1st HT with Dr. Panine

[platinum]

Hello,

I wanted to share my 1st HT experience with all of you here on this forum. I started to notice that my hair was thinning at the age of 23 and it progressed quickly. At the age of 31, my hairline, temples and the top of my head really started to show the hair loss. When I was younger I've had a very full head of hair and this was really started to scare me. Due to the rapid hair loss, I seen myself age at a very rapid pace and hated to look at myself in the mirror because all I could ever see is the hair falling out.

Finally, I decided to do something about it. I visited with MHR and Hair Club, but was not very comfortable with either company and/or solution. Then I visited a doctor, local to Chicago, and was well informed about HT and felt very satisfied with my consultation. At that moment I decided that I wanted that doctor to perform the HT and restore my hair and self confidence that I've been shading. I was very excited until I found out what this procedure would cost me. Unfortunately, I could not afford it and had to deal with my situation (I'm sure a lot of us are in this position).

Several months have passed and I heard an ad on the radio for HT and the special pricing that they are offering. At this point I was a little desperate and wanted to finally get my hair back. I called and made an appointment for a consultation. I met with Stuart, very nice guy, and was quoted an affordable price about 70% less than the quote I received from the previous doctor. I was assured that the doctor had years of experience and that the assistants were well trained.

Day of surgery, I arrive at Dr. Panine's office, a bit nervous. I was advised that placing the grafts would be done by two technicians, one of which has been with the doctor for some time and one new one. The doctor cut out the donor strip and made the incisions for the grafts. After that I saw the doctor maybe 2-3 more times for about 5-10 mins each to find out how I was doing. After about 9 hours and 1700 grafts I'm ready to go home. The first couple of nights I had to sleep sitting up because I could not lay my head down on the pillow. I had some pain and the tension from the stitches, 1-2 vicodins and I was ok. After a couple of days, my face swelled up from the anesthetic for about 6 days. I was back at work after about 9 days.

Now for the results, as they say you get what you pay for. The side that the more experience tech was working on is ok, the other side not so good. On the bad side you can see that a lot of the grafts did not grow. The temples , over the ears, have a gap with no hair. Basically, I have a temple hairline, than a space with no hair, than my hair starts again. And no, this is not due to further hair loss. It was like this after surgery, but I did not think anything of it at the time because I thought it would blend it. Also, the front of my hairline has a pretty noticeable scar tissue due to the incisions that were a little bit too deep. So, when I get a little warm, the skin where my hair was transplanted turns pretty red. Now, I have a little bit more hair, but people look knowing that something isn't right on top of my head. I'm not sure which is worse, not having much hair on top or having a poor HT procedure.

Here I am in need of a second HT procedure. Same problem exists, where to get the $$$ to pay for a 'GOOD' HT procedure to fix my hair. This time I would like the procedure to be done by a doctor that is actually good at what he does and actually cares about the results. I contacted the doctor that I visited several years back, and asked him if he would be able to repair the problem areas and make me look more natural. Thankfully, he told me that this is something that is fixable, but will require some extra work. Now I'm facing a more costly HT procedure that I would not have if I just had my procedure done by a good doctor in the first place.

Morale of the story??¦.please do not try to go the cheap route when it comes to HT. Find a doctor that has a good reputation and/or listen to the guys on this forum. I did not know this forum existed before I had my first procedure done and I wish now that I did.

 

Good luck to all??¦.

[Bill - Seemiller]

platinum,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you're not satisfied with your results from Dr. Panine. Have you contacted the clinic with your concerns? Do you have any before, surgical, and result photos you can share with us?

 

Dr. Panine is recommended by this community and I believe he truly cares about his patients. He also typically produces excellent results. Unfortunately, instances of less than optimal results can and do sometimes occur for reasons that can't always easily be explained. That said, we do expect our physicians to stand behind their patients. I will be contacting Dr. Panine to inform him of your concerns posted on this thread and expect that he may want to reply publicly to your concerns. Just as patients are welcome to share their genuine opinions and experiences, physicians are invited to share their side of the story if/when desired. To see more on how we handle publicly posted patient concerns, see Maintaining a Fair and Safe Environment on our Forum for Patients and Physicians.

