Plastic Surgery Nightmares: Rachel

"If I would've known the end result was going to be horrible scars across my body like a woman sawed in half, I never, ever would've done this," Rachel says. "I met Dr. Jan Adams in September of 2005. When I was sent home from the surgery center, I was completely wrapped. I first saw what I looked like the third day when I went back. Dr. Adams unwrapped the bandages from my stomach. He said, ‘I told everybody [around] the operating table that you were going to split open.' I was horrified at that point.

"I went home and within the first week, I began to rip apart," Rachel says. "My tummy tuck busted open three times." She shows her stomach scar. "You see the lines here? I had some sutures left in my skin, and he pulled them and said, ‘Yeah, they're just pulling right out.' He said, ‘I don't know why you're not healing. I can't sew you up anymore. You're going to have to stay open and heal from the inside out.'

"My general practitioner was horrified. No other plastic surgeon wanted to touch me, so I go back to Dr. Adams. I had no choice. Dr. Adams had lost a tremendous amount of weight, so I asked, ‘Is there something wrong?' He says, ‘I'm dying.' He knew that I could sue him for what he had done. I'm angry that he lied to me. He had me feeling sorry for him after he disfigured my body. I walked away two years ago, never saw him again, and I still bear the scars he left on me," Rachel says.

"What did you know about Dr. Adams before you had the surgery?" Dr. Phil asks Rachel.

"That he had a skin line. I watched him on the Discovery Channel, and basically, his resume is what sold me," Rachel says.

"Did you know that he wasn't board certified?"

"Absolutely not."

"Now, you kept opening up. Why did he say that was happening?" Dr. Phil asks.

Rachel explains that she has a scar from a surgery she had when she was an infant. "He claims that because of that scar, it caused my tummy tuck to open," she says.

Dr. Ordon explains that previous surgical scars can affect the blood supply to the area where the new operation is being held.

"When I went to my consultation, he asked me what my scar was from. I explained to him what my scar was from. No complications," Rachel says. "The whole time that this was going on, he tried to blame it on me, that it was something that I was doing wrong. At one point, he looked at me and said, ‘I don't know why you're not healing,' and I was devastated."

"You say that the wound began to ooze puss, and he said, ‘Great. That is exactly what is supposed to happen,'" Dr. Phil says. He asks the doctors, "Is that right?"

"No, you don't want a wound to ooze puss," Dr. Hicks says. "That is not a good sign. But I do agree with Dr. Ordon, that if you do have a prior surgery, it's sometimes a contraindication to even having a tummy tuck."

 

"Were you aware that he was sick?" Dr. Phil asks him.

"Yeah. I don't want to discuss it on TV, but he does have a serious medical problem," Dr. Hicks says.

"Is it life threatening?"

"Yes," Dr. Hicks says.

"Is he doing OK now?"

"As far as I know," he says.