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My disastrous journey with Transmed.


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  • Regular Member

It was September 2011 when I had my HT with Transmed. I originally booked the surgery with Dr Melike who back then was (still) a coalition member. When I arrived to the clink on the day of my surgery I learned that Dr Melike cannot perform FUE surgeries and even more she was out of the country... and instead it will be done by a different surgeon Dr. Ali Emre. Having in mind that Dr Melike was recommended on this website it did not cross my mind that she might running a practice with someone less successful. I also did not come across bad feedback on their results back them or maybe I missed. So I had 2600 grafts FUE. While the clinic was nice, everything looked clean and very modern. The staff was very welcoming and friendly. But to keep it short, surgery was over and I went home. I did NOT develop post-op swelling or any other post-op side affects. I did not have any bleeding in the recipient area and my donor area was healing good.

 

After two weeks all scab were off and NO redness. I did have few zits in the recipient area but they cleared in few days without using any medication. After one month I still did not see any shedding and this was the first concern of mine. I did approach Transmed to address it but was told that this is normal and I should not worry about it. However even though the transplanted hair did grow, the growth was VERY little…

After 4 months nothing much has changed, I did not see any new hair growth. I contacted Transmed but my query was ignored - I did not get any feedback. I did not panic and decided to wait few more moths. After 6 months everything was still the same. I did have maybe 20 new hair on my left side and around 100 new hair on my right side. 7 months post-op did not bring any changes at all. I approached Transmed one again. This time sucessfull - they did speak to me. They did apologize for the poor results however the main message I got from my surgeon is that it's impossible to determine whose fault is it. In other words they were suggesting that is also patience's fault. I have no comments on that. Also, that it is mandatory to take propecia. I don't wanna comment this statement either. But I am just wondering if all those people who developed side affect from this drug and stopped using it; does it mean that they will not have results after having a HT surgery? According to Transmed it looks like it is…

 

To summarize, it has now been 9 months, no changes, I am where I was. This surgery with Transmed has made my life a living hell. I am not depressed but emotionally devastated. These are not the poor results that "kill" me but this surgery has damaged my hairline. The manipulations are clearly visible/noticeable on my hairline. I had to grow my hair (which does not look good on me at all) to somehow cover it up but even if I go out and it's windy (and in London it's always windy) all my "cover" lifts up and there is nothing I can do. My social life has gone completely, I don't go out anymore, I cannot meet people because I feel VERY VERY uncomfortable.

 

I cannot wait when for 12-14 months pass to have a correction surgery.

I have some North American surgeons in mind. But I would appreciate if maybe someone could give me and an advise or suggest a good surgeon (FUE)?

 

You can see some pictures I uploaded to outline my "progress".

 

P.S.

I did not choose Transmed because of money. The amount I paid was almost the same as it would be with the North American coalition surgeons. I did choose Transmed because back then Dr Melike was recommended here (and I though I will have surgery with her) and I did not want to leave Europe.

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  • Senior Member

Dr. Rahal and Drs. Shapiro have been putting out some nice fue.

 

On the bright side, it doesn't look bad, and you should be able to cover it fairly easy. On the bad side, you lost grafts and it looks like you had a 10 percent yield. That really is one of the lowest yields I have ever seen. Sorry and I hope it works out for you.

I am an online representative for Dr. Raymond Konior who is an elite member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

View Dr. Konior's Website

View Spanker's Website

I am not a medical professional and my opinions should not be taken as medical advice.

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  • Senior Member

You shouldn't be too worried about your hairline (with your hair grown out) people won't even notice that you had a failed surgery, at least it seems to blend in with your hairline and looks mostly like recession. You are now going to have to get repaired by a competent surgeon. FUE relies far more on doctor skill than conventional strip surgery, and your doctor was not ready for prime time. You can at least be grateful that you can get repaired by a competent surgeon, but I understand your frustration with that result.

