I'm Faustinha. I'm from Ohio. My parents are both Brazilian, from Sao Paulo. Being brazilian, I have an ethnic nose. I was looking for a plastic surgeon specialized in ethnic noses since I'm brazialian/black. I flew to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to consult with Richard Ellenbogen, MD. I read very positive things about him on the National Enquirer. I saw him on TV and thought that he must be very good with noses. I consulted him a few weeks ago and he gave me a very bad vibe. They say always trust your gut feeling. My gut feeling was very negative. Anyway, he acted like he's the guy. He told me that everybody goes to him to have their noses fixed after multiple revisions. I told him that I wanted to consult with Guyuron here in Ohio and Pastorek and he showed me a few pictures which, according to him, were patients who went to Guyuron and Pastorek and were dissatisfied and then went to Ellenbogen to have their noses fixed. He came across as a very sexist man, with a very unpleasant sense of humor. But that's beside the point. He had to do my nose, we weren't supposed to get along on a personal level. He was very confident in his skills. He suggested a chin implant and blepharoplasty too. Even though I didn't like his attitude, I scheduled my surgery and gave a deposit. Now I want to cancel, but they don't want to refund me.
I came back home and I started doing my research. I basically wanted more evidence that he was the best and that I was wrong not trusting him. I was able to touch base with two of his patients who are extremely unhappy. I saw them on a webcam and I have to say none of them had a nose left. They both had skin with two holes. No underlying structure. The interesting thing is that their photos are on Ellenbogen's website. Richard Ellenbogen put their pictures without their permission. It's a long tricky story I'm not willing to disclose. The pictures on his website of these two ladies look very good, but their noses don't even remotely resemble the pix on Ellenbogen's site. They told me that their pix were taken only 6 weeks post op, when the swelling was still hiding the major deformities they were left with. Also, Ellenbogen takes after pictures in such a way, with light and other tricks to make them look like perfect noses.
My questions are 1) how could I get a refund? 2) how is it possible that a doctor puts photos on his website which are so misleading?
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