Miserable Experience and terrible results at CSCHI, Colorado Surgical Center & Hair I

[Strata]

I don’t know any other’s experience at this clinic. I only want to tell my miserable experience at this clinic, CSCHI--- Colorado Surgical Center & Hair Institute. Website: (Link removed by moderator)

 

Two years ago I decided to have my second hair transplantation and found CSCHI online. They said that they had more than 20 years of hair restoration experience and they offered a considerable low price ($2/graft). After I talked with Mr. Chris McTyre, I paid the deposit and made an appointment on June 2, 2012.

 

When I reached the clinic in the morning, Mr. Chris McTyre was not there and a nurse welcomed me. Since the doctor was not there yet, I had more time to chat with the nurses. One of the nurses told me that Dr. Gerald Searle would do the operation for me. He was the most experienced surgeon at this clinic (they had two surgeons at that time) and he had 1.5 years of hair restoration experience. What?! Their most experienced surgeon only has 1.5 years of experience? Then, why did they say that they have more than 20 years of hair restoration experience on their website? Since then I doubt if I made a good choice to visit this clinic and I was considering if I could get my money back if I quit the operation.

 

After Dr. Gerald Searle arrived, he checked my head and explained the operation to me. I asked him if he can do a good operation and leave smaller scars than my previous operation. I told him that I want to quit if he can’t guarantee his work. He said: Sure, absolutely! I guarantee it.

 

My doubt was clearly evidenced by what happened next. After Dr. Gerald Searle cut the strip out, he had a huge trouble to close the gap. I clearly heard the sound of the thread stripping the skin when he tried to tight the thread. He told the nurse that he needed to add more stitches. I am not sure how many more stitches he added for my operation. I noticed that he tried to cut more tissues out and tight the threads again and again in order to close the gap. Finally he took more than two hours to finish the operation. They cleaned the blood many times. I knew my donor area was completely messed up. During my previous operation at another clinic, the doctor only took a few minutes to cut the strip out and closed the gap.

 

Here I want to ask experienced surgeons. Is it normal for a surgeon to finish a hair transportation operation for 2+ hours?

 

I don’t need to mention that I had to suffer a lot and clean the blood many times on the back side of my head at the night after the operation. In the next morning a nurse insisted on washing my head, both the donor areas and recipient areas (I really don’t understand why they did this). But the nurse tried to avoid touching the big area which was messed up. After head washing, I noticed there were several grafts of hairs on my face. It was disgusting and I grabbed them away. After I went to home and checked my head again, I noticed more fallen grafts of hairs.

 

My donor areas kept bleeding and discharged something in the following two months after the operation. The total amount was reduced gradually. But I could see them clearly from the towel on my pillow. Two weeks after the operation, I went to a local hospital to have the sutures removed. Two female nurses tried to get the sutures out. But they all quit. Finally, they found the most experienced male nurse to finish the job. It took two hours for him to get all the sutures out. After the work, he shook his head and told me that all the threads were buried deep in the blood scabs and it was hard for him to find all the threads and get all of them out. The surgeon did a very poor work.

 

After the operation, the donor areas formed a deep trench on my head. I can clearly feel it when I stroke my hairs from the top to the bottom. The donor areas also began to lose hairs. The situation became worse and worse. The area which was seriously messed up by the surgeon lost almost all hairs and became bare. The diameter is about 2.5 inches. Everyone around me noticed it and kept asking me what was going on. It is so embarrassing for me to explain what happened to everyone again and again. I have to leave long hairs in order to cover this area as much as possible. I also try to use a deep hat to cover this area. After the operation, I often suffer from serious headaches and I believe my headaches are related to the operation.

 

Here are my pictures. Pic01 and Pic02 show my donor area before the operation. Pic03 was taken at home after the option. There is a fallen graft of hairs on the picture. Pic04 and Pic05 were taken 26 days after the operation. Big and thick blood scabs still stay on the donor area. Pic06~09 were taken almost 5 months after the operation. Pic10 was taken almost one year after the operation.

 

One year after the operation, I began to think about correction on the donor area. When I talked with two surgeons who have 20+ years of hair restoration experience, they all told me that they never saw such big scars in their whole lives and the clinic who did such an operation should take the responsibility. But after so long tough communication with this clinic, they still refuse to take any responsibility. I have to sue them on court.