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  • Senior Member

Propecia is not needed to help your transplanted hairs grow they should grow normally anyway, the medication is good for the rest of your native hair which can fall out over time. Send some photos to recommended doctors to get their opinion on the next steps. Dr. True and Dr. Dorin both perform FUE and online consultations if you'd like their opinions.

I am a consultant for Dr. True and Dr. Dorin. These opinions are my own.

 

Dr. Robert True and Dr. Robert Dorin are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

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  • Senior Member

Mate, this is sad to read, however good news there is help and support from the community here.

My advice is to contact SPEX (member on here) asap, he's based in Uk and will help you.

Good luck my friend,

Bucks

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  • Regular Member

I can't believe Melike wasn't there....the fact that you had surgery planned with her and then when you showed up, it was some other person seems very sketchy and dishonest. I would have either waited for her, or gotten my money back.

 

 

By the way, did they give you any indication before hand that she wouldn't be there?

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  • Regular Member

By the way, did they give you any indication before hand that she wouldn't be there?

 

No, I was given NO indications she wouldn't be there.

Yes, I should have cancelled my surgery instead but we learn from our mistakes...

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  • Senior Member

It's alright bro everything will be fixed with a qualified dr.

 

Btw even Melike is specialized in FUT not FUE. The only dr. I will consider in turkey to do FUE is dr. Keser.

 

good luck with your next step!!

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  • 1 year later...
  • 8 months later...
  • Senior Member

Dear TheOtherSide and members,

 

I have become a member of this network very recently and have discovered this thread.

As I am being active on the forum and hoping to be a coalition surgeon in the near future, I feel responsible and obliged to post an explanation to the unfortunate story of TheOtherSide, even at the cost of bringing this inactive thread to the front.

 

Although I have been a very active hair surgeon in the last 4 years by performing about 1000 procedures, my hair restoration history isn't very long. It all started when I began working at Transmed in November 2010. I left Transmed in August 2013 to start my own business in January 2014. Considering the first 3 months for me was mostly observation and joining operations to do parts of it for the purpose of training. I had 6-8 months experience when I operated on TheOtherSide in September 2011.

 

As employees of Transmed, we were 4 plastic surgeons at that time. We never knew how patients were booked in for an operation. There would be two groups of patients; patients who came to be operated at Transmed and patients who came to be operated by Dr. Melike. The patients in the first group were randomly assigned to doctors. There would be a few possibilities for patients who came in for Dr. M. If the plan was to do FUT then Dr. M would usually do it. If the plan was FUE, then the patient would be assigned to one of the plastic surgeons as Dr. M did not do FUE. In this case there would be two other options. Either Dr. M would do the recipient site incisions or the plastic surgeon would do it. The decision would be given by Dr. M.

 

In TheOtherSide's case, the patient was assigned to me for both the graft extraction and recipient site incisions. Ofcourse I did not know that he came just for Dr.M. Even if I did, it would not be my decision. So I did the procedure. 9-10 months postop the CRM told me that the patient had low growth and asked my opinion. We were not able to find the cause but I told them that we should offer a free repair. The CRM told me that the free repair offer was refused by the patient and he wanted his money back. This time I advised them to give the patient his money back, but this was refused by Dr. M. There was nothing I could personally do about it.

 

TheOtherSide's story is an unlucky one. He not only had a bad result, which happens to many patients in the world, but he also felt he was betrayed. So he lost his trust in the clinic, rightly refusing the free repair. I don't know how his final situation is and if he had a repair procedure by another surgeon. I would like to let TheOtherSide and all the community to know that, although there wasn't much I could do about this at the time and I did not have direct financial interest in his procedure, I am ready to offer him all kinds of support including a free repair if he wishes to contact me.

 

Best regards,

Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz

Ali Emre Karadeniz, MD (Dr. K)

AEK Hair Institute

Istanbul, Turkey

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  • Regular Member

Dr.Ali, why would you even expect someone to trust you after the miserable results the patient got in the first attempt. This is no joke and involves serious emotional effects. I can totally understand the patients situation.

 

i really hope the clinic returns the money rather than offering free repair. The trust one lost is gone forever and no patient would take a second chance given the fact donor is gone .

