“I will complain to the minister of health and file a lawsuit against the doctors who operated on me. I’m now suffering from various deformities and am in a poor psychological state,” said the woman.
The woman claims the two doctors who operated on her refuse to see her whenever she visits their surgery. “Each of them blames the other for the mistakes that have led to my deformities,” she said.
The woman said the Department of Health Affairs in Jeddah referred her to a large government hospital to ascertain whether or not there has been a medical mistake, adding that the head of the hospital’s plastic surgery department is one of the surgeons who operated on her.
She added that the same doctor signed her medical report stating there has been no medical mistake and that she is suffering from psychological problems due to loss of hair.
“The Ministry of Health caught him leaving work at the government hospital to carry out operations at the private health center in gross violation of rules and regulations,” said the woman.
“I reserve my right for compensation and to sue the doctors who should be punished. I appeal to Dr. Al-Rabeeah to set up a committee to investigate the issue. Tampering with people’s health is not something that the minister can accept,” she added.
The woman said she also objects to the medical report, which she claims is not impartial. “I have with me medical reports condemning the plastic surgeons for committing medical errors,” she added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ibrahim Ashari, a Saudi plastic surgery consultant and graduate of the University of Tübingen in Germany, said one of the doctors is not a specialist in the procedures that he carried out and lacks experience. Ashari, who headed a team of doctors who treated the woman, added that the doctor is in fact a specialist in nose correction procedures.
“The doctor is not qualified to do such operations. This has caused complications that left the patient’s face and head deformed, and caused her to lose hair,” he said.
Dr. Ashari said the other doctor is a registrar and had no right to conduct such operations without the presence of a consultant.
He said the patient was to undergo four procedures at the same time — a facelift, tightening of the upper and lower eyelids, and the planting of silicon in the chin. He added that the woman did not undergo the tightening of the lower eyelid or the silicon planting procedures.
Dr. Ashari blamed the complications, including the inflammation of all wounds, to the doctors’ lack of expertise. “There was an uneven cut on both sides of the scalp. There were also remnants of stitching threads, loss of hair on the left side of the head, unjustified burns to the scalp, a cut in the lower lip and a deep wound in the upper eyebrow,” he said.
Dr. Ashari said he and his team have tried to correct the deformities as best as they could, and that the mistakes have affected the patient mentally.
