Frightening number of posts about botched surgeries on this board

[Richenda]

Reading around in preparation for my FFS and this is a total  thread. I mean, Lana, assuming that what you have posted here is accurate I hope you can pursue things. That doesn't help you now but it's awful to read what you have described.

[Ok2BHuman]

I have had many procedures over many years and there is one constant to me.

No matter who you go to for any surgical procedure there an be complications. It's imperative to look for patterns of reckless and poor results. Then you go to someone else. You get one chance to get it right. Revisions are difficult and aren't always great. It's crucial to do your homework before choosing a surgeon. I'm still working on this myself.

[Debra]

I have had many procedures over many years and there is one constant to me.

No matter who you go to for any surgical procedure there an be complications. It's imperative to look for patterns of reckless and poor results. Then you go to someone else. You get one chance to get it right. Revisions are difficult and aren't always great. It's crucial to do your homework before choosing a surgeon. I'm still working on this myself.

too true. My GCS had its own complications. Friends of mine have had their own complications.

Seems like it's all about finding the surgeon with the least reviews of major complications.....

[AnonyMs]

No matter who you go to for any surgical procedure there an be complications. It's imperative to look for patterns of reckless and poor results. Then you go to someone else. You get one chance to get it right. Revisions are difficult and aren't always great. It's crucial to do your homework before choosing a surgeon. I'm still working on this myself.

I agree with this, but would add that its also important that the surgeon is going to look after you if any problems do occur. The last thing you want is to find the surgeon doesn't want to help. Its one of the reasons I favor Suporn.

[karenpayneoregon]

As the community grows my guess is we will see more botched surgeries but that does not mean they are rising, instead it's about people writing about these incidents.

Several months ago I was with a person that went through a botched surgery, see link below.

https://karenpayneblog.com/2016/08/15/bad-surgery-story/

For the most part I've not seen a whole lot of botched surgeries but instead successfully ones.

[AnonyMs]

As the community grows my guess is we will see more botched surgeries but that does not mean they are rising, instead it's about people writing about these incidents.

Several months ago I was with a person that went through a botched surgery, see link below.

https://karenpayneblog.com/2016/08/15/bad-surgery-story/

For the most part I've not seen a whole lot of botched surgeries but instead successfully ones.

So, looks like that's Dr Daniel Dugi. He seems to be new to this and I've seen a number of people asking about him, probably because of new insurance overage. Bad luck to have a fistula already, but the rest of the care doesn't seem so good either.

The established surgeons have fistula's, but for the good ones its only one or two in thousands.

[karenpayneoregon]

I agree in regards to all surgeons having something go off the reservation and as you said it's basically few and far between.

After seeing that Dugie has not many of these surgeries under his belt I was concern and seems the worst did happen.

[EmilyMK03]

So, looks like that's Dr Daniel Dugi. He seems to be new to this and I've seen a number of people asking about him, probably because of new insurance overage.

He went to Rice University for his undergrad education, which is a very good school.  And his residency was in urology, which is one of the most competitive and highly paid M.D. specialties.  And a fellowship in reconstructive urology too.  Very impressive.  He must be very smart and very driven.

Due to his background, I feel pretty confident that he'll get better as he continues to practice and does more reassignment surgeries.  Since he's done so few up to this point, the chances of a mistake are much higher.  Unfortunately, there isn't any formal training in SRS, so surgeons just have to learn as they go, so to speak.  And it's the transgender people who can't afford the more experienced surgeons who end up being the ones who have to roll the dice...  sad.    But if we didn't have new surgeons learning how to do these surgeries, we'd eventually run out of them as they eventually retire. 

You could kind of say the same thing about FFS.  I guess it just goes to show that the transgender surgical field is still quite new.  And therefore the risks that are inherent in any surgery are so much greater when it comes to the surgeries that we seek.

[anjaq]

There are proven ways around such a dilemma of getting new surgeons - they need to be trained and work as a team with one of those surgeons who is really good. Not for a few surgeries but for a longer time. Its the only way one can avoid having guinea pig patients everytime a surgeon starts new in the field.
I would thus encourage everyone to choose a surgeon with a good reputation and experience and if finances are an issue , better save money for 3 or 5 years and upgrade to a surgeon that is less cheap but has experience.

[EmilyMK03]

There are proven ways around such a dilemma of getting new surgeons - they need to be trained and work as a team with one of those surgeons who is really good. Not for a few surgeries but for a longer time. Its the only way one can avoid having guinea pig patients everytime a surgeon starts new in the field.

