I'm half Greek and half Jewish, so, because of my background, I was born with a very prominent, long nose that was too big for my small face.
I had my first rhinoplasty a couple of years ago in Beverly Hills, because I was working in the US at that time and I had to live there an additional 7 months. My rhinoplasty was performed by Professor Richard Ellenbogen, who did an objectively poor job on me. I found out later that I couldn't find any bad reviews on the internet because Professor Doctor Richard Ellenbogen manages to delete all the negative articles on him, and harasses and threatens, mercilessly, all of his unhappy patients.
I wanted a conservative procedure aimed at reducing my nose, making it a bit more feminine but preserving my ethnicity. I was very impressed by all the articles and TV shows that talked about Professor Richard Ellenbogen.
The day of my surgery, performed in his suite in Los Angeles, which he claims to be an accredited AAA surgery center, he made me sign some papers. I already had an IV in my arm and was almost asleep because the anesthesia was kicking in. I later found out that the papers I signed were a waiver of any responsibility on his part. I'm not a lawyer, but have been working in the court and with lawyers as an interpreter for over 18 years, and have a very good understanding of legal matters. So, what he does is UNETHICAL!
After the surgery, this was a primary rhinoplasty, he said that he was very impressed and all his staff said that I was going to be overjoyed. But I couldn't wait to have the cast removed. I had my cast on for one week, and those were the longest seven days of my life. Because my nose was very itchy. I called his office and they said I shouldn't worry, it was normal.
When the cast came off, I had an ugly, vertical wound on the bridge of my nose and it was getting infected. Because of the way he put the cast on me and other factors, my skin got injured. I have to say that I wasn't thrilled with the result. It was not bad, but not good either. I would say, it was a slightly worse version of my original nose. And I had visible incisions at the base of my nostrils. He performed an alar base reduction on me without my consent or my knowledge!
I told him that I was unhappy, and he said that it was asymmetrical swelling. My nose got worse and worse, every week. The swelling was actually making it look better. It started falling apart, and at the one year mark, it was completely deformed. It looked like I had been in an accident. Scooped, without any support, twisted, with uneven nostrils, hanging columella and an open roof. I'm now looking for another surgeon who can repair it, even though everybody says that it's a very difficult case because Professor Richard Ellenbogen and his assistant created permanent problems.
And for the record, he charged my insurance company 50 thousand dollars. I had to pay 16 k.
Israelitan
Jerusalem
Israel
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