don't know how valid this comment was, but...

http://messageboards.makemeheal.com/buttocks-augmentation/anyone-heard-lazaro-cardenas-guadalajara-t40791.html

"by Pocoto25 » Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:01 am

Hi I Was researching a face feminization doctor and decided to go with doctor Lazaro Cardenas cause his prices was really affordable and I couldn't find anything bad about him... So called them booked my surgery with Tyler and flew to Mexico! Got to Mexico was picked up at the airport by Vicente who drove me to the clinic to meet with doctor Lazaro. The clinic is a big old filthy house that needs a renovation ASAP! Vicente took me to get blood work in the clinic and after took me to talk with Lazaro. Got to lazaros office he arrived right after it was a really unprofessional vibe it was a bunch of young flirty girls walking back in forty on the office and I was trying to talk with Lazaro but he didn't seem really interested on what I had to say and I could tell that he just wanted to finish the consultation and leave! I talked to him for 5 min and then he left me there to talk with his secretary gisela by the way is the only one who really speaks English in the office! He gave me all the prices and I decided to do my forehead advancement, forehead contouring, my nose, my Addams apple. He scheduled m surgery for the next morning at 8am .got that next morning they right away changed me and took me to the operating room. When I arrive to the operating room I got really scared it was totally different than what I had seen on his website! The room looked old, filthy and dark noticing I wasn't comfortable they right away took me and put me to sleep!! ;( when I woke up I was already in the room where I was going to stay overnight... I woke up throwing up and had to scream for help! The nurse comes over but for my surprise she doesn't say a word in English! I stayed at the clinic one night and next day they let me go back to the recovering house. I didn't see any doctor to discharge me and doctor Lazaro was no where to be found! So I head back to the recovering room with a lots of pain. And discomfort and went to buy my medications with vicente! Got Back To The houve And The none of The 3 Rooms In The house had ac I asked Vicente if I could give him the $ to buy me an ac and he right away took the $ and went get me the ac... I Was planned To Stay át. The recovering Recovering for 8 days! Is the fifty days already and my whole scalp is swelling I can't breath through my nose and was feeling really sick and Lazaro was no where to be found! The sixty day arrives and I was so desperate crying and asking myself what did I put myself into? On the sixty day Vicente tells me that I had an appointment to see Lazaro and get rid of some the stitches! Got back to the clinic and Lazaro walks in the room with couple other guys he looks at me from far didn't even touch me and I asked him why my whole head was swelling and why my forehead was uneven and all his answer was it's normal! Lazaro leaves the room leaving me full of questions and concerns and tells the guy to deal with me... The Guy took off the stitches and the nose packing and sent me home! I went back to the recovering room and start getting fever and they didn't do anything about it! The fever went away on it's on and I was feeling a little better without the packing in my nose. Sebenta das arrives and I'm glad I only have one more night there! The eight day arrived and I had an appointment to get rid of the rest of the stitches and clean up my nose. Got to the clinic waited a little they call me put me in a room and Lazaro arrived with couple guys he looks at me for couple minutes and say he has to see new clients and leaves me with one of the other guys! The guy start taking the off the stitches and I show him couple stiches he had left behind. He finishes and brings me to get my nose clean cleaned by Lazaro's wife Theresa. I finished cleaning my nose and said good bye and was taken to the airport! Arriving back to the USA my whole head was really swelling
My head looked deformed but since Lazaro said it was normal I didn't do anything about it 2 weeks goes by and my head only gets worse and the swelling it's not going down! My partner seen me suffering with a lots of pain takes me to the ER getting to the ER after a cat scan I find out that my whole head was infected full of pus!! And that they had to make holes in my scalp to drain the pus out!  When they Start draining the pus through little holes they made on my scalp they notice something strange and for everyone's surprise they start pulling a hugeeeeee piece of gauze that dr Lazaro Cardenas had left inside of my head! The dr in NYC got so pissed that he start cursing who ever had done that to me.  ! Right now Im still at the hospital I have been here for the last 3 days! My whole scalp is open and they had me doing another cat scan last night and they found out that still another huge piece of gauze inside my head!! Now I'm waiting for them to take the other piece of gauze out! The gauze is what was causing the whole infection! I'm just writing this to open people's eyes and let them know what I've been through after had my surgeries done by dr Lazaro cardenas in Guadalajara-México! Please everyone be aware of what can happen to you! If you have any questions feel free to ask me "

EDIT* I'm aware of others who have had surgery with him and say he's wonderful, but I feel this balances out the narrative.

http://www.realself.com/review/guadalajara-mexico-tummy-tuck-abdominoplasty-and-tumescent-liposuction


Something similar about the profesionality of the assistants and people leaving too early. Not sure what to think anymore, but "filthy" is a bit too much. Why did she went if she did not like it the fist time? Is Tristan or the others that did it with him agents paid by him to lie and advertise? Why are we missing examples of her patients?


