 Today's episode of The Michelle Show is brought to you by mtgox.com and usgoldcoins.com, 1-800-HOT-COIN, and Mezzy Grill, mezegrill.com. Hi, and welcome to today's episode of The Michelle Show. Today's Thursday, July 28th, and thank you so much for joining me today. We have a very interesting topic for you today. We're going to be discussing cosmetic surgery, specifically the topic of how to make a decision about getting cosmetic surgery, whether in your home country, here in the United States, or outside of the United States. The guest joining us today is Annette Arguellas from Miami, Florida. Can we get Annette? Are you there, Annette? Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay. Annette, tell us, when exactly was it that you received the cosmetic procedure that we're going to be discussing today? Well, I had the surgery done in Columbia, and I went for liposuction on my back and on my legs, different areas. Well, first, let's go back to, how long ago was this? This was in September 2004. Okay, so it's been several years now? Yes. Okay, and what prompted you to get the cosmetic surgery? Exactly, what was it that you were going to Columbia? What type of surgery were you going to get? I went to get liposuction, again, on my back. And I had implants already that I just wanted them to get lifted a little, and that's basically what I wanted to get. Okay, so basically, liposuction on your back, and then you had already gotten breast implants previously. You just wanted to get them touched up somewhat. Right. Okay, how did you decide on the particular doctor, the particular provider that did the surgery? Okay, well, I used to work for Jackson Hospital, so I had a friend that, her mom had gone for surgery in Columbia with this particular doctor. And she turned out beautifully. Her body was totally transformed. And I decided that I wanted to have it with the same doctor. I wanted the same thing. So she had multiple surgeries in it with the same doctor in the same visit, or did she go back to this doctor subsequently on more than one visit? No, she had everything on the same visit. She had liposculpturing, she had a tummy tuck, she had her breast done, a bunch of things done on the same day. Okay, so when you saw her after the fact, and she looked spectacular. Spectacular. Okay, so was your decision in going overseas for the surgery, was it mostly due to how great your friend looked, or was there a cost factor involved also? Was it less expensive for you to go to Columbia? Both. I wanted to look better, and it was more affordable. So, I mean, doing all those surgeries here would have been, I mean, a lot of money, and over there they do it for almost nothing. Okay, so when you spoke to your friend about her particular provider, she made a recommendation, and did you go to a local office in Miami? Or did you just explain to me a little bit more about the process after that? Well, she gave me the phone number, and I contacted them, and I went straight to their office, which was right by my house in Hialeah, in Miami. And they didn't, though, want to take me at the moment, because it was too soon. They were leaving like two weeks later, or three weeks later, and they said it was too short of notice that I needed to get a clearance before going and the whole thing. And I was like, oh, but I can get a clearance. Explain to me, go back so that the viewers understand exactly what it was that you were doing. This is a medical provider in Columbia that also had offices in Miami? He's a provider in Columbia who has an office in Miami, like to recruit people to take them to Columbia to get these surgeries done over there. So when you go to his office in Miami, is it set up like a cosmetic surgery type of place? How were they set up exactly in Miami? Okay, they're not set up as anything cosmetic. They're set up to lose weight or for massages, massage therapy. Okay, so it seemed like you were visiting a doctor's office of some kind or at least a medical center. Like a cosmetologist or something. Okay, or a cosmetologist's office, right? Yes, but nothing like a plastic surgery office. Right, they weren't promoting, they weren't advertising or promoting their services out of that particular location as being a place where you go to receive local cosmetic procedures, right? Right. Okay, and so when you went to that office, what was the process like there? Well, I went finally with my clearance and they took care, what I paid them took care of the fees to go on the airplane fees, the hotel fees, their fees. It took care of everything. So basically I just had to show up the day that they told me with my passport and I was all set up to have the surgery over there. Okay, so from the time that you visited them, they scheduled you for what, the following month? No, no, I was scheduled to leave like in two or three weeks, I believe it was. Okay. September sometime 2004. Okay, so when they required of you some kind of medical clearance and then you were good to go and you went ahead and flew, did you go with a group of people? Or did you take anybody from your family? Did you travel alone? No, I traveled alone and it was with a group that they had already recruited. That they had recruited? These were all people that were going to the same facility to get cosmetic procedures done, correct? Right, some were going for a facelift, others were going for tummy tucks alone, other for the liposculpturing, different things, different women, like maybe a group of five. Okay, so then explain to me a little more about what happened once you got there, what happened once you were there? Once I got there, I had one day to go to rest and then the next day was my surgery. From my surgery lasted, I was told 10 hours, which is way too long for a cosmetic surgery to be with. Once I woke up from the surgery, I was in extreme pain. I mean, nothing helped me, no medication helped me, I didn't have an appetite. I was feeling bad and miserable from the moment I woke up. So did something feel not right from the moment that you woke up from the surgery? Absolutely, from the moment I knew there was something wrong with me that was different. I mean, I had gone through plastic surgery in the past. I had reconstructed my breast and I had had surgeries in the past and nothing