Nov 21, 2005 7:58 am US/Pacific
Plastic Disaster (Page 2)
by Kurtis Ming
SACRAMENTO (CBS 13) ―
(Continued)
Depressed, feeling ignored, seeing her body waste away, she carried out a plan at her next doctor's appointment so Dr. West would listen.
"I grabbed his tie and he said, 'what's the matter?' I said 'I'm dying.' And he said, 'what do you want me to do?' And I said 'put me in the hospital'. I need to go in the hospital.
Linda was admitted, and that's when she found out the scope of the infection. She says it was so bad that she had to be given a blood transfusion.
Linda eventually recovered. But remember that cancer treatment she desperately needed?
"When I had the infection, they couldn't do it. I needed to be healed so I could have the chemo or radiation until the wound healed," said Linda.
Linda would learn the cancer did spread. She says she was given two years to live. So far, she's beat the odds but she knows it's just a matter of time.
"I was so angry to learn it had spread," said Linda.
Linda begged Dr. West to never allow anyone to suffer the same infection.
"He promised me that he would never let that happen again," said Linda.
That was a promise to Linda that Dr. West didn't keep. A CBS 13 investigation found several patients of his whom also suffered these rare massive infections. The patients claim the cure was worse than the disease.
"It looked like somebody had cut me with a machete," said Marion.
"I was cut in half," said Bobbie.
Some patients who spoke with us, on the condition of their anonymity, say not only did they suffer infections, but that Dr. West made mistakes during their operations.
"He stitched me up so tight i couldn't move," said Bobbie.
Just as you heard in Linda's case, this woman we'll call Bobbie says he also cut her infected incision open without anesthesia.
"I was in excruciating, devastating, extreme, agonizing piercing pain," said Bobbie.
Same story for a tummy tuck patient named Marion who says Dr. West performed liposuction on her back side even though she said she didn't want it.
"He went ahead and did it anyway," said Marion.
Another patient told us that Dr. West put in two different sized breast implants, oth larger than she wanted. She also suffered an infection as a result of her surgery.
"She was extremely special to me," said Ken.
Ken Mickulecky says his late wife Sharon suffered severely from her infection from a Dr. West surgery. During one treatment Ken couldn't believe his eyes.
"He stuck his finger without a glove on in my wife's wound," said Ken.
(Continued)
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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