Complaint Review: Dr. Joel Aronowitz

I know the lady who had Dr. Aronowitz perform her stem cell surgery to facial areas.  He was also paid to correct one earlobe.  None of these surgeries were performed.  (Aronowitz did not do anything -- he didn't damage her.  But she paid $18,750 for nothing.)  There is no difference between her before and after photos and there is no evidence of any stem cell added.  This doctor obviously has no ethics.  He changed the list of the procedures several times so as to misrepresent that the purpose of the surgery was to enumerate specific stem cell procedures.  First he claimed his purpose was scar removal and then he changed the purpose again to working w/ another oculoplastic surgeon on his eyelid revision.  He is neither an ophthalmologist nor an ophthalmic plastic surgeon, and did not work on any eye procedures.  Dr. Aronowitz is a plastic surgeon who specializes in stem cell procedures to add fat to areas such as the face and breasts.
 
Dr. Aronowitz also attempted to smear the patient.  He has only to look at his own office before photos to see that he misrepresented my appearance.  He attempted to discredit her by both insinuating she had a totally distorted face and also implying she was some sort of Joan Rivers surgery addict.  These are all untruths and irrelevancies and he assured her there would be no problems.  She had 11 surgeries on my eyes that were medically necessary and none of them created any kind of disfigurements.  Not only did dr. Aronowitz lie about her appearance, none of dr. Aronowitz's  stem cell procedures had anything to do with her face.or her earlobe disfigurement.  In fact, Dr. Aronowitz was so slap-dash and his procedures so incomplete, her earlobe was left uneven and the earlobe curl remained the same because Dr. Aronowitz forgot to attach her earlobe to her face.
 
Dr. Aronowitz even gave his own psychiatric diagnosis as a further attempt to malign her.  He was never given permission to speak to my psychiatrist, not did he ever spoke to her.  This is again, an outrageous outright falsehood.
Look at his own rebuttal.  There are no facts about his procedures except for his one alleged lie to work in tandem with my ocular plastic surgeon on her eyelids.  The ocular plastic surgeon worked alone, without Dr. Aronowitz's participation.  Except for that lie, every sentence in his rebuttal is lie piled upon lie in an attempt to make up his own fake facts about my psychological state and my appearance before surgery. 

Dr. Aronowitz’s office photos tell the story. No words necessary. Click the link below.