Mysteries... Looks like until some light can be shed on this, I can forget about cheap full FFS.

QuoteThis was my first experience with plastic surgery in Mexico. The hospital, which is/was originally a family home was very old and was not up to US standards in cleanliness and nursing skills. I later had surgery with different physicians in Mexico, so I know that this is isolated and not a reflection on all hospitals and clinics in Mexico.

QuoteDr. Cardenas trains a lot of physicians who rotate through his clinic. Something akin to a short residency program. His wife, who is an Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist, assisted with some of the surgeries.

He is an excellent surgeon, but because of a problem I had with the nursing staff's care, I do not advocate being in his clinic.

While I did not have any problems, one of the ladies who was staying at the same B&B - did have some problems and was readmitted to his clinic. She had multiple feminization procedures and stayed only one night in his hospital. The day after she was released she had to be readmitted. I felt like she was pushed out the door much too quickly and was not stable enough to be released. With as many procedures that she had, the doctor should have suggested that she pay for an extra night. She paid over $12,000 for the multiple procedures.

How is this even possible? Only one day? Something is missing here.

hey, you never know *shrugs*.

http://girlygirl.psjourneys.com/?p=31#comments

Another one. Looks like there was a website citing bad surgeons and clinics, but completely offline. Cardenas was on the list, too.

wow, the dirt is really coming out on him. Hope everyone does thorough research before jumping in to surgery with just anyone!

I had one or two mails exchanged with him about palpebral ptosis and blepharoplasty, but he was rather short on words, just "I can fix it if you want".

When I did the same question to Dr Pat from Tokai Clinic, he was rather careful. First he advised me about not doing blepharoplasty if I wanted to have other procedures in the future, but that the ptosis was something that should be addressed as soon as possible. But He asked me to obtain first a full examination on the eye to make sure that it was a weak muscle problem, and discard other causes, such as Myasthenia gravis, before ever doing anything.


Small differences.

If it is this proved to be true, I'd choose another one withing my 25.000€ budget. If I already have regrets about my lasik, better to do things with the bests. Better to keep racking money, those screws for the legs could cost me more than 7000€, not to mention the dental braces... Lately I've been spending like a pig, I'd better get back to my precious routine of saving.


Whops, the broken site. Beautiful Surgery in Mexico:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070714191109/http://www.cirujanosplasticos.info/

Not for weak stomachs.


So I don't know what to think. Is he good or bad? The first review is a bit over the top, but from what info I can gather, cardenas does not seem to have a fixed team, but rotating aprentices. I don't know what to think, since there are pratically no photos of the before and after with him. Which surgeon would not show his work? All right, I was really interested on him, based only on the opinions of the people that talked about it here.

That review by Op really scared the crap out of me. We always see the great reviews and after pictures but never hear the horror stories. This worries me because I was seriously considering him. But after this I'm not so sure.    I just couldn't imagine getting any type of surgery in a dirty old building. Not just that but how do you miss gauze before sewing sutures?? And why don't they have a English speaking nurse?? I seriously hope that people doing reviews for him aren't getting paid to do false reviews. That's soooooo NOT cool.

I'm going to quote again a comment from realself:

QuoteHe is an excellent surgeon, but because of a problem I had with the nursing staff's care, I do not advocate being in his clinic.

While I did not have any problems, one of the ladies who was staying at the same B&B - did have some problems and was readmitted to his clinic. She had multiple feminization procedures and stayed only one night in his hospital. The day after she was released she had to be readmitted. I felt like she was pushed out the door much too quickly and was not stable enough to be released. With as many procedures that she had, the doctor should have suggested that she pay for an extra night. She paid over $12,000 for the multiple procedures.

