If I could give this doctor negative stars I would. He performed a double jaw surgery on me 10 years ago and completely destroyed my skull. Initially he had convinced myself and my parents that it would be life threatening for me to not undergo this very costly surgery, insisting my jaw would lock shut in the next few years and I would never eat again and struggle with breathing for the rest of my life. This was a lie. On the day of my surgery I was forced to consent to all listed procedures or my entire surgery would be cancelled, so when I saw 'chin augmentation' listed without ever having spoken to me or discussed desired outcomes regarding my chin shape I was concerned but given no choice other than to consent or abandon my surgical date which I had scheduled over a year in advance to align with my school schedule. When I asked for explanation as to what this chin augmentation entailed, I was assured that it was just a formality 'in case' he had to shave down or reshape my chin after repositioning my jaws. I should have abandoned the surgery altogether at this point but I unfortunately trusted the doctor and signed the form.
The second I woke up from surgery I knew something was horribly wrong. There was a hole in the roof of my mouth that connected to my sinuses, there was no second surgical site for bone grafts to have been taken for the upper jaw expansion, I was bleeding profusely, and the nurses were so incompetent that one held a tissue to my nose, pinching my bleeding nose shut and telling me to blow when I had already been told I could not do this for several weeks after surgery. As my lungs were empty and I could not breath through my mouth, I could not blow, or BREATHE and had to fight this nurse off of me as I turned blue because she would not let go. My mother finally entered the room screaming and this nurse was removed from my face. I informed the medical team immediately of the hole in the roof of my mouth preventing me from being able to form suction with my mouth so I could not use the straws they were providing for liquid nutrition or hydration limiting me to syringe feeding for the entire healing period. I was told that the hole didn't exist, it was all in my head, and that the surgery had gone perfectly. This was just the start of my nightmare.
I was released from the hospital after two days still unable to properly breathe or eat/drink as the I could not create any suction, the swelling was immense, and involved my sinuses as the doctor had fully ripped the roof of my mouth in half and was denying it. Within hours of arriving home the swelling had increased so much I again could not breathe, was turning blue, and had to be rushed back to the hospital. The next three weeks consisted of struggling to consume enough liquids with a syringe, and follow up appointments with my jaw still banded shut with a plastic plate between my teeth blocking the doctor from actually seeing the hole he was still denying existed.
At the three week appointment he finally removed the bands, removed the plastic plate, and was 'shocked' to find the hole I had been describing to him in writing since minutes after waking up from surgery. This hole was left to fester, insisting it would close on its own for another 3 months before dr tocchio finally closed the hole one week before he knew I had a flight returning to school. This repair failed, and I was now abroad with a festering wound. The lack of bone grafts was also becoming evident as the upper jaw was not healing and was starting to move on its own with 'nonunion fractures'. I was forced to have two procedures abroad, where Dr Tocchio advised a local maxilliofacial surgeon on how to proceed with me, to remove rejecting hardware as titanium foil and screws/plates were protruding through my gums. When I returned to Toronto I saw Dr Tocchio again, who did another procedure to attempt the bone grafts he negligently skipped in favour of poorly installing a chin implant I never wanted over a year after my initial surgery. Again, in hindsight I should have found another surgeon before proceeding but dr Tocchio had overseen everything so far and was insisting it was my fault in aftercare that all these things were going wrong. I BEGGED him to take the bone grafts from my hip or ribs as my jaw was already so badly damaged and he insisted he would. When I woke up from this next procedure with no surgical sites outside of my mouth, I was livid. He had chosen to take the grafts from the tip of my jaw joint, exactly where I had begged him not to. This procedure healed poorly, still left movement in the breaks in my upper jaw, and left me so mangled there was no more solid bone left for future surgeons to attempt any further fixes. My upper jaw was now at its final state- with blocks of teeth wiggling in line with where the breaks in my jaw were. 10 years later I am still in daily pain, have attempted to end my life, have screws protruding, and 100k surgical debt. read more