felt right. They offered me food, I didn't want any, I didn't feel right at all. Okay, so when you complained to the doctor or the nurses, what happened? They said everything was normal, everything was normal. Even when I started getting fevers and spiking fevers and they still insisted that everything was normal. What they would do to alleviate my pain partly was drain. I had these little drains on my back and they would use them to drain, to take out some kind of accumulation of water mixed with blood from my back. And how long? How long were you hospitalized in their facility? Were you in a hospital? Were you in a medical center? It was like an outpatient facility and that was only there over that night. Maybe like 24 hours, that's it. So over the course of the 24 hours you were in extreme pain, you complained about it and all that they did was just drain you of that accumulation of liquid. Okay, was the doctor trying to be reassuring that what you were going through was normal? Well, yeah, he was trying to be reassuring, but there was a one time that I kind of caught him speaking to, there were two doctors, the plastic surgeon and the general medicine doctor. And I kind of saw them at one point when they were doing the draining, that they looked at each other like, this is not doing well, you know? And they mentioned kind of a diagnosis, like it was like necrotic tissues in the back of my back. But at that moment I didn't know what that was, so I left it alone, but I didn't realize that something was definitely wrong when I saw them whispering, like they didn't want me to see what they were saying, their faces, you know? I happened to have looked back and caught them when they were talking like that. So I knew that there was something wrong with me the whole time. And I had to get back to Miami. At what point did they tell you that it was okay to leave? Well, they never, it was a trip of 10 days, so at the 10th day it was already, I was scheduled, you know, to fly back to Miami. And over the course of the 10 days, what were you feeling? Nothing, just waiting to be able to leave. And the same procedure, draining and back to bed, I was never able to wear the girdle that everybody wears, like so that you can, you know, so your body could take, get its form or whatever they use it for. I was never able to fit into that and I would see other women fitting themselves into it and I was never able to. They were kind of forcing me to do it, I just didn't accept, I didn't do it. So over the course, you were there at that outpatient type facility for the course of the entire 10 days? Out, in the hotel already. Oh, in the hotel, okay. Now was the doctor visiting you on a regular basis at the hotel? The visit every day. Okay. And I would also have to go to his office for the draining. For the draining. Right. So on your last day there, what was the conversation like, he said it was okay for you to leave? Well, conversation on the last day, they clearly told me that if I was asked in the airport, any questions about going to that country for plastic surgery that I should say no, that I just went for tourism. And so I agreed, but once I was in the airport, I wasn't doing well at all. I felt like fainting and I was left alone. They weren't even by my side helping me. Really? Yeah. So now who transported you to the airport? Was it the people from the medical center? With the doctor and the group of people that had went, the secretary of the doctor, the girls, the ladies who had had the surgery as well. Right. Me, but I was the worst one. I never recuperated. I was tears. Clearly you were feeling a lot of pain and they still allowed you to get off of the bus and go to the airport. Yes. One of the, in the airport, someone that worked there spotted me, like one of the guards, and she approached me and she's like, what's wrong with you? And I was, I first said nothing because I was scared. It was in the back of my mind that he had told me, don't say what you were here for. Right. I felt like if I was in a faint and I just, I went up to the lady again after I had told her nothing and I told her, look, something is wrong with me. I don't feel well. You know, she asked me what I was there for. I told her that I had been there for plastic surgery. And then she told me, well, then you need to get cleared by the doctor here in our airport in order to be able to fly. And I said, fine, but my, my flight was leaving in like 45 minutes and the doctor was all across the whole airport. So I saw a young guy, a young boy that worked there in the airport. And I told, I remember I told him, listen, I can, do you think you could get me to the other side of the airport where the doctor's at? Like as soon as, I mean, as fast as you can, because my flight leaves in 45 minutes, I have $20 I can give you. And he said, sure, sure, I'll get you there. And he ran with me over every, I mean, he was going super fast to get me there in the wheelchair. And when I got to the doctor, she said, all she told me was, I'll clear you if you can stand up from the wheelchair and walk a straight line back and forth and you're cleared to go. I was like, well, that's going to be, I didn't say it, but I was thinking in my mind that that's going to be hard. I stood up because I, I was saying, if I, if I stayed there, I wasn't going to live. I knew that. Did it, did it cross your mind to stay and go to a hospital? No, it never, I was never, it never crossed my mind. Were you not? Were, did you not want to do that? Was that not a possibility to you? I felt that if they got me into that situation, they were not going to, you know, they were not going to save me. You know, so I never, I never was going to stay in any hospital. You wanted to get back, you wanted to get back to the US one way or another. I knew that that was the only way I was going to get better. Okay. So the kid, I made, I did the walk and I sat back down. And I remember crying the whole way back until I got on the airplane and until I got home. And what happened once you, once you got home, what happened? Well, once I got home, I kept spiking fevers and until I kept waiting because I kept contacting their office to tell them that I kept spiking the fevers. And they kept insisting it was normal. So I visited their office for