 

Please send me an email privately to help@hairtransplantnetwork.com with your full name and date of surgery. Your identity will be kept private, but will be provided to Dr. Panine so that he can reply to your concerns.

 

If there's anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to send me a private message or contact me privately at the above email address.

 

Best wishes in getting the head of hair you deserve,

 

Bill

[platinum]

Bill,

 

Thank you for your reply. I would like to add that Dr. Panine and his staff are really nice folks and did make me feel comfortable; otherwise, I would not have made the decision to have my surgery performed by him. Maybe he is a great HT surgeon and I'm just one of a few with less than optimal results, nonetheless, I wanted to share my experiences with you guys and point out some of the issues that I've experienced:

 

1. 1 new Tech placing grafts that was in and out of the room

2. The doctor removed the donor strip and made the incisions, but was not in the room for most of the time after that.

3. The hair on the temple region is growing in different directions, plus a gap with no hair in the same area

4. Scaring and bumps

5. A good amount of the grafts did not survive (my guess is due to the duration of the procedure).

6. Good amount of shock loss

 

Maybe I have a very sensitive skin and scalp and some issues are just due to my own body rejecting the grafts and scaring....I'm not 100% certain and can't blame everything on the Dr.

 

I will be happy to take some current photos and post them for you to see. I also have pre and post surgery photos that I can share. I will post them over the weekend.

[NewJack]

Sorry for what you went through .

It sounds like my Bosley experience

Have you checked out Dr Konior in Illinois?

Ive seen guys hes worked on in person and the work was stellar .

Never even heard of Panine.

Is he new?

[Bill - Seemiller]

Platinum,

 

It always saddens me when patients don't get optimal results for whatever reason. White these things can happen on occasion, nobody wants to be the patient with poor results. I do hope Dr. Panine can offer some insight as to what may have went wrong and why.

 

I heard back from Stuart from Dr. Panine's office and he would like to be able to reply to your concerns. He told me that he sent you a private message as well. Please provide him (or you can email me) with your full name and date of surgery so he can properly respond to your concerns.

 

Also, I encourage you to share some before/after photos so we can see your results.

 

If you already have your heart set on Dr. Konior for a second procedure, I completely understand. He too is a wonderful physician. But I know that Dr. Panine will stand behind you and his work and will work to correct it for free.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Bill - Seemiller]

NewJack,

 

Dr. Panine has been prescreened and approved for recommendation by this community. To see the highlights of our public review process of Dr. Panine, visit the "Potential Recommendation of Dr. Vladmir Panine of Chicago, IL. To see how we recommend physicians, click here.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Raphael84]

I was a little suprised to read this post as all of the work that I have seen from Dr Panine has been nothing short of amazing, and his and Stuarts correspondance have always been very honest, transparent and professional. Obviously, I feel for you as your HT experience and result have not met your expectations. I hope that everything works out for you. The fact that Dr Panine has already offered to provide you with your next HT free of charge shows the care he holds for his patients. I genuinley hope that an end result can be reached and that all parties are ultimately happy. Good luck!

[platinum]

Do we have anyone else on this forum that had their HT procedure performed by doctor Panine? I would like to hear from them on their experiance.

 

It may be that everyone else is pleased with their experiance and that would really be fantastic.

[hairthere]

I had never heard of this doc until recently when a member named sharptooth shared his work. it looked really good. Hopefully you can get everything resolved.

[platinum]

As promised...here are a few pictures of pre, 1 day after and 2 years later....

Pre...

 

 

 

1 day later...

 

 

 

 

 

2 years later...

 

 

 

 

I will take some more better close ups of the hair line and post.