Only one night? That's not even medically advisable. There is something really wrong on these two stories, but we can't pin the blame on either the staff or the patient without more information. About the nurses, anything coud happen. But I'm rather used to the medical personnel being complete *ssh*l*s, specially the night nurse. But that's pretty much what happens when you have not been properly trained on dealing with customers (somewhat akin to the ITIL on my field). I feel that those reviews could be completely biased, it is not the first time that somebody goes over the top on a vengeance. But Cardenas schedules a consultation first, so he should be able to show you the place. If she did not like it, why did she decide to continue?

this is really scary, i really wanted to go to him but now i dont know what to think.
it'd be nice if Tristan and the other girls on here who already went to him could comment on this.

every surgeon has their horror stories.  The more you research the more negative stories come up, when I was trying to choose my ffs surgeon I read these sorts of stories about every single surgeon I considered (the surgeon I ended up choosing had someone die two months prior to my visit).  If you choose your surgeon based upon one or two terrible mistakes they make then you're never going to have ffs.

But, let's see. I keep thinking about the filthy, old... I've seen the photos he has on the rejuvenate website. The room matchs with Tristan's recovery photos I saw.  It looks like a reconverted oll place, but sure, what's not.

My dentist also uses his family home, and except the two operationg rooms, everything has more that 70 years. The last time I was for a week in the second most advanced hospital of the country, my bed elevator was broken and I could not get up, my room mate started delirating every night, the nurses would not come to change the IV, so i had to force myself to be awake until it was finished, trying to hold the glasses in place because I could not reach to see it. The rod that hold the IV's was so big that I could not enter the bahroom without doing all sort of tricks, and one week later I had to go through 4 day centers because nobody was in the mood for removing the staples.


I guess it happens everywhere. It could also not be the perfect patient. It is not always the surgeon's fault.

Quote from: CoolCat on October 26, 2012, 04:01:42 PM

When I arrive to the operating room I got really scared it was totally different than what I had seen on his website! The room looked old, filthy and dark noticing I wasn't comfortable they right away took me and put me to sleep!!

This is pretty disturbing. When you click this link http://www.yourplasticsurgeryguide.com/surgeons/p/cardenas-guadalajara-facelift.htm the medical offices look pretty state of the art and professional. These conflicting details are confusing. I'd be upset if I got all the way there and things were different than what's shown on the site. Also a dirty operating room is a huge NO when it comes to one's personal health safety. I wish we could get some ladies in here who have gone to him to confirm any of this.

I've seen this same story posted on multiple forums. The earliest copy was from about 12 years ago. I think since then many of the issues listed in the story have been corrected. I can't say personally because I haven't been there yet, but I am sure Tristan can straighten things out.

Quote from: Giselle on October 28, 2012, 03:15:52 PM
the medical offices look pretty state of the art and professional. These conflicting details are confusing. I'd be upset if I got all the way there and things were different than what's shown on the site. Also a dirty operating room is a huge NO when it comes to one's personal health safety. I wish we could get some ladies in here who have gone to him to confirm any of this.

From what I can see, he seems to be connected to at least four different clinics. The Chapalita one seems to be the one that is the reconverted manor, with the hotel style rooms probably acting as non hospital recovery rooms.

theirs always going to be hater out in the world. first off if you think the place does not look good for you then dont get surgery at that place. sure its not the top of the line look but its fine and he does do a good job. 2nd. as a OR Nurse i can tell you that you are informed of what is possible to go wrong such as swelling and infection, cardia arrest, etc. although they are rare its possible and you are told. if theirs and issue you always let your nurse/ doctor know and get your check up. we have people like this in the states who pitch a fit because of post op complications after surgery. we look at them like ,"we told you that you could get an infection post op if you did not keep the site clean or that you could develop a thrombus" the man and his team do good work. but dont take my word for it or someone on the net. look at his portfolio which you can do if your really wanting work by him. or have tyler put you in contact with previous PT's of his via phone or skype, or in person. dont let people scare you. and one last thing. not everyone has the same results. he is a surgeon not god. so know that they do the best they can with what they have to work with "your face".

bad mouthing him.....girl please

A big vote for Dr. Cardenas.

The reality of getting surgery done down in Mexico is that the surgery room was not pristine. However, ignore all the minutiae because the it is about results.

His surgery team was amazing. They listened to me about a bad reaction I had to anesthesia and the anesthesiologist did exactly what she needed to do to make sure I was okay.

Both my wife and I had surgeries done, so together we had everything from full FFS for me and an orchi to breast augmentation and lipo for both of us.

