good surgeon needed.

[arnoldswart]

Hi can anyone give me some advice.


If you have found a good surgeon who has spent time and care with you, and has been able to offer you a good result with your chest then please please do let me know because I need to get this sorted soon.

I would love to go to the States but cannot leave the country as I cannot afford flights and accommodations and surgery fees. I need my surgery done by a good surgeon in the UK. Please can someone recommend a good surgeon in the UK.

[outertrial]

I'm quite surprised that you could have had three surgeries and not had any improvement at all. Can you post some before and after pics so we can see what the problem is.It may not be as bad as you think.  Levick is pretty famous for this kind of surgery 

Other than that you could try Karadis if you want an op in the UK. I was happy with Dr Benito in Spain (pics below).

[oxman1]

i feel exactly the same he rushed the op and the
revision ops did nothing.every time i went to see
levick he just said give it time etc, etc,he just
wanted to get rid of me.i dont trust him to fix my
chest now so i just want all my money back.there are
more and more people with problems with levick now i
think he has rushed alot of ops to do more simply for
more money.i have had posts off others with the same
problems with him i will let you know what happens.

[manic91m9]

hmm i have noticed the name levick coming up with unhappy patients from reading these boards. its a pity this site doesn't have some kind of register of doctors and satisfaction post surgery

[kingboob]

when the surgeons fee runs into thousands I don't see why he would rush the operation just to squeeze one or two extra ops in............. I mean the BMI gives a surgical guarantee which offers free revisions (IE: the surgeon wont get paid for doing the second op), so where is the benefit in not getting it right first time?

without seeing before & after pictures I think it is really hard to put things into perspective anyway.

[arnoldswart]

i feel exactly the same he rushed the op and the
revision ops did nothing.every time i went to see
levick he just said give it time etc, etc,he just
wanted to get rid of me.i dont trust him to fix my
chest now so i just want all my money back.there are
more and more people with problems with levick now i
think he has rushed alot of ops to do more simply for
more money.i have had posts off others with the same
problems with him i will let you know what happens.

Please do keep me informed. Best of luck.

[Chodel]

if it makes any difference i've had the op with Levick and on the whole am very happy.  show us some pictures before you start ranting and raving.

[arnoldswart]

Other than that you could try Karadis if you want an op in the UK. I was happy with Dr Benito in Spais (pics below).

Please can you give me Dr Benito's phone number in Harley Street. I would like him to sort out my chest.

Many Thanks

[arnoldswart]

if it makes any difference i've had the op with Levick and on the whole am very happy.  show us some pictures before you start ranting and raving.

I am merley stating facts and seeking advice.  If any one has Dr Benito's phone number please could you post or email it to me.

Thank You

[Time_to_fix_it]

if it makes any difference i've had the op with Levick and on the whole am very happy.  show us some pictures before you start ranting and raving.

I completely agree with Chodel, and no I’m not Mr Levick in disguise either 

I went with Mr Levick over a year ago and I only did that after reading an awful lot of posts on here from happy patients, and only 1 from an unhappy one. He does over 200 of these procedures a year so there will always be a few failures, or cases where the patient isn’t happy with his results.  It’s human nature that the people who aren’t happy make the most fuss and rightly so, but we rarely hear from people who are happy because they leave these boards and get on with their lives.  My feelings really do go out to those who are unhappy; I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.  As I said I think it perfectly right that they should post their thoughts and experiences on here for others to make a balanced view on a surgeon.  I would be very suspicious of any surgeon who only had happy patients posting on here.  Some of you might be aware that a large number of posts were deleted from this board when things became suspicious about a particular doctor.

I have seen some pics posted on here from people who are unhappy with their results and I have to say some of them look pretty good to me.  No they aren’t perfect, but for goodness sake some of them are a whole lot better than before the surgery.  Now I’m no doctor and I’m not here to defend Levick or any other surgeon, but all of us have to realise that this procedure isn’t like taking a car to a garage with a dent to be repaired where we should expect a pretty near perfect repair.  Every patient is different and each heals differently.  It is my experience that there is a large degree of luck involved with these procedures.  We really shouldn’t expect a perfect chest after having this procedure.  We should expect a significant improvement; the problem is each of us might interpret “significant improvement” differently.

When a surgeon gets a result both he and the patient isn’t happy with then I firmly believe that surgeon should do everything that he can to put it right at no expense to the patient.  And I believe that is what Mr Levick tries to do.  When I was looking around for a surgeon, one of the things that stood out above the rest was that Mr Levick did any revisions for free.  That is absolutely no cost to the patient and no hidden charges.  None of the other surgeons I researched did this as there would be some charges involved.

