Farewell

[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.

 

 

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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

[Dewayne]

Personally, I wish you would reconsider. Sometimes people post in the heat of the moment, but I think that could be easily overcome by your clinic. There are smart people here who can make up their own minds.

 

If you check the thread, several posters came to your defense... and they didn't even know you.

[Dewayne]

And, that all happened before anyone knew you were at a level you were being considered for recommendation.

[dakota3]

OK! See ya!!! No seriouly though if you really and truly want to be a member hear you will just post some pic's and try to put this behind you. If you are for real people will see that and conversley if you are fake people will see that too.

[HairUpThere]

hey doc i have seen ur work and i believe u r a top of the rung hair doc!!!!!

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Sara,

 

It was a pleasure meeting you and your staff this week. I know you are a positive person who does not appreciate mean spirited attacks. Neither do I.

 

I apologize for this person's mean spirited email. I accept your explanation as to this simple misunderstanding, which was posted on another forum topic .

 

Frankly, I do not think the person who wrote this email to you belongs on this community. I have suspended his posting privileges (see my email to this poster below).

 

The vast majority of the members of this patient based community are here to help others and are well meaning and intelligent individuals.

 

I hope that you will not let this one person sour you on a community that you and your patients may garner much positive value from. To capitulate to one mean spirited email would be to make it very successful.

 

While the tone of this person's email was wrong, all physicians will need to realize that patients will critique and comment on all work presented.

 

If you are willing and able to handle constructive feedback, then I encourage you to get involved and share your patient results.

 

I found my visit to your clinic this week encouraging and it would be a shame to let one mean spirited email derail your participation. Thanks again for opening your clinic up to me.

 

Upwards and Onwards, Pat

 

My email to spineguy1 -

 

 

While I can understand your upset over the improper use of the H & W photo (and believe me it happens to me all the time) I really find the accusatory tone of your post to be mean and inappropriate.

 

I met with her and her staff this past week and found her to be a very decent person. You really should have given this decent lady a chance to explain herself before jumping to conclusions.

 

Until you apologize to her in writing your posting privileges are suspended.

 

I hope that you are true to your name "SpineGuy" and can admit that you went too far and undo some of the upset you have brought her.

[NW4recession]

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.

 

Is this true or is it a false accusation?

[Naruto]

yeah

 

is this a true accusation?

didnt some doctor, i think doctor a of india get banned for putting other peoples work on his website?

[Bill - Seemiller]

Dr. Wasserbauer,

 

I can certainly understand why you are upset. But I encourage you not to let one member's ignorance and mean spirit prevent you from reaching the a great multitude by presenting your patient results online for potential recommendation.

 

As Pat already stated, I think you'll find the majority of our members helpful in offering advice, support, and constructive feedback. Additionally, think of how many silent members and guests you will reach with your posts. Patient photo albums are quite popular and often times, within a period of 2 short days, they have received over 1000 views. Therefore, I encourage you to ignore the ignorant and reach out to the masses.

 

I have had the privilege of speaking to you by email and phone a number of times and have learned a lot about your clinic from our interview.

 

Though I expressed concern in my email to you about the use of third party photos for your website after reading this thread, as a former webmaster for a large corporation, I completely understand the use of temporary placeholders that were to eventualy be replaced, especially given that you were simply displaying an example of what microscopic dissection looks like. Your explanation was acceptable and understandable.

 

Therefore, if you are willing to open yourself up to constructive feedback, I encourage you to reconsider presenting your patient photos which will benefit you and your prospective patients for many years to come.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Bill - Seemiller]

Forum members,

 

Before posting, I encourage you to read the entire contents of this thread and follow all links which addresses some of your questions. Please follow the link to the topic that explains this in great detail.

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[NW4recession]

Thanks for posting that link Bill. I did not know that another thread existed on this topic, so therefore I did not read it. So if it was just a picture of someone cutting grafts, that is not a big deal. I thought they may have actually posted pictures of patients that were not their own based on the accusatory email. I don't think they were intentionally trying to deceive anyone by posting the picture of another clinic cutting grafts.

[Dewayne]

I sent her an email suggesting she give us another try; and think it would be pretty cool for any of you who think that was a little overblown to do the same.

 

It would be a shame for someone to miss an opportunity to meet up with her clinic over this.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

For one the the pictures of Joes grafts didnt really bother me that much. but what does bother me is if the Dr is this sensitive for something that was a legit concerns imagine how she would act if we didnt praise a final result.

I looked on her website and all I came away thinking was well she uses a fraxel laser ,thats cool..

This is a hairsite so take want you want from that thought.

Dr Alexander was a nobody 2 years ago until he took a page out of Dr Fellers book and displayed his outstanding work on a monthly basis. I see Dr Lindsey stole another page.

Every doctors going to take a little criticism at first ,but as quickly as it comes it will go if the work is solid.

I would say reconsider if your confident your work can stand next to the other top 20 doctors in the world .

If you doubt it can then your change of mind is understandable

Trust me if you present consistent pictures of fantastic work this community will welcome you and defend you

Hope you decide to stay and show the world what your capable of.

[Bill - Seemiller]

For one the the pictures of Joes grafts didnt really bother me that much. but what does bother me is if the Dr is this sensitive for something that was a legit concerns imagine how she would act if we didnt praise a final result.

 

PGP,

 

I think you have to understand the clear difference between constructive criticism and a blatant attack.

 

Please Dr. Wasserbauer's post above and the email she received. I also sent her an email expressing my concern to which she replied graciously and promptly.

