The results: Basically Dr. Kinney’s actions resulted in the following:

He literally butchered my lip tissue as opposed to only removing the granulomas. Consequently, I have permanent nerve damage and bluish marbled blood pooled in my lips, along with an unsightly scar bleeding through my lip border. Experts are telling me this is extremely difficult to fix my damaged Vermillion Border. Dr. Kinney told me, in my pre-op appointment, that I would sit with him the morning of my surgery and mark the “granulomas” from the inside of my lip to excise….this did not happen…he instead had the anesthesiologist stick a drip in my arm, of I don’t know what… it was most likely a sedative…I requested that a pen be given to me, so that I could carefully mark the granuloma that was to be excised. Only I could identify exactly where the granulomas were located in my lip and this was the specific purpose of my marking the specific areas…instead Dr. Kinney came over in a hasty manner…rushing…still in his suit and not in scrubs! He completely dismissed this critical procedure of marking, and handed me a pen not meant for marking tissue…just a regular black marker…he was rushing…I was lying down with an IV in my arm; it was so difficult with a tiny hand mirror! It was ridiculous…ink got all over my face and mouth…and they took me into the surgery room, with Dr. Kinney chiming, “we will have to wipe that off her face and re-mark it.”…and that’s all I remember…
He had no idea where to mark. We agreed in my Pre-Op that I would mark the granulomas…he marked me while under some kind of anesthesia…contrary to our agreement that I was to identify and mark the specific areas before the IV went in my arm…where he would be present to view precisely where to excise and exactly what to excise…but instead he just “made it up as he went along”…. Instead of excising the Granulomas from my lips, as originally planned, Dr. Kinney excised excessive healthy lip tissue for my lower left lip and cut through the vermillion border of my right lower lip. Aside from Dr. Kinney neglecting to remove the granulomas I now have a keloid scar where the lip border was cut, permanent numbing where too much healthy tissue was removed. The irony is that my current physicians tell me that they would have never attempted to excise the granulomas. It actually common knowledge (among surgeons of this type) that the Radiance, which caused the granulomas, would eventually dissolve over a period of time and excising them simply puts the patient under unnecessary risk.

Without my consent, he self-determined and performed a surgical procedure which elevated the tip of my nose.

When I questioned this in an email to him 2 days after my surgery, he did not reply, nor did he return my phone calls. But in an appointment the next day after that, to remove an enormous amount of gauze from my nose, of which unnecessarily prevented me from breathing, (this was 3 days after my surgery) he instead made a nervous presentation to my mother and I about the tip of my nose, then hastily and aggressively ripped the tightly glued on splint from my nose with his bare hands. No adhesive remover was used, no q-tip, no tweezers, no carefulness, no gentleness. These splints are supposed to stay on for at least 7 days. He had no reason to tear and rip it off from my face, but did so in a hasty attempt to try to gain my consent to elevate the tip… after the surgery…after it had already been done. I have two witnesses to this act. again, this was only three days after surgery, completely compromising the healing process of this delicate layer of skin, which he had completely freed during surgery. There was no use of Detachol®, , set aside any kind of gentle finessing to detach the adhesive or to remove the splint. The correct and standard procedure to remove a splint after nose surgery must be done at least 7-10 days after surgery and with the Detachol® adhesive remover, a Q-Tip and very fine tweezers. This procedure must be executed slowly and very carefully.

The consequence of this was instantaneous, massive swelling the size and shape of a Russet potato and enormous bruising, which lasted for three months. After seeking a remedy to the bulging scars and on-going pain caused by his ripping off the splint, my current physicians concur that Dr. Kinney had absolutely no reason to separate the skin up to my orbital socket in the first place, as I consented to only remove a small piece of cartilage from my bridge. He obviously did a lot more than that, without my approval or discussion before surgery.
Mind you, I did not have any bones broken in the surgery with Kinney…and therefore was not supposed to have this enormous disfigurement, scarring, bulging, months of pain, etc…Even the patients who have major nose surgery do not come out of surgery looking the way I did, and suffering the pain that I did. Currently, I have scar tissue, swelling, deformity and other problems, which still remain. My current physicians tell me that this is a result of a substantial Hematoma and internal bleeding which occurred as a result of Dr. Kinney ripping off the splint.

