I’m not sure if anyone remembers, but I did promise to write one last post, so I’m back. The long journey is over. First, because I reached a settlement with the hospital, please understand that I cannot reveal the hospital name. The settlement amount, while not fully satisfying to me, was resolved amicably with the hospital, so I cannot disclose the hospital’s name. But if you read my previous posts and comments carefully, you may be able to figure it out to some extent. So why am I writing a post without being able to reveal the hospital name? By recording the dispute process I went through over the past year, I hope that it may help someone who is considering surgery before the operation, or people who have already had surgery and are now facing a dispute, even if only a little. --------------------------------------------------------- [Case Timeline] - In May 2023, I underwent chin-tip and square-jaw surgery at a large plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam (hereinafter referred to as A). - I had already finished orthodontic treatment more than 10 years earlier, and I told the hospital that as well. - In early May 2023 (during the holiday period), almost immediately after surgery, I developed chin pain, loose teeth, pain as if my eye were about to pop out, headaches, and more. - The pain gradually worsened, and the looseness of the teeth became visibly severe as well. - Throughout May, I went around by myself to neurosurgery, internal medicine, dentistry, Korean medicine clinics, and so on, but nothing was resolved. - Until May 29, I kept going back to Hospital A almost once a week. Each time, they told me there was nothing wrong and only provided dressing treatment. (Originally they told me to come back after 2 weeks, but the pain was so severe that I couldn’t not go.) - On May 29, at another orthodontic specialty dental clinic right next to Hospital A, I was confirmed to have loose teeth and bone loss between the loosened teeth. - Right after that, I went back to Hospital A and even showed them a video of my teeth moving left, right, up, and down, but the hospital said there was no problem and that the teeth did not move. When I cried and begged, for the first time in almost a month they finally prescribed medication, only for pain relief. - Until early June, I again went around on my own trying to solve the problem. - On June 14, at a dental specialty hospital (hereinafter referred to as B) where I had originally completed all orthodontic treatment, I was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. (Inflammation developed between the loose teeth, and the bone had essentially dissolved away.) - Hospital B judged the matter to be extremely urgent (more than 60% of the bone in the problematic jaw area had melted away) and urgently referred me for surgery to another hospital with a higher level than B, where reconstructive surgery could be performed in oral medicine (hereinafter referred to as C). - In the meantime, I reached a settlement with Hospital A on June 16, 2023, for 3.4 million KRW. - After one week of hospitalization at Hospital C, on June 28, 2023, I underwent necrotic bone removal and fixation with a plate (= reconstruction) surgery. (During this process, one natural tooth was extracted, and for the area where bone had died and disappeared, something like collagen that helps bone regenerate was inserted during surgery. I was informed that the extracted natural tooth and possibly 4-5 other remaining natural teeth on both sides might also need to be removed for implants.) - After that, I underwent plate removal surgery at Hospital C in May 2024, and at Hospital B I am still undergoing re-orthodontic treatment after the above surgery. - By the end of September 2024, the settlement with Hospital A was completed and the settlement money was deposited.
[Current Facial Condition] - As of November 2024, the upper and lower lips do not align. In other words, my mouth is twisted. I have a photo taken before the May 2023 surgery, and if you look at it, there is a line in the center of my upper lip, and there is also a line in the center of my lower lip, so they were aligned in a straight line. Now those lines are misaligned. On days when my body feels unwell or when the weather is cold, the misalignment is even worse, and sensation in my jaw has still not returned. Orthodontic treatment still has a little less than 1 year and 6 months left. - Still, what I’m grateful for is that bone grew well in the area where the regenerative collagen was inserted, so no further surgery is needed!:) - I was told that I must be careful for the rest of my life not to let stress or low immunity happen, because although bone has filled in where the bone finished growing, there are still areas of inflammation that do not go away (it’s a bit like a dormant volcano), and osteomyelitis could recur in that area or elsewhere, or even osteosarcoma could develop.
[Advice] - Never rush your mind. My first mistake was settling for 3.4 million KRW. I didn’t know at the beginning that this would take so long or that it was such a serious matter, and at first, since not everyone has tons of money to spare, you want to settle quickly and resolve the problem right away, don’t you? I was the same... and I live in a provincial area, too, so the settlement I made held me back until my final settlement in October 2024. Of course, in some cases, it is important to settle, wrap things up, and use that money to solve the problem. But if you rush your mind too much, that becomes a mistake and can keep becoming an obstacle when talking with the hospital later. - Keep good records. In my case, to document everything, I collected and piled up an enormous number of receipts, medical certificates, opinions, and so on. But one thing I couldn’t keep track of was the taxi fare, fuel costs, and similar expenses I paid out of pocket while going back and forth everywhere. Of course, I don’t know whether all of this will ultimately be counted or not, but at the very least, all evidence should be recorded and organized by date. Then later, when you talk with the hospital, you will have something to say. So collect and organize your evidence well. Take photos and videos often too! It may seem easy, but you really have to be diligent! - Manage your mental state well. Honestly, I thought I had a very strong mind? I had experienced all sorts of things in life... so I really thought I was mentally strong and believed I could get through this too! But after being hospitalized for a week, I started thinking things like, “This facial-issue mental suffering will never end, my life is ruined...” and once I started thinking like that, everything... became so hard. I even seriously thought about going in front of the hospital and ending my life, and honestly I had all sorts of thoughts... If someone like me felt that way, how do people with weaker minds endure it? To get through that period, I threw away anything at home made of glass, stainless steel, aluminum, or anything else that could reflect even a little bit of my face, and I lived by covering things with other materials. And even if I had to hide my face, I kept going out and tried to find something small to be grateful for each day, and to try gratitude prayers (this is possible even if you’re not religious!). I think mental care is truly important. I think I tried to love myself more during that period... It wasn’t easy, but at least I tried not to hate myself more. I also worked very hard not to think, “I ruined my life because of the choices I made myself.”
