Complaint Review: Colorado Surgical Center & Hair Institute - Lone Tree Colorado

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).  Mr. Chris McTyre (owner) told me that my satisfaction was guaranteed. 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 from my back side, 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.  

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 discharging something in the following two months after the operation. The amount was reduced gradually. But I could see some blood/discharge clearly from the towel on my pillow.  The healing process was so slow because the gap along the donor area was not closed well.  In fact, I believe that the gap in some areas was not closed at all because I saw some very thick scabs dropping off from those areas later.  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 some 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 operation.

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 more than 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 frequently wear 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. 

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 definitely take all the responsibility.

But so far I didn’t get even one cent compensation from their malpractice.  What did their “gold standard” service give to me?  I didn’t have any obvious improvements on the recipient area even one year after the operation. But they ruined my donor area and I suffer from everlasting embarrassments and headaches. This is what their “gold standard” service gave me!  Did they guarantee anything?  

I am a 100% real person. If you need more information about my story or want to give me some suggestions, please send me a message. If any attorney wants to help me sue this company, please contact me.

Email: (((REDACTED for security)))@gmail.com

Thank you for reading my story.