My terrible experience with Sydney plastic surgeon

[Martyd13]

Hi everyone,
I have had a very tough few months both physically and emotionally and I feel like I should share this experience with those on this site so that they can hopefully learn from my mistakes.
Last year I moved to Sydney from London for a change of scenery. I had a rough few months which involved me having to pay for throat surgery and breaking my arm. I was out of the game for a couple of weeks while I was healing from my broken bones and summer was approaching so I decided that in my down time I may aswell get surgery to correct my gynecomastia that had been bothering me for years. It was a large mass of pure gland on my right side that developed 5 years ago after a single course of steroids.

I opted for surgery with Steve Merten who runs a practice called pure aesthetics in Sydney. I had been for a consultation before I broke my arm and he seemed like he knew what he needed to do and how to do it. It was the first and only consultation that I went to and i asked nowhere near enough questions. Anyway he assured me that my case would be a very simple procedure and that only gland excision would need to be performed. 

my surgery was performed at more shore specialist day hospital which was a little bit old school on the inside and the nurses didn't seem particularly well versed in what they were doing messing up my details, name tags etc. It felt as though they were still in training which was a bit disconcerting but they wouldn't be the ones cutting me open  so I didn't dwell on it too much.

Dr Merten came to measure me up with his registra very quick dotted outline around the gland and then into the theatre. I woke up in bed and was moved quickly into the area where they brought patients back to the real world. My friend picked me up and I went home feeling a little woozy and uncomfortable but nothing crazy. The next week was spent in bed at home not moving and keeping my best firmly attached to my person. The day after surgery I had my drains removed which was ok. Felt a little odd but not very much pain.

My chest felt like it had a massive hole underneath the skin with a sort of risen border around it. I felt like this hole was slightly smaller than the tissue that was originally in its place but I didn't want to fuss over it so I just kept my vest on and tried to ignore it. After 5 days I developed a seroma which I had to have drained in Steve mertens office several times over the following month. During this time I was made to feel like I was doing something that was causing this problem by his office staff. I had taken a full two weeks off work to recover and feel like anything beyond this is just luck of the draw and no ones fault.

The seroma was pretty large and made it very difficult to judge how my chest was healing. By the fifth time dr Merten aspirated I felt as though the border that surrounded the hole left from surgery was beginning to pull towards my nipple. It felt rough with certains spot feeling like very tender fingers of hard tissue but I had just had a chunk of flesh ripped out of me and the Dr Merten had assured me that everything would be fine when healed.

Three months passed, my incision never really healed very well and was always seeing out small amounts of white discharge but what really bothers me was how uncomfortable it was. I had to Apple four or five bandages to my chest just to be able to put on a Tshirt and my nipple and surrounding area had coned so badly that I looked ridiculous in everything. After three months I went for an ultrasound to check what was going on underneath my skin that was causing me so much pain. It was breast tissue. And not a small amount. I returned to Dr Merten who seemed shocked, I was clearly in a total state mentally by this point but all he seemed concerned about was making sure I believe that he did not leave anything inside and that I must have regrown this tissue since the first op...he booked me in the week after for a revision surgery.

At this point I had lost my job as I was unable to move freely due to the pain in my chest. I had to move out of my flat as I couldn't afford to pay rent and I split up with my girlfriend as I couldn't bare to take my top off I corny of her and had become totally socially awkward around everyone but my closest friend.

I went in for surgery at concord private hospital. Which was miles from where I lived and had the revision done.immediatley after surgery things didn't feel right was twice as swollen as before and in a lot of pain I had to leave Sydney and Coke home for this reason where I am still today there is still a massive uncomfortable mass underneath and around my nipple. I am unable to work and have severe depression and anxiety issues. I hav t left my house in two months. I age spent thousands on endocrinologist fees and ultrasounds and surgeon consultations..no hormonal problems and breast tissue is still present. I will have to have a third revision which will cost thousands of pounds and i will have to wait months until any surgeon will touch me.

This surgeon has ripped me off and done a terrible job twice. Avoid him at all costs. Do your research. Shop around. And trust you instinct. When your body tells you something isn't right it's usually your best form of advice.