they have to graft tissue from my palate or lips in order to raise my eyes back up and it won't completely repair how far down he pulled the corners of my eyes (making one smaller than the other). Cost for this surgery? $35,000!!!! And they also said this is a very difficult surgery to repair all the damage done.
Now I have to come up with a crazy amount of money for the Oculoplastic surgeon to fix his mistakes. The cost of this is depressing for surgery and I'm not wealthy and don't have the money. So... I have to look terrible, be severely depressed and embarrassed of how I look the rest of my life. Had I known there was such a thing as an Oculoplastic surgeon to begin with, I would have chosen one since they don't do all kinds of plastic surgery like Mitchell but specialize in JUST the eyes. If you are considering ANY kind of plastic surgery from this man, I would HIGHLY suggest you go to a specialist or risk the chance of having a botched surgery. Beware. read more
