Hello,

I am a newbie to this forum and this is my my first post. First of all I would like to thank this forum and all the members for providing such a wonderful platform to people who are facing problems with hair loss. With out you all, it would have been very difficult to find a good surgon like Dr. Radha.

I am 42 year old male from IL, USA. I had a HT procedure done on Dec 19th by Dr. Radha Palakurthi(Visakhapatnam, India). Here is my experience.

After following this forum for quite sometime, I decided to go with Dr. Radha. I sent an email to her in the third week of November for an appointment. It took few days to receive a reply from her and I was little concerned as I was planning to go to India in the third week of Dec. After 3-4 days I received an email from Dr. Radha asking for more details and she mentioned that she could not reply back earlier as she was traveling. I requested her to give an appointment around 20th of Dec as I was going to stay in India only for 2 weeks. She replied saying back it was difficult to accomodate my request with such a short notice and also due to her prior appointments. I called her office and explained my situation and they immediately gave her cell No. Her front office staff (Ms.Prasanna is a very helpul and courteous person). I called up Dr. Radha and explained my situation and requested her for an appointment. She promised me that she will go through her dairy and will try her best to give me an appointment. As promised she wrote back to me saying that she will be able to see me on Dec 19th 2013. She sent me some instructions regarding what to do before the surgery. After reaching India I sent an email and I was told to see her on Dec 18th evening for the initial consultation. I went to her clinic at around 3:30 pm and was taken to a consultation room. After a few minutes Dr. Radha came in and we had a brief chat about the procedure. She is very warm person, makes you very comfortable and explains you the total process. She had a look at my hair line and said I should not expect more than 3000 grafts based on the thickness of hair and flexibilty of my skin. I was asked to come back the next day morning at 8:30 am. Went back to the hotel( Hotel Taj Gateway; very nice hotel) and slept early. Next morning around 8:00 am I went back to the clinic and the friendly staff took me to the consultation room. Shortly afterwards the nurse(Ms. Shashi, a very nice and friendly person) came in took some blood samples. After that another nurse (Ms.Ujjwala' again a very helpful person) took me to another room and handed over sterile clothes to change. At around 8:30 am Dr. Radha came in and spoke to me for few minutes. She was always having a smile on her face and makes you very comfortable. You feel as if you are taking to a friend. She then took some photos & measurements. She then determined that the total area she would be covering would be around 123 sq cms. She said she will start from the front with more density and as it goes back the density of coverage will be little less based on the No of grafts she would be able to extract. I was then taken to the operation room( Very nice set up) and was given some anxiety pills and local anaestetia. As she does each step she will clearly explain what she is doing. Dr. Radha then cut a strip from the back of my head. The whole process of extracting the strip and stiching the skin took few hours and around 12:30 I was given a lunch break for 30-45 min. Most of the time I had a good sleep and did not have much pain or discomfort. Before I went tout of the operation theatre they asked me if I would like to see how the technicains are seggregating the grafts from the strip which was taken from the back fo my head. I went and they showed me how the technicians were working on the hair follicules.Post lunch session Dr. Radha started planting the folicules that were taken out from my hair strip. I was again given some anxiety pills and local anaestetia and I soon slipped into sleep.( I heard some people dont get sleep due to anxiety or due to discomfort). Anyways I woke up in between a couple of times and Dr. Radha told me everything was going well. Finally around 6:30 pm Dr. radha woke me up and said the procedure was done and everything went very well. I was very relieved and felt happy. I was taken to a room and was asked to chage back to my clothes. After changing back, the nurse took me to the initial consultation room, and was met by Dr. Radha with a warm smile. She told me that she was able to extract 3845 grafts(WOW!!! More than what I expected). ((Total 3845 grafts- Single hair: 966; Doubles: 2739; Three hair: 140;)) She again spent sometime giving instructions and asked me to come the next day morning for cleaning and dressing. As far as I remember, Dr. Radha was by my side during the total procedure performing most part of the surgery along with her assistants. This gave me more confidence and comfort see her doing the stuff herself. I thanked all the assisatnts and technicains who were a part of the surgery and took leave from them. HERE IS THE BEST PART....Before I left, I asked Dr. Radha about the payment(Believe me till this point she never talked about the money part). She smiled and told me that we can discuss this the next day when I go for dressing. When I insisted that I want pay it immediately then she generously rounded of the figure and I paid her the amount. This clearly shows her character, professionalism and her down to earth nature. Next day I went in, got the cleaning done and had a quick chart with Dr. Radha and happily headed back to the airport. After 5 days I was asked to go to another doctor who was a friend of Dr. Radha to get the sutures removed. Since I did not have enough time and could not stay back in Visakhapatnam for the next 5 days, Dr. Radha referred me to another doctor in the city I was going to stay. Overall I had a very pleasant and GREAT experience and with out any hesitation I would recommend Dr. Radha to every one looking for a HT surgery. Last but not the least, Dr. Radha had a very friendly and professional support staff. The clinic itself is very good and well equipped. I will post my photos shortly. Once again thanks to this forum all the members who have contributed to this forum. Good Luck guys and hope this post helps.