Plastic Surgery in Buenos Aires - The dangers

[Lori Michaels]

After many online exchanges with "Genderways" which by the way is a
division of PLENITAS which is nothing more than a Brokerage firm for
a group of doctors who then perform the surgery. I wired my $21,060
and received my surgery date of November 24th ( ironically,
Thanksgiving)
My trip there was uneventful and at the Buenos Aires Airport was met
by a Plenitas representative who whisked me off to the hospital for
Blood work, EKG and a chest X ray. Then it was off to visit with Dr.
DiMaggio who pretty much confirmed to what he had said in a previous
email after sending my photos to him. The plan was to have performed
the type 3 fore head embossing by cutting along the existing hairline
( not in the hairline).
After the fore head was contoured he would lift the fore head tissue
and repairing the typical male hairline into a very nice feminine
hairline in which I will be able to wear my hair up or back. Next
was the nose or at least somewhere in the operation. It would be
slimmed up very nicely. I didn't need anything exotic done to it ,
just a little slimmer as I always thought I had a nice nose. Then he
performed the lip lift and my eyes top and bottom. Now the tricky
part which was Jawline and chin feminization. To perform this part
they cut inside the mouth all the way down to the jaw line to perform
the bone shaping. Then self dissolving sutures are used to close it
up. Finally a face lift and neck lift were performed. The Tracheal
Shave and Implants would be performed in the 2nd operation.
Thursday, November 24 the big day. I slept like crap, was taken to
the hospital and then to my room where I was to wash with
disinfectant soap then given a gown and then wisked off to the
operating room. I'd be lying if I said that I was not at least a
little nervous. All of a sudden I was wheeled into he operating
room. "Well, this is it I said to myself" …………………………I don't even
recall going under.
12 hours later I awoke in the OR. My first thoughts were wow ! I'm
not sick, I don't feel too bad, but I had to cough and when I did I
must have coughed up a pint of blood I swear. All of a sudden I was
jumped by 4-5 people in the OR . I saw somebody with a pair of long
clamps with gauge on the end. Somebody held my head back and the next
thing I know I was gagging ,I mean GAGGING ! I could feel the clamps
banging against my teeth and was so afraid that they were going to
chip or break them when all of a sudden they pushed the clamps ALL
the way to the base of my neck. BELIEVE me, it was the most horrible
thing that ever happened to me as I could not breathe.While this was
gong on someone grabbed me under the jaw line and with out thinking
was bearing down full force on the small little glands.are just forward of the human ear under the jaw line. Don't believe
me ??? Find one a genlly give it a little squeeze……then multiply that
pain by 20 times.
Evidently at tis point somebody snuck up and hit me with more drugs
as I then recall waking up in my hospital room. I didn't feel to bad
but was thirsty.
I heard all the awful stories about people being so thirsty just
after post-op. I came up with the idea of a spray bottle filled with
water to merely hydrate the mouth. IT WAS THE BEST DAMN IDEA and
really made things a little more comfy for me. My mouth was coated
with blood and I began to spray water and to rinse. HOWEVER when I
went to spray a little in my throat to hydrate and clean, I went to
swallow ………All I can say is HOLY **** ! My throat was on total fire
from the OR throat mopping incident.
It would become one of the most painful parts of the surgery. For the
next 5 days I did not sleep. For the next 7 days I did not eat. For
then next 15 days I did not have a bowel movement. The overall
management by the hospital staff was horrible. The language barrier
is a MAJOR problem.
Day 2.…I think……I'm having problems breathing, BIG TIME. I ask for
oxygen to help. There are representative from Plenitas there, who are
summoned to help with language interpretation. Each time I cough
it's like dumping lit gasoline down my throat which expels a thick
mucous mixed with blood from my lungs. I now realize that I have
aspirated some blood into my lungs ( not good ). The hospital people
wheel in some oxygen monitoring device and declare that I am getting
proper oxygen into my blood stream………I aint buying it and at this
point demand a Pulminary Specialist and declare an emergency, LOL
like that really worked.
One of the more competent nurses who seemed to have taken me under
her wing seemed to understand my condition. I saw her grab the
Plenitas representative by the sweater and while I could not
understand what she was saying I could with out ANY doubt totally
understand that she was not happy with the care I was getting. I
believe at this point I was put on some kind of IV drug and some
nurse reached into her pocket handed me a pill and I took it without
question ( desperation I suppose) While all this was going on I began
to have heart palpitations………..I mean BAD ! Also I began to blow up
like a balloon from the IV fluids. I told them about the heart
palpitations. They hooked me up to a EKG. Here's the answer I
got…….".you have to calm down, your getting yourself all
excited !"……………I thought it was one of medical histories "moments of
health care". At this point I felt totally drained, had lost total
sense of what day it was and was loosing confidence in the hospital
staff. Many times I saw nurses putting in an IV or making adjustments
to the IV rig with out gloves or eye protection.
It was my 2nd day there and was to be released from the hospital. As
my body continued to swell and the heart palpitations seemed to get
worse I hit the NURSE CALL button. After about 15 mins. I finally
said to myself, F_ _ K it and I ripped out the IV lines myself. Oh ??
I forgot to mention……..ever have a garden hose shoved up your
***** ???????? When it was time to come out, I then knew what giving
childbirth was all about. Childbirth ??? Piece of cake !!! Wait
till it's time for the first natural time to relive yourself…..
Luckily my screams were not too loud and I held very tightly onto the
towel rack as I pissed razor blades for the next 5 urinations or so.
The doctor showed up, didn't really make much comments about my
overall condition but did however remove the plugs that were in my
nose. THAT was almost as good as sex.
I was discharged and then taken to my motel room. Buenos Aires is a
HUGE City. Anti-pollution equipment are not required on vehicles and
busses still use the type 2 sulpher diesel fuel. That smell in itself
was horrible. For some reason my sense of smell was 100 fold. We are
so lucky to have strict standards in motor vehicle emissions. Believe
me !
The city itself is dirty, smelly, graffiti sprayed EVERYWHERE. The
sidewalks everywhere are in very poor condition. However I must admit
that the people seemed to be VERY NICE.
I almost forgot……….my *** ….I read at a FFS Chat Site where another
T/S's posted about the pain!
She was so right. My *** hurt BAD ! Somewhere in day 10 or so my butt
was every color of the bruised rainbow and at the time of this
writing still is uncomfortable sitting in one spot too long.
One thing that really stood out in my mind about the hospital " food"
….was that a joke ? Or what ? The first day you get a small tray of
JELLO which was pretty good…..for dinner they give you this plate of
something that looked like smashed carrots ?? Squash ?? I tried to
eat few spoonfuls but began to gag and stopped eating. Day 2 for
breakfast….CRACKERS ??? WTF ?? CRACKERS ???? They also included a pot
of tea, I questioned the caffeine that was in the tea but added 2
giant packets of suger figuring the carbs might help a little.