 

Even one year after the hair transplantation, I didn’t notice any obvious change on my recipient areas. But my donor areas are ruined and I suffer from everlasting embarrassments and headaches. This is what their "gold standard" service can give to me. Did anyone have any even worse experience than mine? I hope my experience will teach everyone a lesson. Please don’t choose those cheap clinics for your hair transplantation any more.

 

God will send those greedy and irresponsible people into hell!

 

Recently, I also found that this Dr. Gerald Searle had involved in a serious medical crime (showing by the following link). Was his license suspended?

12 people indicted for operating illegal medical pot grow, defrauding investors, money laundering - 7NEWS Denver TheDenverChannel.com

 

Who is the owner of CSCHI, Chris McTyre or Dom McTyre? I found that these guys share the same email address and they all responded to my email. Are they the same guy?

 

Thank you for your reading. Any feedback would be highly appreciated.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Strata

[KO]

F********g butchers.

 

OTOH, my question to you is, why the hell did you chose this clinic? Why didn't you research more and go to a well known place?

[wylie]

This man needs to be sued and I hope you have a good attorney. Knowing that he is a criminal shows that he is a deceitful person and took advantage of you like his theft ring took advantage of investors. I wonder if this man had his medical license suspended. You should find out. Suing these doctors for botched work is a real uphill battle, they are pretty well locked up from being sued, everything is Caveat Emptor in this business and it is extremely difficult to win a judgement against the many butchers still in this business. That's just the law of the jungle.

 

While researching your legal options, I would advise you to consult with qualified surgeons your options for a scar revision. You might also consider adding beard grafts to the region, I had numerous strip scars and adding beard hair to them worked wonders. In fact, I had so many strip scars that my head looked somewhat like yours when I cut my hair short in back, but after adding around 1200 beard grafts I can shave my hair in back to a #1 guard. It aint perfect now but I really don't worry about it and it looks 100% better than before I added beard grafts.

 

Do you have any pictures of the top of your scalp where he placed the grafts? Are they "mini-grafts", multi haired grafts?

 

You are on the road to repair, I been on it for years, from now on, only vetted doctors, research the doctors on this site, they are the best in the business. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Strata]

To wylie: Thank you for your suggestions.

[densedream]

I'm raging right now for you man. This guy is the worse hack I have ever seen. I have never seen a scar end up like that. He should not be operating on anybody! His medical license should be revoked for life. Spread this info all over the net. Did you even get a refund? Your best bet know is to get a great FUE doctor to put grafts into the scar and hope it grows. Good Luck

[Sethticles]

you should send you photos to all the FUE specialist in the world, see which one will dare take this challenge on for FREE, use this as competition to play all the surgeons off against each other, let the real FUE surgeon stand up and be counted, putting a lot of arguments to rest. All the best

[Strata]

To densedream: No. So far they refuse taking any responsibility.

[Noodles123]

This is heartbreaking. First off, I'm very sorry you are going through this. This frankly rivals the botched jobs of decades ago, not something in 2014. You have more than a strong case for a malpractice lawsuit. You should sue them for everything they're worth for inflicting permanent and disfiguring damage. At the very least fight it with your credit card company (if you used one) and get it charged back. Some people have had success with that route.

[1978matt]

That is just terrible. It sounds like a combination of poor laxity, poor technique, stretched scar and permanent shock loss.

 

I'd do as Wylie says and investigate scar revision. Perhaps start with the doctors with a plastic surgery background: Konior, Lindsey, Vogel, Frank etc. Then hopefully attempt some FUE into that scar at a later date.

 

For what it's worth, if I was a millionaire I'd pay for your surgery.

[keysersoze]

Talk about perspective.

 

I'm really sorry mate, I feel for you so much. How do you wipe your hands clean of this. Makes my blood boil.

 

Surely something can be done!! One of the great surgeons maybe could repair it. I sincerely hope the best for you. Please let us know how you get on.

[Strata]

To keysersoze: Thanks.

[BUSA]

smh... sry to hear. I can't see a jury anywhere not awarding you quite a bit of money for that train wreck.

 

they can claim all they wan't but in the end they will settle before taking that to trial. they have malpractice insurance for chit just like that. they will not take blame but settle to pay.

 

make sure u document it throughly and keep all of ur conversations with the clinic like emails or when u contacted them on what day and time and so on..... they hacked you is what they did. the evidence is right there.

 

thats fixable tho. get the scar reduced by a facial plastic surgeon then go see a top FUE surgeon to fill it in. it shud look fine after that. there are definitely ppl who can fix that. its all about the $$$$$ like everything else...

