I had two revision surgeries at the same hospital, and now I have a saddle nose… The director lied and said I had a perforation (a hole in the nasal septum), and in the first revision surgery, they used rib cartilage, but my nasal tip kept getting lower, making it look like a hump I never had before. When I complained, they blamed it on the perforation and told me to have another revision, so I trusted them and had another revision, but I ended up with a saddle nose. Anyone could see it was a saddle nose, but the director denied it, saying it absolutely wasn’t a saddle nose, and told me to have another revision; they said we should fill the sunken area with something like ear cartilage.
When I brought a diagnosis from a university hospital, only then did they say something absurd like it seemed the saddle nose deformity had progressed rapidly, and they blamed that on the perforation too, while recommending yet another revision surgery… This time, they said to take rib cartilage again and reconstruct it... Filling it with ear cartilage would just be a deceptive, superficial surgery without removing the cause of the saddle nose, but if I hadn’t brought a university hospital diagnosis and had just gone through with the surgery, it would have eventually collapsed more and worsened, and I would have had to reconstruct it again. My nose isn’t some toy, yet they’re trying to keep opening and closing it to cover up their own mistake.... Do they really see me as a person... Recently, I went for a revision consultation at another hospital and found out there had never been a perforation from the beginning... They explained that if it were a perforation, there would have to be a hole going from the left side to the right side, and if there were a 1 cm hole behind the columella, there’s no way I or the doctor wouldn’t have known before surgery. So when I confronted the hospital where I had the revision surgeries, they completely changed their words and said it wasn’t a perforation but mucosal loss… Even when I asked, “Haven’t you been telling me all this time that it was a perforation?” they don’t answer. They just avoid it.
Also, before going into another revision surgery, the left mucosa looked strange, so I showed it to them before surgery, but after I came out from the first revision surgery, they said the right mucosa had been bad. So for two years, I kept asking whether it really wasn’t the left but the right, you know? But they kept insisting, no matter what, that it was definitely the right. They even showed me photos. But based on the position in the photos, that side wasn’t the right, it was the left, so I thought it was strange... I wondered if the image had been flipped, so I stayed quiet back then, but this time, after receiving all the intraoperative photos, it really was the left... I could tell by a small scar on my cheek. But the doctor had kept telling me all this time that it was the right, and even during examinations, they checked whether the right mucosa had healed. For the second revision surgery, they didn’t even take a CT scan and just said visually that the perforation had improved and went ahead with surgery, even though this was someone who couldn’t find a perforation despite having taken a CT scan. (It was probably because there wasn’t one in the first place.) Even after surgery, if they had opened my nose, they should have known it was the left, but seeing them say things like the right mucosa was still in poor condition makes me wonder if that doctor really did the surgery, and it gives me such a headache.
If I hadn’t asked for the intraoperative photos, and if my scar hadn’t been in those photos, I wouldn’t have known that the doctor had been making mistakes or lying all this time, right? But the ridiculous thing is, even though the evidence is right there, that doctor is still insisting it was the right mucosa...
They asked me whether it even mattered if it was the left mucosa that had a perforation, the left mucosa, or the right mucosa... And then it seemed like they were bringing up compensation. At that point, I got so furious that I felt like I was losing my mind..... A doctor should really never do that, but even if by some chance they made a mistake, or when the promised result that the patient paid for was not achieved, I think the right thing to do is first acknowledge the facts, inform the patient of the current condition, apologize, and then discuss follow-up measures. But this hospital doesn’t acknowledge anything, no matter how much evidence I show them that they did something wrong. I’m honestly so fed up with the director’s lies that I’m thinking of exposing everything for the public interest so there won’t be victims like me…
When I think of the female professor at the university hospital telling me to stay strong because saddle nose correction is difficult, I tear up… It’s my nose too, of course, but the way the director consistently responds with lies genuinely makes me feel like my life is becoming powerless… It feels like I was thoroughly betrayed by someone I trusted with two surgeries, and I don’t want to live…
Why are doctors really like this…? I’m so angry that these days I’m wondering if I should sue. I heard that if you sue, it’s better to proceed with a civil case first and then a criminal case. Has anyone sued before?
I’ve had experience with a criminal case for something else, but I heard medical lawsuits are hard to win, so… this is such a headache.
It seems like there are many people who say they developed saddle nose deformity, but there’s truly no information, and that makes me sad. I guess that means it’s that hard to correct well…?
To the people who asked for the hospital name in private comments, I’m sharing it because you said you need rhinoplasty and are struggling because of revision surgery and asked me to tell you the hospital, so please don’t spread it to third parties.