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Plastic Surgeon left stitches left in too long...Permanent suture scars

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dogbitevic

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania
My 3 year old daughter was bitten in the face about 6 months ago. She had stitches in her upper & bottm lips, above & below both lip lines. I was extremely upset with the Plastic Surgeon (PS) the ER brought in b/c he didn't allow enought time for the lydocaine to take effect. My daughter screamed in agony & while 3 nurses had to hold her down. He told me to bring her to his office in a week to remove the stitches. I didn't want to ever see him again even for the simple taks of removing stitches. I made an appointment the next day with a PS I had dealt w/ before & had good results. He said he'd take on my daughter as his patient & to bring her back in a week for the stitches to be removed. When we went back (8 days after initial bite) my daughter started crying as soon as he went near her face with scissors. He said he didn't want to traumatize or risk nicking her if she moved while he worked. He told me to keep soaking the stitches as many times a day as I could and hopefully they would loosen & fall out on their own. If not, after another 10 days he would sedate her to safely remove them. I soaked them as instructed & they remained intact. After 10 days I called & scheduled her to be sedated. Ultimately, it was 2 1/2 weeks before her stitches were removed. I know it has only been 6 months, but I'm not happy with how her scars look. Upon advice from my pediatrician, I made an appointment with a Pediatric Plastic Surgeon. As soon as he looked at my daughter's scars he asked how long the stitches were in. I told him 2 & half weeks & he just shook his head. He said facial stitches should come out after 3 - 5 days to avoid the "railroad track" marks which my daughter visibly has on both sides of her scars. I just feel sick to my stomach over this. The Pediatric PS said she could get dermabrasion performed when she is a teenager to blur the tracks but they are permanent & didn't need to be. I am already suing the dog owner's howeowner's insurance which is a slam dunk for my daughter since this is the dog's 2nd bite & witnesses testified that my daughter didn't provoke the dog in any way. I've never sued anyone in my life but no one has ever hurt one of my kids before. I am so upset with the 2nd PS for allowing the stitches to be in for so long. If I had known the consequences I would have snipped them out myself...but I am not a doctor. Shouldn't he have know? I probably won't take any action, but I'd love to hear some of your thoughts/advice. Thank you.
 


panzertanker

Senior Member
dogbitevic said:
Shouldn't he have know? I probably won't take any action, but I'd love to hear some of your thoughts/advice. Thank you.
He did know, but he also used prudent judgement in not traumatizing your daughter further. It can be more detrimental to sleep someone to remove stitches, and I think it was a wise decision to not "jump" on that route immediately.

As for the scarring, that is a subjective response, and you would have to be able to prove that she would not have scarred under earlier removal.

At this point, I would recommend getting your daughter through this traumatic situation and using Vitamin E. Follow the ped PS advice and take a deep breath.
I am glad your daughter is OK.
 

barry1817

Senior Member
dog bite

dogbitevic said:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania
My 3 year old daughter was bitten in the face about 6 months ago. She had stitches in her upper & bottm lips, above & below both lip lines. I was extremely upset with the Plastic Surgeon (PS) the ER brought in b/c he didn't allow enought time for the lydocaine to take effect. My daughter screamed in agony & while 3 nurses had to hold her down. He told me to bring her to his office in a week to remove the stitches. I didn't want to ever see him again even for the simple taks of removing stitches. I made an appointment the next day with a PS I had dealt w/ before & had good results. He said he'd take on my daughter as his patient & to bring her back in a week for the stitches to be removed. When we went back (8 days after initial bite) my daughter started crying as soon as he went near her face with scissors. He said he didn't want to traumatize or risk nicking her if she moved while he worked. He told me to keep soaking the stitches as many times a day as I could and hopefully they would loosen & fall out on their own. If not, after another 10 days he would sedate her to safely remove them. I soaked them as instructed & they remained intact. After 10 days I called & scheduled her to be sedated. Ultimately, it was 2 1/2 weeks before her stitches were removed. I know it has only been 6 months, but I'm not happy with how her scars look. Upon advice from my pediatrician, I made an appointment with a Pediatric Plastic Surgeon. As soon as he looked at my daughter's scars he asked how long the stitches were in. I told him 2 & half weeks & he just shook his head. He said facial stitches should come out after 3 - 5 days to avoid the "railroad track" marks which my daughter visibly has on both sides of her scars. I just feel sick to my stomach over this. The Pediatric PS said she could get dermabrasion performed when she is a teenager to blur the tracks but they are permanent & didn't need to be. I am already suing the dog owner's howeowner's insurance which is a slam dunk for my daughter since this is the dog's 2nd bite & witnesses testified that my daughter didn't provoke the dog in any way. I've never sued anyone in my life but no one has ever hurt one of my kids before. I am so upset with the 2nd PS for allowing the stitches to be in for so long. If I had known the consequences I would have snipped them out myself...but I am not a doctor. Shouldn't he have know? I probably won't take any action, but I'd love to hear some of your thoughts/advice. Thank you.
Just make sure that in your dog bite lawsuit, all costs of treatment, and future treatment are to be included.

