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The ugly road to beauty
Scars measuring 8 feet
Lisa returned home a couple days later and the incisions began to heal. Two weeks later, she was back to complete the makeover, getting a tummy tuck, leg lift, bladder lift and a fourth procedure.
Eight procedures in two weeks. More than 10 hours of surgery. A body lined with nine rippling scars measuring about 8 feet. Lisa was on her way to becoming the woman she wanted to see in the mirror.
But first she would endure weeks of discomfort that she would dull with painkillers, and she would enclose her body in compression underwear to keep everything in place while she healed.
And she would soon realize the oozing wounds foretold something much worse, and more dangerous.
He hears about them when they come back in pain, or disfigured.
Dr. Tolbert Wilkinson, a San Antonio plastic surgeon, has seen dozens of women return from the border with implants that either are broken or slipping to the side.
He's seen infections and large scars. Abdominal tucks and liposuction that just don't look smooth.
"Ugly scars are coming from the border," Wilkinson said as he flipped through an album with pictures of disfigured victims that he's treated. "And tummy tucks are sometimes so awful you just don't want to throw your hands on them."
Post-surgery repairs
Wilkinson is one of the few Texas surgeons who take in women who need help when things go wrong in Mexico. Many won't accept these referrals because the liability is too great.
Lisa made an appointment with Wilkinson to get a second opinion on her scars, but she didn't keep it.
In the United States, patients can turn to a justice system that entitles them to financial compensation for medical malpractice when things go wrong.
Recourse is available in Mexico, but American patients can face language and cultural barriers in a legal system that discourages lawsuits.
Dr. Jorge Sanchez Gonzalez, director of the national medical arbitration board in Mexico City, said anyone - Mexican citizens and foreigners — can seek the board's assistance to force a physician to fix a botched procedure.
The patient must document the surgery and must show that it was done by a certified doctor.
Since many surgeons aren't certified, and patients typically have nothing in writing from their doctor, arbitration is impractical for most American patients.
The arbitration board has existed for about nine years. To date, no American has filed a complaint against a Mexican plastic surgeon, Sanchez said.
Incisions not healing correctly
Wilkinson and other surgeons on both sides of the border recognize the growing risks posed by shoddy clinics. He said a group of doctors from Monterrey recently asked him, "Can you in Texas help us clean up the border plastic surgery?"
Spreading word about unaccredited clinics is one solution, he said, but there is no coordinated effort by the Texas Health Department, the Texas Medical Association or the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
After two rounds of surgery, Lisa was edgy and frustrated. Unsure if she was healing correctly, she suffered post-surgical depression and aimed her growing anger at Hernandez's clinic.
Should she threaten to sue if her procedures were botched? Should she tell others to avoid the clinic?
Her tummy tuck, bearing an incision encircling her midsection, was leaking fluids badly, so much that the dressing couldn't contain the blood. The back of her jeans was stained and moist.
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