Ever see The Godfather? Remember the Vegas hood Moe Greene, the guy who finally got what was coming to him while he was lying on a massage table?
Yeah, me too, especially when I look at the doctor who did my eyelid surgery. Looks just like Moe Greene without the glasses. Has the same kind of ethical outlook, too. He did my surgery over a year ago. I paid him a lot of money for it (my insurance doesn’t cover cosmetic surgery, so I paid cash). I still have eye bags. My skin changed color. I’m not happy.
Dr. Moe doesn’t want to hear that, though. Last time I went in to his office and told him I wasn’t happy with the results, he sent me to get a second opinion. The “second opinion” doctor, who I must say treated me with the utmost courtesy and respect, said that it was definitely possible to fix what was wrong with my surgery.
Dr. Moe didn’t want to hear that, either. Today he told me that he’d spent “a lot of extra time” with me (yeah baby, two ten-minute office visits where it was obvious that he wanted nothing more than to get rid of me ASAP). He made it clear he doesn’t want to fix what he left behind and he was pissed at Dr. Second Opinion for saying otherwise.
Dr. Moe thinks that the “50%” results (his own estimate) on my face are just fine. In fact, after telling me flat out “Go somewhere else” (but not at his expense) he ended our little discussion with the statement “I think you had excellent surgery.”
“If this is your standard of excellence,” I shot back as he flounced out the door, “it sucks.”
You know what, Dr. Moe? I’m going to write and quote you back your office’s code of patients’ rights, which you flagrantly violated today. I’m going to say “You may consider 50% to be ‘excellent,’ but everywhere else in the world, it’s not even a passing grade.” I’m going to say “Since you considered Dr. Second Opinion’s opinion to be valid till you found out he didn’t agree with you, you should arrange for him to fix your mistake, at your expense, not mine.” (Hell if I’d let Dr. Moe anywhere near my face with a knife again in this lifetime!) I’m going to tell Dr. Moe that if he isn’t ethical enough to do that and if he considers 50% of a job to be all he wants to do, then, he can damn well give me 50% of my money back. And I’m going to send copies of that letter in the letter I’m sending to his certifying Board, reporting him for being a quack.
Dr. Moe was highly recommended to me by a doctor I trusted. Damn, I wish I’d gotten Dr. Second Opinion’s opinion first.