The New Scam in Hair Transplantation
There was a movie named Network that came out over 30 years ago and contained a great line that became a very memorable quote:
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Well, this line came to mind and I want to tell you, my readership, how mad I am and why. Unfortunately, I can not directly act on what is making me mad, except by speaking my mind through this blog. There is a new scam going on in the hair transplant industry, which plays off uninformed patients who come to visit a doctor for hair restoration surgery and who want to rightfully trust that doctor. The scam is simply to get a young man or woman to trust in the doctor through skilled sales and presentation skills, and then when they make up their mind to have a hair restoration procedure, they get what they would not have expected.
The fee structures in the hair transplant industry is based upon a fee per delivered graft. Usually, the prices run all over the place. I have seen three people in the past week alone who received over 2800 grafts, supposedly in their ‘balding’ area. They get poor densities transplanted into the balding area and many more grafts are placed into normal hair. One of the three patients was sold 3300 grafts at $4/graft, and I calculated that he could have never gotten that many grafts because the density of his donor area and the tightness of his scalp would never have allowed that number. Add to that was that my examination only saw about 400 grafts that grew and I suspect that the patient was swindled. Worse than the financial loss, was that valuable donor hair was lost and damage was inflicted in the recipient areas that were transplanted.
I am certain that this scam is being perpetuated all across the world, as I have seen patients coming to visit me from throughout the United States and Europe. All I am addressing here is the intent to defraud. I am not addressing the second class work performed by doctors who try to deliver first class work.
What can you do to protect yourself? The answer to this question is to do careful research. Read the blog entry Patient’s Guide — How Many Grafts Will I Need?, which teaches you how to determine the number of grafts for a given balding area. When I wrote this piece, I did so to explain the economics of hair distribution to arm those prospective patients with enough information to be well informed about the pending purchase of hair transplant grafts, but now it seems that doctors are reacting to the competitive challenge by dropping the price per graft and raising the numbers, many time a multiple of what is needed. Many times the doctor does not even transplant the numbers he/she commits to (I believe this is less common, because their staffs would see that). If you understand the process of calculating the number of grafts, you will be able to determine for yourself how many transplanted grafts you need, so if you (for example) calculate 1000 graft needed and the doctor recommends 3000 grafts, then you know that the doctor is in for the ‘SCAM’. Never forget (that like any service business, even a doctor’s cosmetic surgery activities) that it is a Buyer Beware business.
There is nothing that I can do except to vent here on my blog. I am appalled at the behavior of this group of scum doctors, for they are not only crooks, but they dishonor the good doctors who are in the hair restoration field. If I come out publicly and identify the doctors who I am certain are involved in this scam, I will be open to legal actions by those involved. The medical board has no power to deal with it, as the decisions on what to do falls outside their domain and the doctors would withdraw into the practice of medicine. The only place where these doctors can get attacked is in the courts on a malpractice action. I can play a role as an expert witness to those that wish to take action and would offer my services to the victims of these crimes and their lawyers.
in the mid-nineties i was told by a prominent transplant doctor who now works in ny and whose name rymes with ‘blue’that i was the best possible canditate for a scalp reduction, that i was perfect for it, my main question and concern was about shock loss and acceleration of my thinning. he assured me that absolutely no way would would the scalp reduction do this. he convinced me. while i was getting my scalp numbed with many needles the nurse says to me – i hope you know that this procedure is going to accelate your hair loss in this area. at this moment i thought i was dreaming,i realized at this moment i was lied to by the doctor.maybe it was because the scalp reduction was done so tightly the corners of my eyes felt like they were pointing up, but as the nurse said all the hair one one side in back thinned out dramatically and looked ridiculous. i went back a month later to this doctor and asked him why all this hair ended up falling out,and with a concerned look on his face said you need another reduction. i never did tell him what his nurse said because i didn’t want her to lose her job. to this day i am embarssed about how my scalp looks.. beware of what’s out there……
I had my current doctor do the exact same thing you mention for my 2nd hair transplant of 2000 grafts. I told him the areas I wanted to become more dense for my 2nd hair transplant.
He took out too many graphs which royally screwed the donor area making it look like I got knifed by Zorro and implanted the unnecessary graphs in the area where I didn’t ask, want, need.
Now I not only have a pathetic looking back of my head which I have to comb over, my hair in the front after 4,000 grafts is still not that good.
Damn all dishonest doctors. Didn’t you all take the Hippocratic Oath? Take all our money and burn in hell!
I am a former Infantry Marine. I noticed my hair started thinning out in the front during my first combat tour to Aphganistan. Now I have a very extreme widows peak and very thin hair towards the front of my scalp. I am now a college student utilizing the GI bill and I also provide financial support for my wife and 4 month old son. I really don’t have the money for a transplant, but I am disgusted with my hair loss. Is there any other remedy besides a hair transplant that could help me. I’ve tried Rogaine and Hair Essentials as well as other “re-growth” shampoo’s and conditioners, but is there anything else out there that may help me. I don’t want to spend a fortune.