 

Nonetheless, I do believe she may have been a little too sensitive and I feel it would be a mistake to let one comment by email spoil her potential involvement here. In my opinion, the best defense against such blatant attacks is to prove them wrong by showing off her best work.

 

Bill

[wylie]

Originally posted by PLEASE GROW PLEASE:

For one the the pictures of Joes grafts didnt really bother me that much. but what does bother me is if the Dr is this sensitive for something that was a legit concerns imagine how she would act if we didnt praise a final result.

 

 

I'm thinking tact is not your strong suit.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

and keeping your mouth shut isnt yours

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Bill Im not sure if your saying I should have been more sensitive . Are you saying I was the blatant attack?

All I was saying was if she declined because of 1 goof that sent her an email, whats going to happen when 5 posters tell her they dont like a certain result. Its happen to every docotor on here. I would love for her to show a bunch of results and become part of this community but it seems like everyone worried about their feelings lately.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Oh now I see it was just to participate, not to join the club. Ok I apologize .I thought she was saying that she didnt want to be a part in the recommended list because of one email.. She was here to help and answer questions Ok now I feel like an ass, but chances are she wouldnt have lasted long if she was already turned off.

Sorry Wylie even though I see you still have issues with me because of the doc thing ,you were right,along with my reading today wasnt a strong suit. It was VERY early in the morning. My bad.

[Bill - Seemiller]

PGP,

 

Please read through this thread thoroughly.

 

I am not saying anything about you whatsoever. I am referring to the email that Dr. Wasserbauer received from forum member "spineguy" that was a blatant attack and not constructive criticism. See Dr. Wasserbauer's original post on this thread.

 

I did agree however, that Dr. Wasserbauer was a bit over-sensitive to the email she received and hope that she will consider posting her best work to receive constructive feedback.

 

Bill

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Ok Bill I read EVERTHING and she was being considered for membership. Pat suspended the guy ,yet she still declined . My opinion now is really the same as before. She was WAY too sensitive. It takes alot for some of these doctors to put their work out there to be judged by the masses and some have an extremely difficult time being scrutinized . Everyone wants nothing but praise .Every doctor on here seems to understand you gotta take the good with the bad. When the results are good they say thank you when they are not up to par theres usually a good explanation.

She should change her mind and at least give it a try.

Spineguy was just ass kissing Joe or had bad feelings towards her for whatever reason and wanted to bash her.

That was a lame excuse bottomline . Why have Pat come out there just to say no because of one suspended guys hothead.

[wylie]

PGP, I dont have anything against you, for any past reason, so dont think my comments are related to anything other than this thread, and the comments you are making.

 

Back on topic, there are not many people on this forum tha I have traded PM's with but Spineguy is one of them. I think his comments to this potential coalition member were stupid and I dont blame the Dr. for being pissed.

One thing I'd like to say about Spineguy is he got butchered and was eventually saved by Dr. Wong. And I do mean "saved" as any butcher patient can attest to. So those people are quick to anger and generally distrustful of the entire industry, it makes some people a little "trigger happy". But he is a good guy.

 

This was all over on technical mistake over a picture that was just a GENERAL IMAGE. I do believe attention to detail is required on everything, including technical content. It likely is a lesson learned. Everyone should know their websites content

 

It was not any attempt to mislead. But it does remind us that one should always question anything you see, or read, on the 'Net.

Again, I hope this does not keep the Dr. from joining us. Hope she reconsiders.

[Pat - Community Publisher]

wylie,

 

I can understand why SpineGuy would be a passionate supporter of Dr. Wong, especially given his past poor experiences. This poor work from the past certainly does produce a general hostility toward the "hair transplant industry".

 

Given this, I wanted to leave the door open to his return if he were willing to mend the situation by apologizing to Dr. Wasserbauer.

 

However, to date, I have not heard from him. He can certainly email me directly at pat@hairtransplantnetwork.com

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

PGP, I dont have anything against you, for any past reason, so dont think my comments are related to anything other than this thread, and the comments you are making

 

Yeah ok ,Then why did you feel you had to make the tact comment for my few words, but stick up for the guy who was VERY disrepectful and got her to leave. Come on my man dont be so sensitive about Konior Ive actually talked to him at least 5 in the last month or so.

Hes a great doc who I just didnt see eye to eye with at the time because I wanted someone to transform my life in one day and he couldnt promise me that .

Im one of those disgruntled patients you mentioned above that finds it REAL hard to trust the industry so if I say anything nice about a doctor ,you can be assured its the truth and no ass kissing involved.

If I see something fishy I always comment on it .I cant help it .

Now having an excellent experience with Shapiro and talking on the phone with Dr Konior and through pms from other doctors on here Its getting easier to let my guard down.

I went 10 years looking like a goof but all of a sudden now I need to be so caring if Dr W is upset because of one silly email.

[Byehair]

Maybe Joe from H&W should chime in here with his comments.

 

I would assume he doesn't like playing poster boy for another doctor. Especially without his knowledge.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Byehair,

 

He already did on this thread.

 

His latest comment was:

 

"Dr. Wasserbauer,

 

Thank you for your openness and prompt response to the issue. I hope you understand my position on the use of photos on a clinical website. I've seen it before, with my own photos and with those of other clinics. Heck, I once saw a picture of Pat in a clinical gallery for a Dr. that practices out of Dubai.

 

After reading your explanation and having seen the email from your webmaster to Bill I think that this could actually be a case of webmaster error. I thank you for your willingness to explain this error and I accept your gracious apology."

 

Bill