again, another drainage. They did another draining to my back. And like I said, I felt a little better when I got back to the back home, but the fevers would not stop until I just told my, my husband at the time, you need to take me to the hospital. Something's definitely wrong. How long, how long were you here before you took that trip to the hospital? It took me four days to decide to go to the hospital. Okay. Yeah. So, so when you, where, which hospital did you go to? I went to Palmetto. Okay. So locally near your home, you went to the hospital. Right. That was the first hospital I went to. And, and what was the prognosis there? Well, their prognosis was just to, they tried to help me as far as my breast were, were, they tried to help me, but my back, they kept ignoring. And that was where I had the most pain. So at the end, all they said that they needed to went to bait me and that I was not breathing properly and that I couldn't, my potassium was low, that I wasn't going to, that I was not functioning properly, that all my labs were pretty messed up, you know. So basically they wanted to put you on life support. They pretty much, yeah, they just wanted me to be down and, and, and to bait it. Now, at that, at that point, what were your, what were, was the scot, well, you weren't scarring yet. What were the injuries looking like? Were you bleeding? Were they purple? Were you bruised? No, my back was like, was black, completely black. Like there was nothing, there was no blood oxygen, no oxygen going through. There was no, nothing was working back there. I mean, it was completely black. Bruising was not, it wasn't even bruised. It was the color black. Why did it, why did it take you four days to get to the hospital initially? Well, because it never crossed my mind that I was going to be in that bad shape, you know. You thought, you thought it was just taking you a little longer than usual to recuperate. I was trying to think positive, thinking that it was just taking me a little longer until I saw that the fever wasn't going away and then, you know, I went. I guess I was a little scared. So how long were you at Palmetto Hospital? I was in Palmetto for 10 days. Okay, so basically what they recommended that you do was, since your vitals weren't looking too good, they wanted to intubate you in the form of putting you under almost, right? Right, right. And I told them no. I was in their ICU unit and I totally declined their recommendations and they wanted me to sign all this paperwork. And this time I was angry because they, you know, I couldn't believe that I was in the United States and there was nothing else that they can do. Their solution was just to intubate me and just medicate me for pain and that was it. Leave it alone. And so I was angry by this time and I didn't sign anything and I just told them not to touch me that I was leaving them. Do you feel that you got some resistance from the hospital because they knew that you had received a cosmetic procedure overseas? For sure. You know, we're living in a country where people file lawsuits every day for different things. Do you think that the hospital felt like you were a liability just walking in the door? Yeah, not maybe the doctors, the plastic surgeons that work for the hospital, at least in Palmetto, they didn't want to feel, they didn't want their name anyway. They didn't want to touch me because I could be confused and maybe in the future if I try to sue them, maybe the injury that I'm suing them for is not his responsibility but Columbia's responsibility, which it's been seen before. Right. So a lot of doctors weren't being nice to me when I was there. I like when I went to Jackson, everybody was super helpful. Well, talk to me about your transition to Jackson. Did you leave Palmetto on your own free will? Did they let you go? Tell me a little bit more about that. Well, at first I told them if they can get me a transfer to Jackson, they told me they had no beds. Then I told them that I'll pay for an ambulance to transport me to do the transfer and that I would wait until there was a bit available but that I didn't want to be there. They were not helpful at all. I had to transport myself to Jackson. So you basically left Palmetto out of your own free will and well somebody drove you, right? Right, my ex. Drove you to Jackson. So what happened once you got to Jackson? Well, being that I used to work there, I kind of knew how the setup was. So I told my ex-husband, you know, when we walk in, you're not going to look at anybody. We're just going to keep on walking straight to the nurse's station and I'll do all the talking, you know. So when I got there, they had given me a copy of my labs. I went straight to the nurse's station and I told them, listen, here are a copy of my labs. I just left the ICU department at Palmetto Hospital and I need for you to call Dr. Byers or call whatever surgeon you have here because I'm dying. I remember I told them just like that and they just told me to lie down and that they would get them for me. And Dr. Byers, which was a doctor that I knew for many years and was a friend of mine, she came to the rescue and I was in surgery after I walked in. I was in surgery maybe half an hour after. Okay, so you wanted immediately to surgery? Yeah. I had already tried to contact her on my way over there. So she knew I was going. Okay. And so how long were you in surgery there? I don't remember how long I was in surgery, but it was a while. They were trying to take out everything that was necrotic. So they didn't get, before you went into surgery, did they give you a prognosis? Did they tell you what you had? No. She knew it was gangrene. They diagnosed it as to be gangrene and they knew they had to move on it because it spread fast. It's a bacteria that spreads really fast and that's what she did. When she opened, when she started, when she cut and opened, she said that she didn't know whether to close me back up or to continue because she had never seen or smelled anything like that. Wow. But she did it. She continued the surgery because I was young and just to give it a chance. And you had gangrene on your back as well as your breasts? Yes. All over. Everywhere that they stuck, the liposuctioning thing, I had the infection. Everywhere that there