[ej]

Strata,

 

Small FUE sessions would be the way to move forward with your repair. I would not attempt revision at all. You will need multiple surgeries to correct this, with each small session will come improvement.

 

I do not know what your donor supply is like and cannot really see from the pictures, but I would consult with doctors who can use beard and scalp FUE. I think Doctor Coal in the USA could be an option. Feel free to check out my repair.

 

All the best

ejj

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/160800-scar-repair-1032-beard-hairs-dr-bisanga.html

[ej]

Strata,

 

Small FUE sessions would be the way to move forward with your repair. I would not attempt revision at all. You will need multiple surgeries to correct this, with each small session will come improvement.

 

I do not know what your donor supply is like and cannot really see from the pictures, but I would consult with doctors who can use beard and scalp FUE. I think Doctor Coal in the USA could be an option. Feel free to check out my repair.

 

All the best

ejj

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/160800-scar-repair-1032-beard-hairs-dr-bisanga.html

[BoulderBalder]

when I read this it made my heart skip a beat. BECAUSE I ALSO WENT TO THESE BUTCHERS. I also was lied to and operated on by "Dr" Searle. It will comfort everyone to know that he has been indicted for running a huge illegal marijjuana scheme. I had my FUT done in January of 2013, and although i dont think it went as badly I have been left with a LARGE FUT scar in the back. They took 1600 grafts. They assured me it was trichophytic closure technique, but it is about a cm wide scar with NO hair growing through it. I also developed an infection after the procedure and went back to the clinic as I live in Denver, and I am also a physician. They gave me antibiotics and said everything looked fine. Now I am around 18 months out. I have scheduled an appt with Dr. James Harris to see if he can fix the scar and also to increase the density in the front so that I might just be able to grow my hair out. very few of the grafts seemed to have taken and I experienced a lot of hair loss that seemed permanent after the procedure. here are some pictures of my FUT scar and the recipeint areas. I would appreciate if anyone could comment on the scar. Am I overreacting? and also there has been a lot of scarring in the recipient area as well. what I call pock marks that look weird.

[Strata]

To BoulderBalder: Thank you for telling your story. We are the victims of the same clinic. People should know the truth of this clinic. Please don't return back to this clinic for any operation anymore!!! Do you want to get butchered again? Ask refund and go somewhere else for your scar revisions. Send your story to BBB and Colorado Medical Board, please!!! If you want to sue this clinic, let us do it together.

[aaron602]

Makes me sick to my stomach, to know these clinics are probably still operating on unsuspecting patients.

Good luck to the BOTH of you.

In my opinion I think you both have a chance of getting a good repair, considering you've only had one failed sugery.

This time around, please look into the doctors being promoted by happy patients(who have photographic proof of there results) on this forum!

[Strata]

My result is a typical example of their stupid trichophytic technique and their ridiculous "gold standard".

[aaron602]

I had the tricho technique done on me. My scar isn't as bad as yours about 5-7mm in width, but im still very unhappy with it.

But im going to get it repaired with fue

 

I think it wasn't necessarily the technique used but, the doctor who did the surgery.

 

If I was religious id pray for you. I hope everything in the future goes according to plan for you.

[Strata]

To aaron602: Thanks.

[Strata]

I contacted this clinic many times. They were rude and refused to take any responsibility.

[Dzl210]

The horror stories of this clinic are finally surfacing, i'm too a victim. First procedure failed and they talked me out of thinking it was their fault. I drank excessively before and after surgery and didn't follow post operative care, I thought the Polysporin treatment was optional because of the way it was worded. Followed everything to a T after I had a SECOND procedure, which butchered my scar even more, i'm now at about 6 months out and there's very little growth. I used to not be embarrassed of my hairloss and was fine shaving it down and throwing on a suit for a nice dinner, now I wear a suit with a baseball hat because the scar and pitting is so bad. I've now lost about 6,000 grafts from two botched procedures and basically screwed for future transplants.

 

Thanks Colorado Hair Institute for swindling me out of $6k, scumbags.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Dzl210

[Dzl210]

I also have nerve damage on one side of my head.

[Sean]

This is terrible. The FTC needs to review this clinic/business for marketing fraud and deception. Victims should write detailed complaints with photos to FTC, and, the Medical Board in the state the clinic is operating under. Usually, regulatory authorities evaluate your concerns and may take action. Especially, if displeased patients send concerns to them. It is worth a shot. Good luck!

[Dzl210]

I'll update in a year before calling this one a failure also, but I have a feeling it will be.