Ultherapy Side Effects and Medical Dispute Mediation

This post was written for the purpose of sharing information and helping other patients, and it is not intended to defame any medical institution.I visited a dermatology clinic around September 2022 for an Ultherapy procedure and underwent treatment.(I had a lot of trust because they showed videos of the director performing the procedure and actual patient follow-up reviews, so I did not go to multiple clinics for consultations and received the procedure here right away.)I had previously received Ultherapy at another hospital, and I remembered it being extremely painful, so this time I underwent it under sleep anesthesia.Immediately after the procedure, unlike my previous experience at another hospital, the left nasolabial area was severely swollen.It was so severe that it was hard to understand it as simple swelling, but I had just come out of sleep anesthesia, so I left that clinic and asked the hospital the next day.The clinic judged it to be swelling and treated it with a radiofrequency laser, but as time passed it felt less like simple swelling, so I visited a burn hospital and was diagnosed with a second-degree burn.(Even then, I still had hopeful thoughts that it would get better.)Then, thinking that if I listened to a skin specialist it might improve, I continued treatment at the dermatology clinic that had performed the Ultherapy. (Also, if I received treatment at another hospital, I thought responsibility might become unclear, and since they had various devices such as Ultrapulse Encore CPG, I thought they would also be good at scar treatment.)The initial treatment consisted of radiofrequency to reduce swelling and laser treatment for pigmentation.And then a second problem occurred. (2022.11.09)I was told the cause of the swelling might be sebum, so if they made holes and drained it, the swelling would go down.After that, three holes were made in the nasolabial area with an erbium:YAG laser, and sebum was also squeezed out by hand.I thought that if the holes healed well, flattened out, and the pigmentation returned, treatment would finally be over.But the holes did not close, and treatment was changed to focus on filling in the swollen skin and the opened holes.I received multiple Fraxel laser and toning sessions, and went to the clinic about 20 times at 1 to 3 week intervals.In the case of Fraxel laser, because the skin irritation is severe, the treated area became very red after the procedure, making normal daily life difficult, and even while receiving treatment there was not much improvement, so I regretted it a lot.From the side effect onset date (22.10.05) to the treatment period (23.05.29)*This was only the treatment period; it did not mean I had recovered*While receiving treatment, I also visited other hospitals to ask for opinions, and the common view was that Ultherapy could not cause that much swelling.At a scar treatment clinic, they also said it would likely be difficult to restore it 100%, and from that point I began to feel a lot of stress, wondering if this was permanent scarring.Why did I have to go through all this because of sleep anesthesia?In my view and thinking, because I was anesthetized during the procedure, I could not perceive the heat, and I wondered whether the heat was concentrated in one area and caused a burn injury.Or perhaps the tip was not fully in contact with the skin, and the laser was delivered to a different skin layer, causing this problem?Even if I think about it now, nothing changes, but I wanted to know the cause so I could treat the skin on my face.At first, the way the dermatology clinic tried to solve it gave me trust, but in the most important part of treatment, although I underwent procedures for a long time, there was little or no improvement, and after the Ultherapy side effect occurred, they only provided swelling-related treatment without any special burn treatment.Furthermore, they failed to recognize the burn, and finally they caused additional scarring, which made me feel that it would be difficult to continue trusting this clinic for procedures.Then the clinic first suggested resolving the dispute through the Medical Dispute Mediation Agency.As an ordinary person, when I heard about the Medical Dispute Mediation Agency, I thought it was an institution that would resolve all problems without complaint, so I agreed, and from then on I communicated through the person in charge at the medical compensation association.But separately, I had to submit documents regarding the problem myself, and there were parts where I had to obtain additional documents such as medical opinions and estimated future treatment costs from another hospital and submit them.And since I had to attach photos of my condition, I contacted the dermatology clinic and asked them to send me all the photos taken at the hospital. However, the clinic refused, saying that only the outpatient medical records, which are part of the medical records, could be provided, and that photos could not be taken out of the hospital due to its policy.Without the photos taken at the hospital, I submitted documents to the dispute mediation agency, and only about three months after the documents were accepted did I receive the screening result.After that, while talking with the dispute mediation staff, I learned that the cost-related part is something the reviewer decides, so it may be somewhat unsatisfactory.They did explain the solution options fairly well afterward.If I had known all of this in advance, I do not think I would have gone through the medical dispute mediation agency and wasted time.The treatment cost the mediation agency mentioned was about 1 to 2 sessions of the dermatology treatment I am currently receiving.I am currently receiving separate treatment at a dermatology clinic specializing in scar treatment, paying 400,000 to 500,000 won per session for five sessions, once a month, and there is no way to know when or whether my skin will return 100% to its original state.If dermatology treatment is not possible, I am also considering scar revision surgery later, and I have been told that even that cannot be treated perfectly.At present, for about 11 months since the date of the problem, I have been under mental distress and stress, and every day when I go outside, I live by putting DuoDerm on the nasolabial area.For reference, my case is not something that can be handled by ordinary scar treatment; the opened skin needs to be filled in and the swollen skin needs to be reduced, so complex treatment is necessary.Please be sure to look into Ultherapy very carefully, and even if it hurts, try to avoid sleep anesthesia as much as possible.I recently learned that there are clinics that separately check the temperature in the skin, and I think a clinic like that could help avoid problems like mine.* If anyone has suffered from the same problem as I have, or if anyone has treated symptoms similar to mine, please send me a private message.I am posting this again to make sure no one else suffers the same harm, for the public good.