was a little spot of what they used to do liposuction, they used that machine on, had infection, had gangrene. So basically the infection came from, and you told me if I'm wrong, but the infection came from the doctors in Columbia having used medical instruments that were not sterilized. Right. They didn't disinfect them. Right. So something as simple as that created this very serious problem. Right. And I could have, I mean, I could have caught anything that the person before me had. I mean, they really messed up. So when you were in surgery at Jackson, that surgery took a number of hours because they had to remove, they had to remove all of the gangrene. All the dead skin, yes. Right. I mean, it's a miracle that you even survived because most people with gangrene, you know, it's easy to amputate an arm or a leg or any of the body's appendages. You have it on your torso. Right. It's very, very dangerous. Very dangerous. They had to go in about 12 times before getting all of the bacteria out, all of the infection out. It got to the point that you can see my spinal cord in the, in my back, clearly. Unbelievable. So how many surgeries did you have? It was here and Jackson, it was about 12 surgeries. Over the next, over, was it immediately after? Over the next, over the, over five weeks or six weeks. Over five weeks. I was in ICU all that time. Unbelievable. Now, so tell me about your hospital stay. How long were you there? I was there almost five months. My hospital stay at the beginning was awful. I mean, I would wake up and be angry that I was still alive because I couldn't tolerate the pain. I didn't want them to help me. I just wanted to die because the pain was unbearable. It was, I couldn't tolerate it. They were giving me morphine for pain, but morphine was not helping me until finally one day I just told them, is there anything else you can give me besides morphine? And they finally gave me dilated, which is a very highly addictive narcotic. But let me tell you, thanks to that medication, I was able to, it helped me fight back. It helped me want to live and want to help myself because before I just couldn't tolerate the pain. That kind of alleviated. That was the only thing that was able to help me. How is it with such major injuries to your, you know, to the front of your body and to the back of your body? How is it that you were able to lay down even? Well, it's very uncomfortable. I still to today, I feel like if I'm carrying like a heavy vest in my back, it doesn't feel like even to like to get something that falls on the floor, bending over hurts, it hurts my back. Like when I'm sleeping, if I'm going to go to the other, move from side to side or, you know, lay on my stomach, every movement that I'm going to do, I have to sit up and then go to the side or sit up and lie on, you know, on my stomach. Whatever I'm going to do, it's, I have to always sit up so I won't, so my back won't hurt as much. Wow. Let's take one moment to thank our sponsors. I'll be right back with you in a moment and that. Our first sponsor is MTGOXMountGox.com. They offer online exchange services for bitcoins. They now take the Euro, the British pound, the Australian dollar and coming soon any day now is the Canadian dollar as well. Our second sponsor is usgoldcoins.com, our trusted advisor for investments in rare gold and silver coins. They can be reached at 1-800-HOTCOIN, and he takes the mystery out of buying silver and gold by holding your hands. They definitely take a hands-on approach and it's better to call and speak directly to someone at 1-800-HOTCOIN. Our third sponsor is mezegrill.com, where authentic Mediterranean food meets modern flavor. They're now serving breakfast and they're located in New York City on 8th Avenue at 55th Street. Just a couple of blocks from south, sorry, just a couple of blocks south of Columbus Circle. Okay, now, so you were in the hospital for five months almost, correct? Yeah. Okay, so I mean during that time, since the injuries to your back were so severe, I mean were they wrapping up your injuries and then you were basically to sleep? Right. I mean how would you sleep? Would you lay on your back to sleep? They ordered a special bed for me. It was a special bed and they wrapped my back. I don't remember what they would call it, but they would do wraps that were somewhat humid and I would have to lay down on this special bed and that's it. I would have to go to hyperbaric therapy also to help me cure faster. During the course of that time that you were in the hospital, I mean your injuries were so severe. I can't imagine that you could really take the time, but did you try to contact the medical provider in Columbia where you got this procedure done? Oh yeah, I tried contacting them and they said it was not their fault that they tried to blame it on the doctors here. So they just didn't want to hear it? Right. No, they offered for me to go back and that they'll pay for all the grafts, the skin grafts that I would need, that they would pay for certain things. I mean at that point, I can't even imagine, at that point being in that condition in the hospital under any circumstances, I can't imagine anybody would want to go back. No, no, no, I'm saying that was not an option. That's not an option. I couldn't talk to them again after that. Now did you ever investigate as to any legal recourse in that country? I mean, is that even an option? No, I just contacted attorneys here to see if I was able to do anything. I took pictures of my back like when I was in the hospital at that moment when it was just like the skin, the bare skin. And I sent these attorneys, like two or three attorneys pictures to see if they can help me, but they were not able to help me. And I'm assuming you gave them the information to the local office that you had been to, correct? Yes, I had. And did they try to pursue contacting them in any way? They didn't know. When anybody tried to call them about me, they would just deny that they knew me, that they ever met me, that I ever went to Columbia for surgery, just denied the whole thing. Really? So what did your attorney say? Well, attorneys didn't want to spend any money like hiring nurses and people to investigate because they weren't sure if they were going to be able to make any money out