People e-mail occasionally or ask on some of the forums at which I participate whether they are the victims of a “bad tummy tuck.” I found these images on one such forum. There is a pre-op and a several week post-op image. I would like to think a real plastic surgeon did not do this:

When you go to a doctor for a consultation and he comes back with a quotation that is half of the others you are getting, consider that you may be in the presence of a novice. If a non-plastic surgeon says he will fix your hernia only, you aren’t having a tummy tuck, so don’t expect it to look like one.

If you have the wrong surgery or only part of the right surgery, the result might not be entirely fixable later. This lady probably needs an extended tummy tuck and with that maybe she can get to look somewhat normal again. In her first operation, the tissue planes were likely not separated adequately to allow redistribution the skin after repairing the problem on the muscular layer. This just looks like much less than a tummy tuck to me.

Best Regards,

John Di Saia MD

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