Fort Myers Plastic Surgery

Dr. Kim: Importance of certification

FORT MYERS, Fla.-An arizona doctor is on trial for three liposuction deaths at his practice.  Dr. Peter Normann was not a board certified plastic surgeon and he's now facing manslaughter charges.  Southwest Florida Dr. Michael Kim warns viewers of how to avoid this and what to know while choosing your doctor for a plastic surgery procedure.

Cosmetic Surgery Changed My Life « Plastic Surgery Blog

Two local women tell how their procedures brought new hope and comfort.

By Denise Scott

Photography by Stefan Andreev

One suffered physically from her husband’s slow death, one celebrated new life – - But not its impact on her body. One felt prodded by the passage of time. And one feared the ravages of an unforgiving inheritance. These four woman turned to cosmetic surgery in the hopes that pieces of themselves lost to the random acts of life would be returned to them by kinder reflections. Their personalities are as different as the procedures they’ve chosed, but the end results are the same. Loretta Fox, Monique Wright, are justa few of the many women along the Gulfshore for whom cosmetic surgery has changed their lives – not to become different, but to become themselves again.

A NEW BEGINNING

‘It diverted my attention from my grief’

A decade ago, the anguish of four long years watching cancer take her husband the breathtaking sorrow after his death were apparent on Loretta Fox’s face.

‘I had lost my husband, and my face just hung.’ Says Fox, now 71, of Naples. ‘All the muscles just collapsed in that year of my grief. I had aged tremendously, I was like a zombie. I really didn’t care.’

Her daughter, Naples plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Fox, says her mother’s grief-induced weight loss made her wrinkles more pronounced. A year after her father’s death, she performed face and neck lifts on her mother to help her refocus her life. ‘She was single, and she wanted to date again.’ Dr. Fox says, ‘She wanted a nice, rested, refreshed look on her face.’

‘I have to say, it did work, ‘Loretta says ‘Its diverted my attention from my grief to a new life, a new beginning.’

A few years later, Loretta again turned to her daughter for a breast lift and implants. Then, after she complained to her daughter about what she thought was a fat stomach, Elizabeth explained that it was not fat but excess skin and loose muscles from having three children. That led to Loretta’s tummy tuck. A similar complaint by Loretta about what she thought was cellulite led to thigh and arm lifts for excess skin.

‘It wasn’t a matter of me asking (for surgery), ‘ Loretta says, ‘It was a matter of me saying, ‘I have to lose more weight, “She said, “You’re never going to lose it. It’s excess skin, “I wouldn’t wear a bathing suit for years. I thought if you didn’t have a perfect body, hide it. We went on vacation last year, and I wore a bathing suit. I felt a lot better than when I had the lumpy-bumpies. When you’re young, your body’s in good shape. You don’t even realize it. When you lose that, that’s when you feel bad. ((The surgeries) broke a pattern of just sitting. It broke a pattern of just sitting. It broke that pattern of grief.

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