of it. So no one really took the time to investigate anything. So after all of this, you were basically not able to file any kind of claim. You weren't able to pursue it. And I mean, how did you cover your medical bills? When I was at Jackson, Jackson got me an emergency Medicaid. So the Medicaid paid for half of my bills, or more than half of my bills. The rest of the bills I still pay? Do you know, do you know what the total amount was? It was over $2 million. Over $2 million? Yeah, just the hyperbaric. I had 165, I think, therapies of hyperbarics, and hyperbarics each day was $1,000. Explain a little bit to the audience exactly what the hyperbaric chamber does. Well, the hyperbaric chamber is, it looks sort of like a submarine. Not many hospitals have this. Jackson Memorial has it. It looks kind of like a submarine. It's made of iron. You go in, and what it does is, you could only use the hyperbaric chamber if you have an open wound. So there's a lot of cancer patients in the chamber with you. And all is because you need to cure faster for some reason. Either because whatever you have is spreading fast, or there has to be a reason behind it. You have to qualify to be able to be in there. So basically what they do is they close you up in there, and then they put kind of like a helmet, kind of like an astronaut kind of thing over your head. And it starts getting pressure when you're in there. Like if somebody's diving, let's say like 50 feet. So that starts to get pressure. You have to like blow out so that your ears don't, you know, you have to hear your ears popping. And after it reaches a certain amount of pressure, it starts blowing out 100% oxygen. And you have to be in there about three to four hours. And that's what helped me cure faster. I was supposed to be hospitalized for about a year, and I was hospitalized for, yeah, even less than the amount. I was hospitalized for five months. So the hyperbaric chamber creates like a very sterile environment? Yes. And how long, how long are you in there for each treatment? For three hours, four hours. I don't remember it was three or four hours. So each time you have to be in there three to four hours? Yes. They even could go in there and medicate you when you need your pain medicine. When you need any medicine, they can go in there and medicate you. So you just have to lie in there very still? Very. You just lie in there still. You can talk to the people that are there, but you're wearing that helmet thing. And it's pretty uncomfortable because if you're claustrophobic, I mean, you can get out. It's uncomfortable. So how many of those treatments did you get, did you say? 165. Over the course of the few months you were there? Yes. And then even after, I had to continue going. Wow. That's unbelievable. So what else, other than the hyperbaric chamber, give us an idea of the other types of treatment that were involved in helping you get cured? Well, they also had something called the vac. They placed it on my back. It's like a very strong tape. And what it does is it vacuums. It vacuums. It makes your skin, since I had so much skin that it was like, it was so in like towards, you know, it was like the spinal cord. You can see my spinal cord. So I needed to grow out and skin doesn't really grow out by itself. So they put that back on you and then it starts suctioning. And that was the way that my skin was able to grow out a little bit so that my body could be shaped. That's interesting. I think we have a picture of the injuries to your back. Let's take a look at that for a moment. Is it on? Okay. Here the viewers can see, obviously we weren't going to photograph the injuries to your breasts. Your breasts were removed and you later had to get reconstructive surgery to your breasts. But basically this is the injury that you're left with now. This is what your back looks like right now. How does this compare to your original injuries? Oh, no. My original injuries were my whole, my entire back. That's just a little part of my back. The injuries before was my entire back. Your entire back, would you say from your shoulders down? A little lower than my shoulders all the way down to my spinal cord. So down to your hip area or above that? A little lower than my hip area. Okay. What they did to help me, so that I would require less skin, was they did kind of like a tuck. That's how you see it smaller there. They kind of pulled from the top, from the sides to make it a little smaller, so that that way I would require less skin. Wow. Yeah, it looks like a much smaller injury than it would have originally been, given that your entire back from top to bottom basically had to be removed. Due to gangrene. Now what about your breasts? How long did you have to go without breasts before those were reconstructed? They recommended that I wait a year before going for plastic surgery again. I definitely needed to have the plastic surgery, because there was no way I can live with the breasts the way that they looked. They were awful. They didn't even look like breasts. During this whole time in it, I mean over this first year, how did you feel about yourself? How did you feel in this new body? Because basically you had a new body. Terrible. Terrible. I regretted every minute of it. It was a very difficult year for me, I have to say. What was your biggest regret at that point? That you chose that particular doctor? I mean what do you think you could have done differently? Your case is not the only case like this. It's one of the worst that I've seen, but you know that there are people. It's very important for me to tell the viewers at this point in the conversation that you can have an instance of negligence in any country, including the United States. There are good doctors and bad doctors everywhere. The whole purpose of this conversation today is so the viewers can learn something from your particular experience and think about what they can do differently when making a decision, especially when you go overseas. And this is true if you live in another country and you're coming to the United States for surgery as well. It's very important that you understand the laws in those countries, that you understand what the recourse is in case you're confronted with this type of situation. I think it's also important