During the months after my surgery, I questioned Dr. Kinney many times regarding my physical condition, about the massive swelling disfigurement and bruising, the enormous pain that persisted, he refused to prescribe anything for the pain or refer me to a specialist and why he altered the structure of my nose, etc. My queries were ignored or rebuffed every step of the way. He emotionally abused me and deflected from his responsibility to me and the injuries he caused...

Currently, I actively seek remedies for the above stated conditions. This is an arduous, time consuming and expensive task. It has side tracked my life completely. I have become socially reclusive at a time in a woman’s life when she seeks marriage and wants to start a family. I have not been able to become gainfully re-employed as a fitness trainer because of the painful condition caused by the hematoma in my nose. My modeling and acting have also come to a standstill for the same reason(s) and as well the alteration of the structure of my nose has rendered most of my modeling portfolio photos moot. My financial life is in shambles as a result of this. The only resolve thus far has been that GE Money, the financial services company which financed these surgical procedures, have both credited and closed-out my account and have refunded me the entire amount of payments I had remitted during the first three months after surgery. They reviewed my complete file history, photos, letters to Dr. Kinney, etc and realizing what travesty had been heaped upon me, determined that Dr. Kinney had seriously erred.

I have accumulated a tremendous amount of evidence to support the above, including:
1. My entire history chart, where Dr. Kinney memorializes this in self-incriminating notes
2. Documents from the company that manufactures Mastisol and clearly instructs medical professionals on the proper use and removal of the adhesive ( Dr. Kinney’s use of Mastisol is in the chart notes)
3. Post surgical photos of excessive healthy tissue that had been excised.
4. Statements from witnesses and names of Dr. Kinney’s employees who were present during my surgery and post surgical visits
5. Emails and correspondence to and from Dr. Kinney.
6. Bills, diagnostic and treatment notes from my current physicians clearly identifying the source of my current medical condition, which resulted from Dr. Kinney’s procedures and post surgical actions.
7. Dr. Kinney’s ‘promises’ should have been detailed and memorialized in the consent form. I have discovered that Dr. Kinney essentially traps a patient into a financial obligation by submitting a consent form for the patient’s signature, a day prior to the scheduled surgery. I was contractually obliged to the surgery by signing an agreement which stipulated that surgery fees must be fully paid two weeks prior to the surgery. What this meant was that GE Money sent funds to Dr. Kinney prior to the procedures actually being performed, automatically and instantly, consequently creating a financial obligation, prior to receiving services. If I had cancelled the surgery, for any reason, (i.e. I did not agree with the consent form), then I would was still financially obliged to surgery fees, which escalate to as much as 75% of the total fee. Therefore, I was held hostage to signing Dr. Kinney’s consent form, whether or not I agreed to all the stipulations of the consent form…. Which of course was written with a character of ambiguity which favors whatever Dr. Kinney determined was ‘appropriate’ while I was under his knife.
8. Currently, I have complaint filed with the Medical Board of California regarding the entire matter and will send you a copy of it if you so desire a review.

In Summation:
My case is not about an ‘aesthetic standpoint’. It is about Dr. Kinney disfiguring and injuring me…. you can see in the post-op photos of me looking like I was punched in the face with a 100 pound brick. As a result, I not only have suffered from all the pain…but my breathing is damaged and I am still having problems from the painful scar tissue both externally and internally to my nose. This breathing problem is causing me headaches and fatigue, as I can’t get enough air to my lungs as well as pressure over my sinuses. I am in need of costly corrective surgery…My current physicians have disclosed that I am required to have, what is called, an “open nose surgery” as well as a surgery to correct the keloid scar on my lip, where I have permanent nerve damage caused by over excision by Dr. Kinney.

Regarding the surgical procedure on my nose; I consented with Dr. Kinney to only remove a small piece of cartilage on the bridge of my nose, nothing else. This is evidenced in further review of my patient chart. It is clear that Dr. Kinney’s blatantly abused of my patient rights is documented in my consent forms, patient charts and Dr. Kinney’s own notes. According to the Medical Board, performing a specific procedure, as the “elevation of a nasal tip”, is below the standard of care, if my consent to do so was never provided.

I have been consumed with finding a remedy and needed to fully understanding the complexities of what Dr. Kinney’s action have caused. I spent the better half of the first six months, after my surgeries, attempting to communicate with Dr. Kinney as to the why all this happened and truly wanted to believe that all the swelling and disfigurement was temporary. It was not until mid summer that I realized that Dr. Kinney had royally screwed up and that I would actually have to resort to restorative surgeries.