Well It's Thursday……am finally feeling a little better, had a bit of
a relapse Tuesday night. I was laying down for a nap about 7 pm and
awoke in a puddle of blood. Evidently the area in my mouth that
caused all the problems in the operating room opened up. My hotel
room looked like a horrible crime scene as I got up and went to the
bathroom, blood just poured out of my mouth. Luckily there are hard
wood floors. I took an ice pack and with direct pressure placed over
where I suspected the problem area was. It took about 20 mins to get
it stopped. My new friend Andrea from Canada called and I said for
her to get down here quick. Within the hour The Plastic Surgeon was
at my side, concerned. The bleeding had stopped , he bandaged me
back up and layed down for the 10 th sleepless night. ( Lucky , those
17 mile bike rides paid off big time) I saw the doctor yesterday, he
gave me some Valium, Last night for the first time in 10 days I
slept like a baby. I have ( Laughing my butt off )
drinking "ENSURE" . It's a high calorie, vitamin packed drink in a
can that senior citizens drink ( well I am 55 I guess )
The swelling and bruising are going down little by little, but I
can't wait to see the final result.
One of the worst parts of my ordeal has been my BUTT ! I guess
laying on it for 12 hours is not good
I also noticed a scar under my chin ?? It was too high for a Trach
shave and directly in the area of all of the suspected bleeding.
It was not a pretty scar and after all that pain and suffering to
keep the scars INSIDE my mouth I know have this ugly scar on the
outside in a very obvious location.. THERE IS ABSOULUTLY NO DOUBT IN
MY MIND WHAT SO EVER that this cut was made by the surgeon in a PANIC
MOVE in the OR after I was jumped and knocked out the 2nd time.
So if your thinking about trying to save a few bucks on plastic surgery ?
Stay here in the USA ! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. My email = lorisfla@yahoo.com

[chopsuey7]

OMG!!!!!!!!! That is a horrible story and I am so sorry that you went through all of that!! I feel so bad for you, you poor thing! Thank you for sharing your story and I hope that you recover soon.

[Robert]

Lori,

I cringed at hearing of your ordeal and so sorry that this happened to you. My partner is Argentinian and I have spent some time recently researching surgery in Argentina. We just got back from 6 weeks in January and we had dental work done that was quality work and was more than half the cost that was quoted here and it went very well for us. Of course,...it helps to have had referrals from his family and friends but still...........we interviewed 3 Dentists.

I have always been a bit nervous of doing anything out of the country, concernend about quality and care. In my research, I had heard on other blogs about Plentis and unfortunately, the responses were not all great. One thing that is spoken here over and over again is to do your research, get referrals and see the outcome of their work and artistry. Perhaps you had heard good things and went based on your experience but lessons are here for all to learn from.

Argentina is not a perfect country, as ours is not, but the culture is wonderful and the people warm and caring. Again, so sorry about your horrible experience and hopefully, your situation has prevented another from making a bad decision. I hope this finds you getting much better and your outlook more positive and that you will be able to put this behind you and certainly start to enjoy your new look. BTW.....I think the scar under your chin may have been part of the face/neck lift as that is generally an area that they lipo and remove a small section of loose skin...........just a guess.

Peace and all the best to you,
Robert