that you're accompanied by someone, by a loved one maybe, and you don't take this trip by yourself. It's never the intention of this show to be one-sided and it's never my own personal intention to be one-sided. So it's important that you the viewers understand that my personal belief is not necessarily that you get better treatment in the United States. There are many malpractice situations in the United States as well. However, there is recourse here. There is accountability. There's a system in place that will ensure that if there is malpractice done to you that you can file a claim, you can hold somebody accountable. A doctor's license is at stake. And I just think it's important to really research properly all of your options and if you're going to make a decision to go overseas because there are some brilliant doctors in many countries overseas, especially in South America, you just have to be more educated and better prepared when making a decision. So I don't think that you were necessarily mistaken in having gone to Columbia for the surgery, but just your process in getting there maybe could have been different. What do you think you could have done differently to have avoided this problem? Well, in a way, the plastic surgeon, it was the facility's fault that I became infected if you think about it because it was the instruments that were not cleaned and not sterilized. And I don't think doctors sterilize their own instruments. Correct. I think that they changed for you there. So the surgeon, however, I don't agree that plastic, you should be in plastic surgery for 10 hours. And here I know there are guidelines as to how many hours, how many things you can do in one surgery. And over there, there isn't those kinds of rules. And if there is, they don't really respect those laws. Well, do you think that before you left Columbia to come back to the U.S. that the doctor was aware, was definitely aware that you were experiencing a problem that was outside of the normal realm of the way that someone is supposed to feel when they come out of surgery? He knew exactly how I was feeling. There was no way I can hide it. I mean, all I can do was cry. All I can do was, I mean, I was feeling really, really bad. So, I mean, everybody knew that I was not doing well. So, as a matter of fact, the girls that had become friends with me and the trip at the beginning towards the end, they didn't really want to talk to me much. I think they kind of knew that I wasn't doing well and in the future there was going to be some kind of problem or lawsuit and they stopped talking to me. Did you ever, did you ever keep in touch with? I kept in touch with, I kept in touch with one of them for a little bit when I first got here. But she disappeared as well and she stopped calling me and after I got really sick, she stopped calling me. Really? I didn't want to be a part of it, you know? Right, but nobody ever, none of those women flat out told you that. Did they? No. You just didn't hear from them again after that? I just never heard from them again and I tried to call them and they would just not answer. Now, all of those women that went on that trip with you, they were, none of them were accompanied by a relative or a loved one either, no? No, no, everybody went alone. So once, once you got out of the hospital, let's go back to the breast reconstruction. Did you, you did get that done within a year? Yes, I was getting a little anxious, so I started calling my plastic surgeon, which was the one that helped me in the hospital. Him is Dr. Armstrong. I started calling him at nine months, like trying to get him to do the surgery before. So he, you know, he didn't. He just, he basically, like when I was about, when I called him at the 10th or 11th month, he said, well, I'll give you an appointment. And he finally gave me an appointment and I ended up having the surgery exactly like a year, exactly a year after I got the hospital. So obviously we're not going to be showing pictures of the outcome of that surgery, but tell me in your own words, what was the outcome and were you happy with the reconstruction? I was very happy. I was happy that he had to do the surgery in two parts. The first part was to reconstruct the breast because it didn't even look like a breast, which I was happy alone with the reconstruction. I was, when I saw the reconstruction, I was, I thought that was it, that I didn't need another surgery, but the doctor said that no, that there was another surgery where he's going to place the implant and it was going to be much nicer. And he was right. I mean, I went for the second surgery, it was just placing the implant. And yeah, I have to say, I can tell that my breasts went through something because they don't look perfect, but I'm happy, I'm very happy with the outcome. We have a few comments in the chat room from viewers that are watching you live right now. Obviously we're not going to show pictures of the breast reconstruction, but can you stand up just so that the viewers can see what you look like, you know, with clothes on. I don't know if you can see me. If you stand, if you... I'm orange. Did you see me? Yes. Yes. Great. And you can't even see anything on your back either with your clothing, which is fantastic. Okay. The guests approve. In the chat, they're saying that you look great. Thank you. Thank you. Now, let's talk about a little bit about your personal life at the time. Were you in a relationship when you went to Columbia initially for the surgery? I was, yes. And was he supportive during this entire process? I can't even imagine what it's like for a significant other to have to endure everything that came afterwards. He was very supportive. I was the one that was kicking him out of the hospital all the time, telling him to find another wife or another, because I didn't think I was ever going to be better. I thought that I was not going to ever get better or look normal, you know? And he was, he was very supportive. Now, what has the process been like over the last few years in your self-image, in your body image? How do you feel about yourself now? Well, I feel fine. I do have a little bit of a complex, and when it deals with, I haven't had too many relationships after because it's a little hard for me. I don't know when