Suicide from bad hair transplants

I am devastated. Three days ago one of my patients, who had been badly operated on in Turkey, committed suicide. I had seen him in emergency following his bad operation and had proceeded to remove part of the grafts. I saw him again via skype a few days ago and he exclaimed “my savior” …. There was still work to be done and I was enthusiastic about the idea of completing the correction work….
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about suicide from patients who’ve been badly operated on, especially when it comes to beards. It’s a terrible ordeal for them to have this bad work in their face. I have a terrible grudge against all those who work badly and who shamelessly and remorselessly ruin the future of young men….

I had a long talk with his parents this morning. They explained to me that their son was consumed with remorse at having been taken in by dishonest people. The sad thing is that correction was possible. He was very concerned about the depletion of his donor area. And he asked me to bring as many grafts as possible to the scalp donor area. The first part of his correction went smoothly, with very good healing of the face, but the feeling that he had mortgaged his future was stronger. He left a long, beautiful and dignified letter which I was unable to read, but which comforted his parents. I think it would indeed be good for the ISHRS and for fight to fight to do an in memoriam to give an example of the psychological risk a patient can take by putting himself in non-expert hands.

Dr. Rassman’s comments: In the early to mid 90s, I had three patients that were suicidal as a result of the big plugs that they received for a hair transplant. In those days it wasn’t Illegal Clinics in Turkey, it was American and European doctors that did the deforming surgeries. One young man who committed suicide, Affected me greatly. I Remember talking to his parents before the suicide trying to work with them and comfort him. I offered my services free of charge to fix it. But he couldn’t deal with the stress and prior to the scheduled surgery with me, when he was about to fly out to see me from Ohio, he committed suicide. The family called me to thank me for my efforts. It didn’t make me feel better. The other two got help that I arranged for them. None of these three patients were in California where I practiced. A forth developed Alopecia Areata within a week after his Hair transplant. Dr. Ron Shapiro and I worked with a psychiatrist and prevented the suicide arranging 24/7 care for him after he was properly medicated. He did fine.  Bad surgery is not confined to Turkey Black Market Clinics, it happens in our own back yard with poorly trained surgeons offering hair transplants without understanding the fundamentals.  Shame on them.