http://joelaronowitzpatientreport.blogspot.com/

I am the "unfortunate...rage-filled paranoid" patient Dr. Aronowitz is referring to.  
1.  His post is defamatory and untrue.  Every other site, including the one he alludes to, Realself.com,removed his posts.  Only Ripoff Report posted them because they have no self-censoring site managers.  In order to challenge someone's post on Ripoffreport.com, you have to undertake a $2,000 arbitration.
2.  We have all seen the "Blame the Victim," routine.  It plays out in court cases like Jodi Arias', and it plays out in other scenarios, such as rape.  Attacking the victim is the lowest, most desperate and most despicable defense there is!
3.  Suffice it to say, Dr. Aronowitz had nothing to do with my eyes.  My eye damage and 11 subsequent surgeries on my eyes were the result of Dr. Dennis Bang, a doctor convicted of malpractice.  I am in touch with all his victims and his practice eventually collapsed and he left Los Angeles with bill collectors and patients without records in hot pursuit..  Expert witnesses who testified against him included such well-known L.A. doctors as Dr. Steven Dresner and Dr. David Duffy.
4.  My oculoplastic surgeon recruited Dr. Aronowitz to add stem cell fat to my face resulting from Dr. Dennis Bang's earlier malpractice. I had partial paralysis and facial wasting, with no right cheek and the loss of my temples. I also had a left earlobe that curled as a result of one of the prior 11 surgeries performed by the world-renowned oculoplastic surgeon, Dr. Henry Baylis.
5.  Dr. Aronowitz did nothing for his $18,750.00, except besmirch my character and misstate the purpose of the surgery.  Dr. Aronowitz is a plastic surgeon whose claim to fame is adding autologous stem cell fat.  That is what he does and every other fact he states is either untrue or irrelevant to the fact that he was paid to only add stem cell fat.
6.  Thanks to Dr. Baylis, my eyes were now as restored as possible.  Following those 11 surgeries, I was eager and happy to have my face return to a more normal pre-Dr. Bang state. The left earlobe curl remained because Dr. Aronowitz didn't re-attach it to my face, and also left it longer.  My oculoplastic surgeon noted this and it is also visible in Dr. Aronowitz's own office Before and After photos.  No fat was added to my face.  My oculoplastic surgeon, Dr Robert Levine, felt so bad about this he wanted to attempt this himself, even though it was outside his field.  Again, look at Dr. Aronowitz's own office photos.  I still have the same "Bosch pear" shaped face with no temples that Dr. Andrew Frankel and Dr. Steven Pincus noted following Dr. Bang's surgery.
7.  As for Dr. Aronowitz's claim that I am some sort of nut-job, I invite you to contact my ophthalmologist for most of my adult life, Dr. Charles Aronowitz, the former mayor of Beverly Hills.
He is one of my biggest fans!  Due to patient/psychiatrist privacy rules, I'm positive my psychiatrist, Dr. Christine Forest would refute all of Dr. Aronowitz's charges, if she could.  I see my psychiatrist infrequently, but she would also adamantly state  that she never spoke to Dr. Aronowitz, nor even knew his name.
7.  In addition to my posts, there will be a blog devoted to Dr. Aronowitz using his own office's Before and After pictures.  He can claim whatever he wants, but his own photographs tell the truth.
I really don't know why he stopped with "rage-filled paranoid;"  he could have added a number of other terms, such as "schizophrenic." Think about it:  what kind of human being, let alone a doctor, would stoop to name calling and character assassination...  There are many posts by dissatisfied patients, but only Dr. Aronowitz cares so much about his reputation, that he has to smear and bury a patient.  For me, it's not about the money.  It's about the Hippocratic Oath, "To do no harm."  Dr. Aronowitz harmed me first, by not performing the procedures and, secondly, by responding with lies about both me and the very purpose of his surgery.  
8.  Look at the photos.  They were sent by Erin Welch, his receptionist, on 10/3/12, 3 months after my surgery.  These and all my complete records, including an obviously revised Operating Room Report, were finally obtained only after my lawyer, Chuck Fonarow, requested their release.  What does it tell you about this man's character that my Operating Room Report was witheld for 3 months and contained many of the same charges he posted?  Those kinds of charges do not belong in an Operating Room Report under the heading, "Procedures."

 

I have been friends with the woman Dr. A wrote about and his report is full of lies. He never had any contact with my friends psychiatrist and all the things he mentioned about her previous surgeries had nothing to do with him. He was hired to do one process (add fat graphs under her eyes) and if you look at the pictures you can see there is no difference in the before or after pictures. It has caused me much pain to read how he has described my friend. What goes around comes around. Very bad kharma.

Dr A did treat this unfortunate patient and would like to answer the complaint within the ethical limits permitted by the need for patient privacy. In summary she is an older woman plagued by far too many cosmetic plastic surgery procedures on her face. She was referred to us by her Oculoplastic surgeon who requested the help of an experienced reconstructive plastic surgeon in concert with his planned complex repair of her badly damaged eyelids. She underwent a thorough evaluation by Dr A and he discussed his assessment and plan at length. The patients' face was unfortunately very distorted and damaged from far too many cosmetic surgeries. The facial skin was very gaunt, shiny and overpulled from too many prior cosmetic surgeries. Tight scars pulled the earlobes down and prior surgery had caused the eyes tear continuously and be slanted upward. These changes are beyond the scope of what any surgery could possibly fully correct. Through lengthy preoperative consultation the patient understood this before surgery. Dr A offered her only a very limited operation not an attempt to restore her appearance to what it was before all of her cosmetic surgeries.  
The surgery was performed meticulously, exactly as described to the patient and planned preoperatively. No postoperative complications occurred and the patient healed well.
Dr A and his staff work very hard to improve patients' lives through reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery. Many of our patients are difficult cases due to birth condition, severe disease, trauma or as with this unfortunate woman, poor or excessive prior surgery. This case is further complicated by an underlying psychiatric condition characterized by rage and paranoia. Elective surgery is usually contraindicated in this type of patient as it may only worsen the mental anguish. In this case we elected to operate only after careful discussion with the patient and her other doctors, including psychiatry, because her Oculoplastic surgeon who felt that her functional problems threatened exposure injury of the eyes.
The patient paid fees related to anesthesia, operating room charges for several hours and for Dr A's services. The fees were fair, not excessive and agreed upon preoperatively. The pictures in this case can be found on realself and the reader can judge the patient's damage from prior surgery for themselves. We sincerely hope that the patient finds both physical and mental relief and healing. We are very sorry that she is has directed her rage at Dr A but we remain willing to help her in any way we can.