I totally agree that this would be the best way to deal with the problem.  But for practical reasons it's just not that feasible.  Med school, residency, and fellowship training is already very expensive and very long.  What incentive is there for a new surgeon to train for even more years under another surgeon for what would probably be less than minimum wage?  And what incentive is there for the experienced surgeon to give a portion of his profits, and more importantly, his valuable time in order to train an apprentice?  Out of the goodness of their hearts and a love for the transgender community? 

I would thus encourage everyone to choose a surgeon with a good reputation and experience and if finances are an issue , better save money for 3 or 5 years and upgrade to a surgeon that is less cheap but has experience.

Yes, I fully agree with you on this.  Unfortunately there are some who will always be desperate and do anything to get the surgeries they need, putting their very lives at risk.

[anjaq]

Well - thats one of the issues always - when its all about profit and competition things do not actually improve but rather end up being good for some and bad for others...

Usually the surgeons tend to let someone participate when they get older and do not want to do 8 hour surgeries anymore anyways, I guess. Dr O trained Dr Deschamps in FFS, Suporn trains his kid to take over the business,...

[AnonyMs]

Suporn trains his kid to take over the business,...

I've never heard that before?

[AnonyMs]

He went to Rice University for his undergrad education, which is a very good school.  And his residency was in urology, which is one of the most competitive and highly paid M.D. specialties.  And a fellowship in reconstructive urology too.  Very impressive.  He must be very smart and very driven.

By that standard all doctors must be very good, and yet they are clearly not. I see it in my own field; how so many highly educated people can turn out so mediocre confounds me.

[R R H]

I guess it just goes to show that the transgender surgical field is still quite new.  And therefore the risks that are inherent in any surgery are so much greater when it comes to the surgeries that we seek.

This is another reason why I favour Thailand. Unlike the rest of the world it isn't new in Thailand at all. The kathoey community in particular is huge and cosmetic surgery generally has been around there for decades. They really know their stuff.

[R R H]

There are proven ways around such a dilemma of getting new surgeons - they need to be trained and work as a team with one of those surgeons who is really good. Not for a few surgeries but for a longer time. Its the only way one can avoid having guinea pig patients everytime a surgeon starts new in the field.

And, again, this is one of the things I love about PAI. It's not a one man show. It's an institute and Dr Preecha has retained the best surgeons, as well as training most of the others in Thailand like Drs Suporn and Chettawut. http://pai.co.th

I just really like the feel of the place: it's in a smart part of Bangkok, the clinic is large and modern and it has a reassuring feel about it with lots of medical staff and doctors, as well as patients.

I don't work for them, gain nothing by writing the above and I apologise if I sound a bit OTT sometimes. It's just that my experience there for my orchiectomy was top notch and I'm returning next month for my FFS.

[AnonyMs]

This is another reason why I favour Thailand. Unlike the rest of the world it isn't new in Thailand at all. The kathoey community in particular is huge and cosmetic surgery generally has been around there for decades. They really know their stuff.

I'd agree with that, the only thing to watch out for is the difference between the good surgeons and the bad ones. I believe there's about 20 surgeons, and you can get SRS for only US$2000. Don't think I'd care to try that.

The other difficulty is that there's only some surgeons that are well known in the English speaking intentional community. I'd never heard much about PAI until Warlockmaker talked about it. It makes it very hard to judge how good they are, though seeing the efforts Warlockmaker went to checking it out its exceptionally convincing.

I don't work for them, gain nothing by writing the above and I apologise if I sound a bit OTT sometimes.

There's a lot of people guilty of that, me included.

[anjaq]

Well, thats a very common thing to happen. People who had a surgery somewhere and either really liked it, or had complications but have some reason to blame themselves for it will really promote that surgeon because of the great work he has done on themselves in their subjective opinion. This is quite understandeable. Sadly sometimes it also happens with people not having great results because they are still happier than without those surgeries, especially SRS is such a topic where I sometimes get the impression that people are so happy to get rid of the parts they had before that it is secondary if the vulva created is not really that authentic or if the vagina is too short for heterosexual intercourse - especially if they happen to be lesbian, they may be happy with something I would never be happy with and still promote that surgeon (this mainly is from my experience with German Transwomen and german GRS surgeons who are in my opinion largely incompetent).
So I know it is an urge to promote ones surgeon. I would also always recommend Dr Kim for voice surgery over all others, because I think he did such great work on me and some others I know. But when choosing a surgeon, I now tend not to give much on people saying "I was there and it is great" but rather try to look at more objective things, like photos, numbers etc. But of course, a surgeon that everyone speaks of highly and more importantly that no one has any complaints about, is probably not a bad choice.