Be aware of Kris Johnson/Kim Jahn’s scam hair transplant business under Marquee/Atlantis Hair Transplant Clinic in Plantation, Florida
How Kris Johnson’ scam business works: he charges you 1.75 dollars/graft on one end but he fakes the number of graft to thousands of grafts to extract illegally thousands of dollars from you where in fact he only transplanted a few hundred. This scum works with a bunch of other criminals and scum doctors to steal money from patients.
In November 2011, I contacted Kim Jahn, the person assisting Marquee/Atlantis Hair Transplant Clinic in Plantation, Florida to have hair transplant. I wanted to have a full head of hair and after sending some pictures of my scalp she said all I need was 3600 grafts and she said this can be done in just a single operation. The deal was 3600 hair grafts (1-5 hrs/graft) for a total of 6000 dollars. I talked to Chase Health Advance and they agreed to offer me a loan. On January 25, 2012, I flew from Los Angeles, California, to Ft Lauderdale, Florida to have a surgery. I met Mr. Kris Johnson the person in charge of the clinic. To my surprise Ms. Kim Jahn was absent that day. Since he and his team were late by fours hrs he was in rush to get done with the surgery. He asked me to sign some documents before the surgery. He neither explained to me nor gave me a opportunity to read through what was in the consent form. In this document, he claims that I received 3800 grafts and I am 100% satisfied with the surgery and have given up my rights to file a complaint. After the surgery, he just gave me the post-surgery instruction form. I received the consent form from Chase Health Advance after I filed a complaint and stopped making further payments. Few months after surgery, I realized that the figure 3800 grafts Mr. Johnson claimed to have transplanted was a fake since I did not see any significant change in my scalp appearance. In the consent form, it says that I counted the grafts which is not true. I counted the clusters of grafts and they were 33 in total. Only the persons who dissected and transplanted the grafts knew the extact number. In addition, there is no way to extract 3800 grafts (1-5 hair per graft) from a 20 sp. cm donor area. Mr. Johnson fabricated the number so he could charge me 6000 and he added another 500 dollars on top of that for administration fee which was not in our original contract. I have all the pictures and documents with me. My belief is that he has been running a scam business in Florida for some time. These scum doctors have been defrauding the public for years and FBI is sitting and watching. I already filed a complaint with Florida Department of Agriculture and next move is to file a complaint with Florida Department of Health. I need some investigation to be done on these people. They did not evaluate my health conditions nor did they obtain any information regarding my health history. All they wanted to get through the surgery and making big money that day. Last but not least, I contacted Dr. Bernstein’s clinic in New York City a few days ago explaining my situation. He wrote back to me and said it takes his team 10 hrs to transplant 3800 grafts not 3-4 hrs as claimed by Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson’s trick is the consent form. He fills out the blank spaces as he wishes to prove that he in fact did what was supposed to be done and he has no further responsibility. Right after the surgery, he took a picture from my scalp with his camera and this picture must tell the whole story. A few years ago, Lucien Armand’s license was revoked by Florida Department of Health. He used to work with Mr. Johnson at the same clinic. These criminals down in Florida must be stopped immediately. They must be be behind a bar.
Why not just fake someone else’s signature and just claim you never had signed anything if they decide to sue. Also I would vocalize that I did not get what I paid for and tell them I am not paying. I would probably do this regardless if I felt at all uneasy about their operation. Then you win and they lose. Also if they ask for a check or deposit give them a check because you can always bounce it. They probably won’t waste their time since they have others to scam.
True Story:
I went to a large, well known North Carolina hair transplant practice to relocate about 2000 hairs from the back of my head to rebuild my hairline which had receded about a half inch.They used the usual method to remove a flap of skin at the back of my head and harvested the hairs.
After being mildly sedated on Valium and with many painful injections of Lidocaine – I went home and realized they’d only paid lip-service to the receding hairline – just a few ridiculous follicles inserted, Instead they’d populated the area on top of my head that – someday – might thin out and need work.
While I agreed for them to put a few hairs up there – they knew my priority was the half inch area where the hair had actually receded. After all, money doesn’t grow on trees.
Instead of giving a full faith effort to rebuild the receding frontal area at a cost of $ 10,000 (ten grand) they essentially under-performed in that area to ensure that I’d have to return for another $ 10,000 procedure to do the job I’d originally asked for.
When I returned for my follow up – they said I needed another 1,000 hairs done – when we all knew I still needed those 2,000 hairs done – so not only were they planning from the outset to get me back for a second session – they were already trying to under-perform again to get me back for a third.
All I wanted was to spend ten grand – not thirty!
If you were paying ten grand to have your car painted like this – would they dare pull a stunt like this ?
Be prepared for this tactic! When you’re in the chair – doped up and in pain – the only question in your mind is ‘how much longer will the procedure take”? – not “Are they really doing what I asked for “?
Dana