Speaking personally, I am about 14 months post surgery and on a bad day I’m about 85% happy with my chest and on a good day I’m 90% happy with it.  I saw Levick at my 1 year post op check up and the guy impressed me.  At that check up I told him I didn’t expect perfection but he chipped in and said he would always aim for the very best result that he could get, and offered me a slight touch up to make me happier than I was.  Frankly that impressed me.  I would have been happy to walk away with what I had and he offered to try to improve it a little more at no cost to me at all. I haven't decided yet if I'll have that touch up or not.

To Arnoldswart and any other unhappy patient of ANY surgeon, my heart goes out to you.  I really do hope you find some way of either accepting the result you have or finding a way of getting some improvement.

[GynO_DuDe]

I dont understand why so many people slate Mr Levick ... Just to add im not working for him, nor being paid to rate my positive experience with him.

As 'Time to fix it' said, I also went to Levick after reading all the good experiences about him! I had severe gynecomastia and when I went to my consultation with Levick he instantly persuaded me to try and get it done for free on the NHS because apparently severe gynecomastia is treated for free being 20 years old and a student he instantly tried helping me to get it done for free ... now are you telling me he wanted my money? and was rushing me? it was quite the opposite really ... due to knowing before hand about his prices and exactly what he does from reading people's diarys I had the 4k saved up and after my consultation told him that I don't want to be messed around by the NHS as I previously had been for the past 6 months or so prior to visiting Levick and that I had my trust in him ...

And guess what? It was a successful operation indeed ... I can honestly say, I went in their not expecting to come out looking perfectly normal but im definitely 90% happy ... and the best part is, Levick said if needs must after a year if natural elasticity didn't sort my chest out and make me 100% happy he'd do his best and revise it, now correct me if im wrong but what more can you ask for?

[TommyA]

I would say Karidis.  When I had a consultation he said it was v unusual for revisions to be necessary

[outertrial]

Other than that you could try Karadis if you want an op in the UK. I was happy with Dr Benito in Spais (pics below).

Please can you give me Dr Benito's phone number in Harley Street. I would like him to sort out my chest.

Many Thanks

Dr Benitos website http://www.cosmeticsurgeryabroad.org/

[fedor]

I had surgery with Dr levick 4 months ago and have to say I am very happy with the results and the service. I think the problem here is probably some peoples expectations and not Dr levicks surgery. Why not post some pre and post pictures before running down a well respected surgeon that has had numerous happy customers, put up or shut up if you will.

[Johnny Wishbone]

Before entertaining surgery (which I had in Poland Oct 06) I read these forums inside out, I mean literally EVERY post and then read them again from the beginning. 

The main name bandied around was Levick (Birmingham) , although he was the most expensive.  What was apparent from my research was that despite some great results he was seriously inconsistant. I mean there are numerous examples of people complaining about 2/3 revisions a few years ago, too much fat being taken out, skin sticking to muscle etc. For me that was reason enough to stop looking there. 

Then there is Karadis (London) who is a minor TV celebrity and does a lot of work with the rich and famous.  There wasn't as much info on his work, but to be fair it was all positive, some very satisfied patients.

Then there was Mark's mammoth thread on Baranski (Poland) which offered a (vastly) cheaper alternative to rip off Britain prices.  A mass flood of folk went in there to see him (including myself).  No-one has to my knowledge accused him of any butchery. His work is neat and tidy but perhaps a little on the cautious side.  This was a not so bad for me as you could always go back for a little extra - however the realty if you are not 100% pleased after the event is a different story.

Now there appears to be Benito (London then op in Barcelona). He, imo, has demonstrated some exceptional work and above all seams to get it damn near right every time. His prices are not as kean as Eastern Europe but still 50-60% of those over here.

To me is a no brainer. If you're worried about going abroad see Karadis. If you eant the saving see Benito.  I don't dispute Levick has done some good work, but I for one wouldnt want to take the chance of him perhaps getting it right on a good day.

My advise to the original poster is draw a line under you experience and move on to someone who doesn't keep disappointing you. You wouldn't keep taking your car to a garage who consistantantly let you down - why the hell would you take a chance with your body?!?  I realise not every one has money to just take their business elsewhere, but if you want the correction badly enough, some kind of loan and a consultation with a better surgeon may be a sound mental investment.