Michael Jackson dies and the television and media go crazy. so what the heck …I might as well get my two cents in.
I personally feel very sorry for Mr. Jackson, as he in my eyes, has been a tragedy. Its obvious to me he had body dysmorphic disorder. Thats a condition where there are psychological reasons for wanting to change the physical self, thus all the physical changes made , never are satisfactory the patient. Plastic Surgeons I believe can be enablers and codependent as well.
I don’t know who did Michael Jackson’s Plastic Surgery or if many different surgeons participated, but basically I think they should be ashamed of themselves. Thats my personal opinion and not some medical or expert opinion to be used by others. I have no data nor do I have any facts, its simple conjecture and speculation.
As plastic surgeons, we all have patients who demand more and more procedures to either make corrections on what we have done or to continue to try and improve another surgeons work. We have to recognize these patients as a problem, in that we see either something like a nose which looks good and they still are unhappy and want more surgery. Sometimes the patients become so convinced that there good nose job, is not good they can start to convince the surgeon and he then becomes “codependent”. After all plastic surgeons always want to think they can make everyone happy and especially when a competitors patient comes in the door, the tendency is to think you can always do better than the guy next door. This ego effect can cause real problems.
Nine out of ten times if you operate you will not improve the other surgeons work and if not careful you can end up with a Michael Jackson situation. This is not the same as correcting obvious or major problems with previous surgery like a breast implant deflation or if you have a really bad outcome , then by all means it needs corrective surgery. The cases I am discussing are the cases where the work looks good and you try to make it better . I always remember the saying..”the enemy of good is better!” . That refers to someone coming in for a correction and it turns out worse. So I always make sure that its something that is realistic in my mind and the patients before proceeding.
One case comes to mind where I battled with a patient for serveral years in which she came to me because one breast implant was less than 1 cm lower on one side. No one would notice but the patient was seeing herself in the mirror and becoming rather obssessed with this very minor issue. Well I evaluated her told her the other surgeon did what I would consider a good job. She still insisted and finally came back in almost begging me to fix what she thought was a disaster and I told her..NO. Its hard to do that as you know the patient will not be happy. I was strong and told her she was welcome to find someone else if she were not happy with my opinion. Well she did.
To make a long story short she was back in my office three months later complaining about the outcome of the surgeon she found to attempt to make such a correction. Unfortunately she went on to get an infection and overall the breast now did look bad. The well intentioned surgeon I am sure had thought he could help this patient and fell into that trap. Well at this point I told her she should return to him and see what he could do. Sad case but something we as plastic surgeons must be careful about. I wanted to help her but felt the last surgeon should be given the chance to correct his own work. I have not heard back from her. If only Michael Jackson;s surgeons would have stopped earlier I suppose, but again I am only speculating.
Forest Gump
Well as Forest Gump would say “Thats all I have to say about that”.
Yet on this topic and with some interesting photos there is web site devoted to bad outcomes in plastic surgery. Mostly it looks to me like patients who had one plastic surgery too many.
This is www.awfulplasticsurgery.com and they have discussed the Michael Jackson issue and plastic surgery many times.
doctor808
Thank you for the new post. I always enjoy your articles. I am, as a fighter, interested in shapes and conditions of my body. And I am paying a lot of attentions to them as you also are as a fighter. But I often think that too much attention inward oneself does not make the one happier after all. If one widens his/her perspective and awakens his/her interests to the outer world or to others, that would make one happier. I am a fan of Michael Jackson, who has a gift, but his life seems to have been very lonely. If he had had more interests in other people or other activities than in himself, he might not have to have so many surgeries done like that??? Body and psychology link tightly to each other. I understand it is really tough to be surgeon who takes care of outer and inner of human beings. Ganbatte kudasai!