to tell the person that I have this scar in my back. You know, some people don't like it. You know, some people don't mind it at all. But I've gotten a little better about it. Have you had, have you had an experience where... You know what I'm going to say, right? Probably why. Yeah, I had an experience where I started to date someone and we went to the beach together. I had already told him about my back. So I thought I'm in the clear, you know, I'm good, he could deal with it, everything's good. And when we went to the beach, he saw my back and I did notice he wasn't very talkative. And later on, we spoke on the phone and he told me, you know, you had told me about your back, but I didn't know it was so bad. I mean, really, I cannot deal with something like that. And I was like, wow, I used to think about those things like when I was in the hospital, but I never really saw it happening to me, you know? Wow. So he, I mean, you have to appreciate that he was honest about it at least because a lot of guys would have just never called you again and you're left wondering, you know, what, what happened. No, I did appreciate it. So from that moment on, do you feel like you need to be more graphic or actually show somebody the scar and just get it out of the way at the beginning when you first meet them? I try to not show, I don't try to show them. I try to warn them, like, tell them that I do have this huge scar because I feel that there's people that it does bother. There's people that it doesn't bother at all, you know, that they see it different. Which I mean, the scar has nothing to do with the way that I am, obviously, I mean, it's just... Of course, it doesn't define you as a person. Right. So, you know, but I do kind of want, I like to tell them because if there are people that cannot deal with it, they should know, you know, it should be fair and they should know. And what about other relationships? What about, I mean, you spent a lot of time in the hospital. Did your friends come and visit? Did you feel that your loved ones and your family were supportive? Did some things change? I mean, were there people that just disappeared from your life? Yes, there were. I had a really good friend, who I'm at her house right now. I had a lot of time every single day. And I had a lot of... several good friends that went to see me. However, I didn't have support from my family just because my mom was actually sick herself at that time. She was very critical. And she actually passed away the year right after that I got out of the hospital. And my dad would go to see me every once in a while. Not as much as I would have liked, but, you know, there were people that went to see me. But again, I was mostly alone during the day. At night, I would have two visitors who were always there, which was my ex-husband and my friend, Annie. So you say your ex-husband, the relationship that you were in, I'm assuming based on what you just said that that relationship did not last. No. No. And the time that I was in the hospital, I guess being there so many months, he kind of cheated. He kind of cheated? That's a whole other topic. But did you stay in the relationship until after you... Yes, I did. I stayed in the relationship until after, and then after I found out, I still stayed in the relationship for two more years after. Okay, so you were together for a couple of years after that? Yeah. So now in these last couple of years, where your scar is definitely... it's still a major scar, but it's a lot better than it used to be. With all of the advancements in plastic surgery, have you been offered to continue to work on it and to make it better? Yeah, they offered to do it for free at Jackson, as a matter of fact. But I decided that I wasn't going to do that, that I'm just going to leave it there. It doesn't really... It's part of me right now, and I'm not going to get rid of it. I said that if I would ever have surgery again, it was going to be something that I needed, not something for cosmetic purposes. Yeah, that's very admirable, because I don't know a lot of people that would be willing to live with a major scar like that and not have vanity kick in and really make you want to fix it or make it better. Like I said, it bothers me when I have to lie down, but I've already gotten used to all those things. I already got used to the whole thing. I'm not going to get rid of it just because... It's like a little reminder. I went through something. No, and listen, it definitely made you a stronger person. You have an unbelievable spirit. You're a very positive person. And not a lot of people... Not a lot of people that don't have the scar that you have feel as well about themselves as you obviously do, which I think is really, really commendable, because most people that have never undergone this kind of procedure the problems that came after, you know, and they still live with a complex about insignificant things about their body. So the fact that you've been able to overcome this and move forward and you have less of a problem with it than the people that look at you, I think is really an unbelievable thing. So do you wear a one piece or a bikini to the beach? Bikini. Good for you. That's fantastic. Do people... I mean, has anybody asked you? Do anybody come up to you and ask you? No, nobody has asked me. Some people are very discreet about looking and some people just look and stare and others don't even care. You get all these kinds of reactions out there. I go to the beach a lot, so I know... Most of the people have seen me, I go to the same place, so a lot of people don't even look anymore. I don't bother me if they look or if they don't look or if they make a comment. I don't really care what anybody has to say if it's negative I don't care. This particular topic has many layers. There's one thing that I want to talk about that I think is very important. You and I had a conversation prior to the show about the many layers of this topic and at one point you mentioned about your struggle with the painkillers. Tell the audience a little bit about that. It was horrible. I got addicted to the Dilaudid and to a lot of medications like to sleep that I was taking for five months every four to six hours, so it was not... I got addicted to them because I needed