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  • Senior Member

This whole thing is ridiculous. I wanted to give him the money the boss didn't want to give the money, i was an inexperienced surgeon now i am an experienced surgeon, my former clinic was a hair mill and i am explaining you how the hair mill works... now everything is fine cause i don't work at the hair mill anymore so i am hoping for a clean slate.

 

 

Man this business...i am sure of he didn't hope for coalition membership we would never hear from this doc.

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  • Senior Member

Before you start coalition don't you have to be recommended first? That involved showing pictures and let the community decide.

Representative for Hasson & Wong.

 

Dr. Victor Hasson and Dr. Jerry Wong are esteemed members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

 

My opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hasson & Wong.

 

My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Hasson

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  • Senior Member

There is a learning curve for all procedures regardless of the doctor's inherent skill level. While this fact provides no solace to the OP, it is something to take into consideration when evaluating any prospective surgeon. All the leading FUE physicians such as Lorenzo, Feriduni, and Bisanga had to start somewhere and I am sure that their techniques and results have evolved considerably compared to the earliest cases.

 

This surgeon has been forthcoming by admitting as much, and I think it is only fair to judge his qualifications based on his present experience and results rather than on this single case.

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  • Senior Member

I agree too. Feriduni, Lorenzo, Bisanga, Shapiro, H&W, Konıor, Maras, almost all others are trying to change their techniques from FUT to FUE. There will be learning curve for all. We should be forgiving for them until they master the technique. Lorenzo seems to move ahead.

 

They are being called hybrid surgeons but, LOL. Transmed seems to be hybrid also, but Dr M., as a good FUT physician, was one of the recommended physicians of this site once. We have to be respectful to him.

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  • Senior Member

Dear Members,

 

I understand the criticisms and questions asked here, especially considering that I am not a well known doctor on this community. But what do those members criticising me expect me to do? I believe there were only three things I could do: be honest, share an explanation with the public and offer the patient a repair.

 

There are a few B&A videos that I uploaded on youtube so anyone can have a look at them. The link is Ali Emre Karadeniz - YouTube. I tried to present a result about 2 weeks ago but the thread was removed by the moderator the next day. I suppose non recommended doctors are not allowed to present results. I also sent a couple of samples to Bill a week ago and am waiting for his feedback.

 

I would like the members to respect that I do not want to present my cases and discuss myself on this thread. Since I have shared all I know about this story I am not planning to say anymore unless the patient shows up. I am open to all discussions on relevant threads, including presenting my cases, answering questions on threads that my patients have opened and any other topic on hair surgery.

 

Regards,

 

Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz

Ali Emre Karadeniz, MD (Dr. K)

AEK Hair Institute

Istanbul, Turkey

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  • Senior Member

Dr. Ali,

 

Thank you for contributing your insight and responding to the thread.

 

What do you feel was the reason for the poor yield with your first surgery, and what would you have done in retrospect to avoid this? If the patient was to accept your offer of a free revision, what would you do differently to avoid the same outcome?

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  • Senior Member

Dear Bismarck,

 

As I mentioned earlier, I was hoping to end this thread unless the patient shows up, but since your question is related to the topic I feel responsible to answer it and probably what I am ready to say now is going to reopen the topic for a long time.

 

Unfortunately this procedure was done 3 years ago at a company I don't currently work, which means I don't remember details of the procedure and I have no access to operational data. However taking another look at my limited records that I was able to keep despite all efforts of the company to prevent it, I found a crucial note that I put in the report that might explain the problem. I have taken a note that the placement was very difficult. This is a note that I put usually when there is severe popping of the grafts during placement. I also saw that the grafts were of excellent quality with 600 singles 1000 doubles and 1000 triples for a total of 2600 grafts. I have seen a few times before that severe popping has led to poor yield. It is probably the damage to the grafts by multiple insertions and drying that causes the poor yield. This problem is usually unpredictable before surgery and I don't think there is a perfect solution to it. I now tend to let my assistants try inserting a couple of grafts after I do 50-100 incisions to check for popping and accurate slit size. If I see significant popping I inform the patient and advice him to accept that I don't densely pack and distribute the grafts a little to ensure safety of the extracted grafts. If severe popping occurs after all the incisions are done, doing more incisions and skipping some incisions to protect the grafts is probably the lesser evil.

