A NY man living in Tulsa has filed a lawsuit against his plastic surgeon after he woke up from a rhinoplasty surgery without a nose. Vishal Thakkar told Fox23 that after his divorce in 2006, he decided to treat himself by getting a nose job. "I decided to do something selfish," he said. He had eight surgeries alone between 2006 and 2007 because of complications, and then more in 2011: "[The doctor] told me that there was an infection in there and since I was on the operating table and unconscious he had to make the decision," said Thakkar. Scroll down to see a full photo of what happened to his nose.
Thakkar is suing Dr. Angelo Cuzalina, who is president of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery; the Oklahoma Medical Board does not show any complaints in his history before this. Something went wrong after the first surgery though: "I had the first surgery and suffered some breathing problems, nothing too bad, but it made it hard to exercise and sleep," Thakker said. Altogether, Thakker says he underwent 22 surgeries.
Thakker claims that there were multiple instances when he specifically instructed Cuzalina and his nurses not to take anything from his ears to add as cartilage, but they disobeyed his request: "I woke up with pain behind my ear and I said to the nurses, what part of 'Under no circumstances do not touch my ears, do you not understand?'" said Thakkar, who added that Cuzalina emailed him to apologize for that.
During another surgery, Thakkar says the doctor ran out of ear cartilage and had to look elsewhere: "So he cut into my rib cage for cartilage, I didn't know it then, but I do not believe he is licensed for that kind of surgery!"
In addition to negligence, the lawsuit alleges medical malpractice, malicious prosecution, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, conspiracy and fraud. The lawsuit also claims that Thakker was "'prescribed an excessive amount of medication, enough to kill the patient, if taken, including but not limited to Loratab, Ambien, Valilum, and Oxycodone."
"By the time I am able to breathe without pain and have a human-looking nose, I will have had 30 surgeries on my face thanks to Angelo Cuzalina," Thakker noted. "There is no way I am going to live like this. It is worse than being dead."