[SharpTooth]

Hey Platinum,

 

I had 2600 grafts done 2+ months ago and like you, i found the staff great. The grafts in my small thinned area in the back are starting to fill in (most if not all did not fall out). The woman who cuts my hair said that areas looking good.

 

Up front in my hairline Ive seen nothing unusual -- so i guess over the next several months I know more so. But that does make me feel better that Dr Panine is willing to stand behind his work by helping repair such work.

 

It is very expensive and like a lot of other cosmetic surgeries, it takes a long time to see the final results. So Im glad he is willing to work with you.

 

I was in touch with Stuart as recently as this past week - he's always more than willing to take the time to answer any of my questions.

 

But send updates later once you and Dr Panine (if you choose) on future work together.

[SharpTooth]

Hey Platinum,

 

I'm curious as to when your HT was Dr Panine was done.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Platinum,

 

Given the photos you presented, I can understand your dissatisfaction. I'm truly sorry that you didn't get the results you should have. It's up to you, but I know Dr. Panine will stand behind you to get the job done right.

 

I received an email from Stuart stating that you have not provided him with your name and date of surgery. In order to continue discussing your experience online, I'm asking you yet another time to provide him with your full name, date of surgery and the necessary permission to respond.

 

Your anticipated cooperation is appreciated and expected.

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[ScottishGuy]

I'm very sorry to see you had such a poor result.

 

One thing that strikes me is you said you had 1700 grafts? That's really a very small amount given the size of the area that was to be covered. To achieve a good density I think closer to 4000 would be more appropriate (I'd be interested to hear what others think on this point).

 

I hope you can come to some resolution with the doctor to get this addressed, or you could consider other doctors with experience of repair cases.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Platinum,

 

I received an email from Stuart late last night who was at the clinic with Dr. Panine and another employee until after midnight looking for any photos that matched yours. After viewing every sing picture in their photo library, they cannot find a match to yours. They are quite concerned about this and are starting to suspect foul play.

 

While I want to believe you're a genuine patient, I am starting to get concerned that you have not provided your full name or date of surgery to either myself or Stuart.

 

Thus, I'm going to give you until Monday to provide me with your full name and date of surgery privately or I will assume that you are either a) not a genuine patient of his or b) are refusing to allow Dr. Panine to share his side of the story. If you do not cooperate with Dr. Panine by allowing him to reply to your concerns, I see no reason to continue allowing you to discuss your experience and the topic will be removed.

 

If you are genuine, there's no reason why you shouldn't cooperate with this very simple request.

 

Bill

[Forrest Gump]

Platinum, sorry to see your poor results. Based on the pictures that you've posted, I would have been very very unhappy with the results.

 

Hopefully, you'll get this resolved/repaired soon.

 

Good luck!

[Stuart01]

Patinum,

Dr. Panine is somewhat surprised that these results are attributed to him. We went thru all our patient from the time frame that you said you had your procedure and could not find anything remotely to this pictures. unless you can give us more information to go by we must assume that these are some one else's results, which are for what ever reason (confusion?) are attributed to us. You may view many of our patients before/afters on this network and see the real quality of our work.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Platinum,

 

Thanks for providing the information I requested. Now that Dr. Panine's office has confirmed that you are a patient from mid 2006, they can adequately respond to your concerns.

 

I know that Dr. Panine will stand behind you and work to help you meet your goals. He has offered to help you free of charge. But he'll probably want to see you for an in-person consult so he can evaluate you first.

 

Your results are disappointing, but I know Dr. Panine will stand by you if you let him. Ultimately however, it's up to you as to what you want to do next.

 

All the best in getting the head of hair you want and ultimately deserve,

 

Bill

[aWidowsPeek]

Hey Platinum, how are you doing man? Did you everget another Ht?

[Raphael84]

I too would be very interested to see if anything developed for Platinum and if he and Dr Panine came to any resolution.