 

I hope this is useful information for those who are following the thread. I assume it is a rare thing to see a surgeon trying to figure out what went wrong in his own procedure and discuss it openly in a forum. I was advised by friends not to actively take part in discussions on the forum, for the obvious reason of being vulnerable to attacks by people who have destructive intentions while using a nickname, although I am overly enthusiastic about what I do and can't keep myself out of discussions. I hope I will not regret it.

 

I also encourage my recent patients to share their experiences on the forum and am willing to share some of them myself when the patient and the moderator of this forum allows me to. I believe that any surgeon who trusts himself in his surgical skills, should share not only the excellent results he gets over a long period of time, but some challenging cases that the result is not yet evident, letting the public see the progression of his average results rather than only his best. Obviously there will be some average or somewhat unsatisfactory results presented but the educated community has enough material and experience to judge how those results add up to.

 

Regards,

 

Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz

 

P.S. Please call me Dr. Emre

Ali Emre Karadeniz, MD (Dr. K)

AEK Hair Institute

Istanbul, Turkey

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  • Senior Member

 

I was advised by friends not to actively take part in discussions on the forum, for the obvious reason of being vulnerable to attacks by people who have destructive intentions while using a nickname, although I am overly enthusiastic about what I do and can't keep myself out of discussions. I hope I will not regret it.

 

 

 

We all have an opinion doctor and a way we see things if you decide to get into these forums you will hear a lot of them especially after something like this. Trust me we don't have any destructive intentions we have bad results which can cause damage to a doctors reputation. No matter what we say in the end the results matter, all doctors have bad results when you saw us your good results and we know you better our opinion will differ.

 

As for the nickname thats how these forums work with nicknames, and yes nicknames have opinions. Now if you think we have any personal agenda against you, i personally can give you my name in a PM and then you can sue me or track me down and shoot me whatever you prefer :).

 

And before you think we are all bad and bitter i liked your last post and the way you explained the situation. I haven't heard of this variable before and you made me a bit wiser and thats priceless at least for me.

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  • 9 months later...

I've already started another thread about Transmed, but thought I should note my experience here too...

 

I’ve had two transplants with Transmed in Istanbul since May 2010, under Dr Melike Kulahci. Total 4000 grafts: 2100 grafts in the first operation, 1900 in the second, plus a PRP procedure.

 

The image show my initial condition and the end results last August. I was very unsatisfied with the density of hair achieved. The rep of a leading hair surgeon listed on this site also felt this density was unsatisfactory, given the number of grafts transplanted.

 

During the two procedures, Dr Melike Kulahci was only present during the graft harvesting and not during the actual implantation of the grafts. I have read that it’s vital for the surgeon to perform this part of the procedure.

Dr Melike has not been in touch with me since I wrote to her to complain about the poor final outcome in the autumn of 2014. Instead I have only had contact from a deputy at Transmed, Mr Nahhas.

 

I have been requesting a refund for the second procedure, but Transmed have informed me that all they can offer me is a further transplant, at a cost of €700. They are recommending further grafts in the frontal cortex. These areas have already been transplanted, (TWICE) and since there was no native hair in these areas to begin with, this is as good as admitting that the two operations I’ve undergone have not been successful.

 

Why Dr Melike Kulahci expects me to risk a third procedure is hard to understand. Particularly as I have found other patients online who have experienced similar density problems. As I write, Transmed are still not agreeing to refund me and Dr Melike STILL hasn’t made contact.

 

Dr Melike, if you're reading this, I suggest you get in touch…

5b32e7dc7642c_Transmedresultsafter4000grafts.jpg.1214041261ba96bed655fdbbcb9bed46.jpg

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