The results have been wonderful. Before I went in for surgery I told him (foolish in hindsight), but I told him that I wanted him to use his experience to add or take away whatever needed to be done to my face to get the results we had talked about. He added cheeks implants, which I had never considered, but it is one of my favorite things he did for me. His experience is amazing.

At 3 months everything is healed or healing really well. There were no complications and my wife and I are in the medical fields and the American doctors were really impressed with the work.

There is a language barrier and there were some issues with Rest and Recovery, but we are both tremendously pleased with the results. Here is the kicker, he gave us a 6 month guarantee.

You can add me to someone who supports Dr. Cardenas and his work. If you want more info, feel free to PM me.

Quote from: Raneth on October 27, 2012, 06:41:12 PM
every surgeon has their horror stories. 

I haven't seen any for Spiegel or Meltzer. Every surgeon has people that aren't happy with their results, but there's a big difference between not happy with the results, and necrotic tissue/bone or death.

Bottom line for anyone choosing a surgeon is it comes down to you, and who you feel comfortable with. I've never met anyone that's gone to Surporn that has had anything bad to say about him, not even that his breath stinks. Anyone I've talked to that's gone to Suporn has nothing but praise for him.

I probably couldn't go to Surpon, because I'm not sure I could get over my own fears about being on an airplane that long, in a country where I don't speak the language and being in recovery. Choosing a surgeon is ultimately, a very personal choice, and however you make it is how you make it.

My criteria are different than anyone's criteria. I made the right choice, *for me*.

People who choose Cardenas will do so because he is the right surgeon *for them*. Same with Zukowski, Ousterhout, Meltzer, Spiegel, Suporn, and the 2 dozen or so that I can't name off the top of my head.

All of these things will factor into someone's decision, but ultimately, people are going to choose the surgeon that they feel is right for them. If it were otherwise, several of these surgeons would have been out of business a long time ago.

Also, stupid Captcha, but not all Fire Engines are Red.

Quote from: PixieDust on November 18, 2012, 11:51:03 PM
I haven't seen any for Spiegel or Meltzer. Every surgeon has people that aren't happy with their results, but there's a big difference between not happy with the results, and necrotic tissue/bone or death.

I've heard a few from Spiegel.  Dr zukowski has a gallery of ffs screwups (of he doesn't include any of his own).

Quote from: PixieDust on November 18, 2012, 11:51:03 PM
Bottom line for anyone choosing a surgeon is it comes down to you, and who you feel comfortable with. I've never met anyone that's gone to Surporn that has had anything bad to say about him, not even that his breath stinks. Anyone I've talked to that's gone to Suporn has nothing but praise for him.

My criteria are different than anyone's criteria. I made the right choice, *for me*.

People who choose Cardenas will do so because he is the right surgeon *for them*. Same with Zukowski, Ousterhout, Meltzer, Spiegel, Suporn, and the 2 dozen or so that I can't name off the top of my head.

All of these things will factor into someone's decision, but ultimately, people are going to choose the surgeon that they feel is right for them. If it were otherwise, several of these surgeons would have been out of business a long time ago.

*Quote edited*

PixieDust,

I absolutely agree with you. It is a personal choice and if your intuition is telling you something then I would suggest to listen to it. These surgeries are risky and we are putting the quality, and even our lives, in the hands of strangers.

As others have said, don't let the money pick the surgeon for you. I liked Dr. Cardenas, but I had expectations that were pretty appropriate. I knew I was going to be in a country in which I didn't speak the language, and that there would be language and cultural difficulties. But I also had my spouse come and this is something that I can't endorse enough. Have someone go with you! Pay for their stay, wine and dine them. You need the support. Also, they can advocate for you (this is advice for any medical procedure regardless of the country).

I went down there and had 7 procedures done. I knew it was a lot. I also knew the plan was to be discharged the next day to recover at Rest and Recovery. I WAS NOT told that they were going to use an epidural for my lipo, and I had wished I had asked about that. I knew my risks, and with full informed consent and prayer! I allowed his team to operate on me.

That was August. Tristan is a knock out, but I think he did a great job with me. I pass easily, and though I am told I am attractive, I wouldn't mind turning some heads

Healing is going well and I strived to follow instructions carefully including having a back up plan for recovery and medical care back in California.

My best to all who go under the knife for a better life.

tara i totally agree. i wanted to do the lipo but herd about how tough the recovery could be