[Settlement Process and Settlement Amount] - After the initial settlement with Hospital A, I realized that a much larger surgery and much higher costs would be needed, so I informed the hospital of the seriousness of the matter and raised the issue. - Hospital A first said there was nothing more they could do because we had already settled, but later said they would file it with the mutual aid association. - I submitted all evidence to the mutual aid association for about a year. When things take a long time like this, you can submit evidence to the mutual aid association every 3 months or every 6 months, like I did. - Around August 2024, when only orthodontic treatment was left, I told them I now wanted to begin settlement discussions. - The mutual aid association began calculating costs, including compensation for pain and suffering. After calculating the costs, they notified me again. - I negotiated with Hospital A about the settlement amount for about a month (because the holiday period was included). - The final settlement was completed at the end of September 2024, and I received the settlement money from the hospital (excluding the 3.4 million KRW I had initially settled for). - I personally spent about 30 million KRW, and the settlement amount, including compensation for pain and suffering, was in the low 20 million KRW range. * You can think of the mutual aid association as somewhat like an insurance company. Since it was something the hospital side had joined, I did wonder whether it would just speak only from the hospital’s standpoint, but still, when a problem arises between a hospital and a patient, its role is to review the evidence documents submitted by the patient and propose a settlement amount according to its standards. * When calculating the amount, the mutual aid association does not accept every amount submitted by the patient. I asked about this, and they said that based on past civil cases, they automatically reflect at least 70% responsibility for the hospital’s fault. In other words, even if the hospital is truly at fault, the settlement amount cannot be set at 100% of the evidence amount submitted by the patient. * If the patient thinks the amount received from the mutual aid association is not reasonable, they can file the dispute again with the Consumer Dispute Mediation Committee, etc. However, how much time it will take or what amount will be recalculated is unknown.
[What I’m Grateful For] At the very least, even if you can’t fully agree with my opinion... I’m still grateful to Hospital A. Even though we had already settled early on, when I raised the issue later, they filed it with the mutual aid association, and after more than a year they still tried to responsibly bring this matter to a close when settlement discussions began. I’m also grateful to the team leader? at Hospital A who worked hard for over a year to settle things between the hospital and me. Between the beginning and mid-2023, my hysteria and stress were truly at their peak... So honestly, I cried and ranted over the phone and even said some very harsh things, but they still tried all the way to the end to understand my feelings politely, and in the final settlement in September 2024, they also appealed to the hospital for about a month so I could receive a slightly larger settlement amount. Of course, it’s possible that they only told me these things and didn’t actually do them, but once suspicion starts, it never ends, and what has happened cannot be undone anyway, so in a positive way... I believe that person truly made efforts for me. Because of this incident, Hospital A also said that if patients voice concerns in the future, they will no longer rely only on visual checks, and that the director instructed the whole hospital to at least tell patients to go to another hospital or to carry out tests themselves. What I kept insisting from the beginning was... Of course, osteomyelitis may not have been caused 100% by the hospital (though honestly I still think it was the hospital’s fault ^^;;), but when I kept saying from the start that something seemed wrong, asking them to check again, and asking which hospital I should go to, if the original surgeon had seen me even once, done some kind of test, and given me advice, this matter would not have become this big... That was what I meant. That part is so, so disappointing... and the hospital also said that this was the part they regretted the most. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So! Now that I’ve written this final post, this entire journey has truly come to an end! I will never come back to this community again. Why? Because I’ve decided to live without touching my face any further. When a family member said they were going in for double eyelid surgery, I went along because they said, “If you’re not there it won’t work, so you should go too and get it done,” and I had a simple double eyelid surgery myself, which made me realize again how dangerous that surgery was and how lucky I had been. And the facial contouring surgery I spent my whole life worrying over and weighing so carefully also made me realize it is a frightening surgery that can happen to someone like me. We always think like that, don’t we... Oh, I’ll be fine. It won’t happen to me... But I was the same, wasn’t I~ And then I became that one-in-ten-thousand person... haha Although the hospital and the team leader helped a lot and the matter was resolved one way or another, if I had never had the surgery in the first place, maybe I wouldn’t have gone through something like this at all. So everyone, I’m really, really asking you. Your face is already beautiful now, I’m sure it is! Unless it is truly functionally so inconvenient that surgery is unavoidable.... Please cherish the face you have now and treat it as a little more beautiful. They say that if you speak kindly to a plant that is dying, it will come back to life. I think people are the same. I sincerely hope you never go through suffering like I did! I hope everyone has a precious day today too!