Dr. Wasserbauer

Dear Forum, I was contacted by both Bill and Patrick of this forum a few weeks ago and invited to participate in order to help patients with honest questions about hair loss and possible medical therapies. I have not yet posted any patient photos for this community to critique, nor has Patrick had a chance to post his impressions of his gracious visit to my clinic. Within the first hours of joining and posting, I received not only some well-deserved critiques of my website but also several emails sent directly to my office like the following: Begin forwarded message: From: larry vanhoy <scott_vanhoy@yahoo.com> Date: April 17, 2008 5:00:51 PM PDT To: info@californiahairsurgeon.com Subject: Hair Transplant Surgery Reply-To: scott_vanhoy@yahoo.com Greetings, What a bunch of fraudulent hacks you must be there at your clinic. You have taken a picture of Joe Tillman, a patient of Dr Wong of Hassen and Wong, and put a picture that he took of himself on your website as if he were your patient. I have never in all of my days seen such deceit. How many unsuspecting suckers have you hooked in from this type of lies just to make a buck? What you did should be criminal and if I were Mr. Tillman and Dr's Hassen and Wong, I'd seriously consider seeking advice from an attorney to find out just to what extent of damages you have caused to their practice. Please know that I will gladly do my part on the hair transplant networks and websites to discredit and expose you for who you are. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. I am very proud of the world-class work that I do to help patients and the high standards to which I hold my clinic. Since it seems unlikely that an objective assessment can occur at this point, I would like to thank Patrick and Bill for inviting me to participate, but will regretfully request to be removed from consideration for membership. I understand that my absence will likely be filled with negative comments to which I will be unable to respond, and this is unfortunate, but I simply cannot bring myself to engage in this sort of exchange, and my patients will be able to assess my passion for excellence in hair medicine for themselves through other means. I wish the Hair Transplant Network and the Hair Loss Forum well, and will continue to support all of your good work and the efforts that you make for excellence in hair restoration. Sincerely, Sara Wasserbauer MD

Bill, Jotronic, et al. Thank you for writing to us to alert us of this problem and I apologize to "Jotronic." When we created the website via a webmaster familiar with hair practices, we were assured these photo's were stock, royalty-free pictures. They were intended to be used as place holders until we got the site up and running and we could place our own into those spots. This is not an excuse, just the explanation. We do not and never will have any intention of using them as a means of showing the quality of our work. In fact, this picture shows grafts in saline at room temperature and our grafts are kept cold (either by way of ice packs or refrigerators) and wet, and cut under microscopes with backlighting at all times to maintain the best quality and graft integrity for our patients. We take what we do very seriously as any of our patients, staff, or surgical colleagues will attest. I just got off the phone with our webmaster and this seems to be one of the things that "slipped" his mind. He has assured me the pictures will be removed from the site tonight, and will be replaced with photos of our own. We certainly have plenty of our own surgery photos and we apologize to the member whose photo was used. This was an honest mistake. In the final analysis, all aspects of my practice are my responsibility, and I take credit as well as responsibility for my web site (you can scrutinize it yourself at www.californiahairsurgeon.com). Thanks for keeping us "honest" and we look forward to working with you in the future. Warm Regards, Dr. Wasserbauer

Dear Forum Members, I just wanted to thank Patrick for taking the time to visit our hair restoration office in Walnut Creek, CA. Although we have not yet made the decision as to whether we will join yet, we are pleased to have been invited and thoroughly enjoyed our site visit. Thank you for providing your fellow patients with such a valuable resource! Warm Regards, Dr. Sara Wasserbauer www.californiahairsurgeon.com