it basically to survive, to be in there. When I got out, I was stuck... I was very addicted to Dilaudid, which I remember I spent the 31st of December that year in the hospital saying that I was in major pain, really wasn't in major pain, only because I wanted them to put it in my mind. That's all I wanted. When the doctor got there to see me and they told me, where's the pain? I didn't know what they were talking about because all I wanted was the medication. One second. It's okay. Sorry. It's okay. It was all the addiction. I was having withdrawals. I was about scraping my face. It was going crazy. They had to refer me to pain management and they started giving me the medication, but weaving me off of it. And that's how I was able to stop taking it. How long were you taking pain medication before you got off? I was taking it for maybe three more months. So you got out of the hospital five months after the initial admission. So once you got out, you spent a couple of months on the pain medication. Right. So you were very lucky that you were able to get off of the medication that quickly. Some people, it's a very difficult addiction to overcome. It is horrible. I then understood, let me tell you, I understood people that are addicted to different things. I just understood what being an addict was like. And it was awful. What are the withdrawals like? I couldn't sleep at all. I couldn't sleep. I was just anxious, very anxious. You start doing different things like biting my mouth or scraping my face with my hands. Trying to pull my hairs out. Do you feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety? Yes, overwhelming. It's uncontrollable. It's bad. So how did they get you off of that? They kept giving it to me, but the same dose just less pills. And then my ex-husband would give it to me. He was the one that would medicate me. So he would give me exactly more bedtime or half in the morning. Whatever I would recommend it, he would do it exactly. If I would have had it in my possession, I would have probably downed the whole bottle. But he was giving this to me according to what the doctor's recommendations were. And that's how I was able to get weaved off of them. Giving it to me like that little by little and cutting the pills smaller and smaller each day, I would take the same dose for maybe two or three days. Then they would go over the dose for a couple of days. And that's how I was able to stop taking it completely. Wow. But thank God you did and very quickly, relatively quickly. Pretty quick. I had very good nurses and people that would come to talk to me to give me their own feedback. They used to think about that medication, the addiction and the whole thing. One day they told me that I had destroyed a bit. Their marriage had been destroyed. Their kids' lives had been destroyed just because of that addiction. So you need to get rid of it. So I knew I had to, but it was really... And I had come out of the hospital and I was staying to myself. Now I have to deal with it. This is awful. I thought I was done and I had to deal with this whole addiction problem. Do you think that that's part of the reason why you don't want to undergo another cosmetic surgery? No. It isn't part of the reason. I don't want to undergo the surgery just because I'm okay living the way that I live. I'm okay with myself. No. That's fantastic. I thought that maybe having to undergo another surgery you would have to be on some kind of pain medication and that there might be a fear associated with that. But you definitely gave me the better answer. A lot of people go an entire lifetime and don't ever get to a point where they feel 100% happy with themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin. So I think the fact that you've overcome all of this, you've survived an injury because I think it's a miracle that you even survived this entire ordeal. The fact that you can come out of this and feel this way about yourself is really a magnificent thing. It would have been better if you would have felt that way years ago. That's one of the lessons here. What do you recommend to the viewers watching because this is a very common thing. I know many people that have gone overseas or even within our country that have undergone cosmetic surgery. What is the best advice you can give to someone looking to get a procedure done? I think it's just better to be safe than sorry and it's better to do your own research and when you go to a surgeon, you know for sure that they have a valid license. I didn't make any of these researches so it would have been good. Yes, they had their licenses but they were not doing things properly. I think it's better to be safe than sorry but pay more now than later. That's what I recommend. Definitely. I want to add to that. You should definitely consider again accompanied by someone that you trust so that if you're not able to make a decision on your own somebody can make it on your behalf and you're just at heart. Maybe getting in your particular case you had a friend that had been there recently you had a friend that had been there recently and that was your testimonial so to speak in helping you choose this particular doctor. I think that it would be a good idea for other people to consider getting multiple references from the doctor. If you visit a doctor by them, have them give you a list of references people that you can call and ask about the experience. The experience isn't just about the surgery it's also about their nurses it's about how they take care of you from that moment on once you're out of the surgery. No? There's definitely in every country there has to be legalities that go with these types of claims you should definitely figure out in the particular country that you're visiting what measures you can take if you're the victim of a malpractice. Ned I want to thank you for being with us today for our Spanish speaking viewers we're going to be on in about 30 minutes hopefully with the Spanish version of the program. I'm really proud of you I'm proud of this like a wonder woman and if anybody has any questions for a net or any comments you can email me at Michelle at OnlyOneTV.com Thank you so much for joining us today and see us again next week on Tuesday for the next episode of the Michelle Show Bye