[email protected]
 

dogbitevic

Junior Member
Reply

Thanks for the advice Len. I am grateful that my daughter is o.k. & I am trying to keep everything in perspective. I know 1 doctor may theorize that leaving stitches in for a longer period of time will cause permanent suture marks where another doctor may not believe this to be true. It is just so upsetting to me that each doctor I take her to shakes his head at the work of the previous surgeon. I am just wracked with guilt that I made one bad decision after another in choosing which ER to go to & then which PS to follow up with.
As for the lawsuit against the dog owners, I hired an attorney & we're looking to get all present & future medical covered as well as pain & suffering. I have no idea what to expect, but I do want my daughter to be awarded something for having scars on her beautiful little face. What makes the whole situation worse is that the dog owner is my uncle & he is completely incensed that we actually hired an attorney to put a claim against his homeowners. He blew up at my father (his brother) and hasn't spoken to any of us in about 4 months. He never even had the guts to come over to apologize or check in on my daughter after the horrible incident. The icing of the cake...he still has the dog.
 

barry1817

Senior Member
dog bite

dogbitevic said:
Thanks for the advice Len. I am grateful that my daughter is o.k. & I am trying to keep everything in perspective. I know 1 doctor may theorize that leaving stitches in for a longer period of time will cause permanent suture marks where another doctor may not believe this to be true. It is just so upsetting to me that each doctor I take her to shakes his head at the work of the previous surgeon. I am just wracked with guilt that I made one bad decision after another in choosing which ER to go to & then which PS to follow up with.
As for the lawsuit against the dog owners, I hired an attorney & we're looking to get all present & future medical covered as well as pain & suffering. I have no idea what to expect, but I do want my daughter to be awarded something for having scars on her beautiful little face. What makes the whole situation worse is that the dog owner is my uncle & he is completely incensed that we actually hired an attorney to put a claim against his homeowners. He blew up at my father (his brother) and hasn't spoken to any of us in about 4 months. He never even had the guts to come over to apologize or check in on my daughter after the horrible incident. The icing of the cake...he still has the dog.

If the insurance would have stepped up to the plate and covered this you probably wouldn't be in the situation where you had to sue. As to a relative covering the plastic surgery without insurance coverage, it is highly doubtful that he would be writing the check for the coverage.

If it makes you feel any better I was at a party where the owner's dog bit my face. He said he would cover the bills, but a dog bite to the face meant that in Ca., the dog had to be quarantined, and the owner's insurance had to be notified.

I was taken to the emergency hospital and when I came back to the party his dog was still wandering among guests, it was a Bar B Q.

I was forced to sue, and it caused a rift among the group, but it could not be resolved any differently, and I have no real regrets about this.

It is also worth noting that 3 attorneys told me what they could expect for the settlement, which if the insurance would have just paid me, when I attempted to negotiate would have been fine, but they wouldn't deal with me.

I was forced to hire an attorney and with the suit filed, and with no paperwork the offer to settle was almost triple what I the attorney's told me and we settled very quickly.

And in Ca. there is no first bite rule. Any bite is absolute liablity unless you can show that the person was trespassing and not a guest on the property.

[email protected]
 

Kohlbee

Junior Member
Suture scars

Hi - I too had suture scars, on my face from stitches that were not removed in a timely manner on my face. :(

VERY CAREFULLY, I touched each suture mark individually on separate days, and treated each as if they were a pimple. When each was poked with an extremely small tool that in turn created an invisible hole, the suture marks drained a clear liquid and some material that resembled white flexible tissue, not as much as a pimple, but enough that indicated the suture scars were not 100% skin. One or two suture marks did not drain, but had black stitching material emerge from the scar. Not much, but a tiny dot of material that made me realize that I was on the right track by doing this procedure.

Each suture mark (eleven in total), drained slowly when pinched with tweezers. Again, it was strange, that a bit of stitching material emerged from many of the suture marks as well. :eek:

Upon completion, my track marks are gone, as is the pain that I had from the suture scars. These suture scars were extremely small, and from a plastic surgeon, but very visible, yet now they have healed perfectly. The surgeon's incision marks also look much better; prior to my suture mark revision, so to speak, one side of my face looked as if the original incision has been very jagged. Now it appears to be smooth and symmetrical with the incision on the other side of my face. Both incisions were made in the eye region, to repair injuries, so, the skin was/is extremely delicate but very responsive.

I hope this helps, and that you understand that I took my time with each suture scar that was raised and visible. I also moved the skin very slightly to see if and when the suture scar had drained or shrank completely as I was performing my procedure.

I am under the belief that suture scars are similar to milia, in that they are areas of the skin that tried to heal over suture scars, and never had the chance to fully bond and finish healing. The removal of the clear liquid and material inside the scar has permitted the skin to NOW heal as it should have after the surgery.

I hope this helps and that you have success as I did; strange that I have heard of no other person attempting this :confused:. I worked and has made my life 100% because I have zero track marks or scars that resemble mini fish bones. I performed this procedure 3 years after my surgery, just to let you know.
 

lealea1005

Senior Member
This thread is 5 years old! Please do not necropost.
If you have a question, please start your own thread. Thanks.
 

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