South Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery South Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery of Fort Lauderdale is dishonest and rips customers off. They have lied to me as a patient and are not to be trusted. Fort Lauderdale , Florida

On August 12th I was scheduled to have plastic surgery at the South Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery located in Fort Lauderdale. This was a follow-up procedure to correct a minor issue from a procedure last year (August 2008) with Dr. Harrell. My procedure last year was followed up by numerous post-op visits. I live overseas so I always have to plan my trips carefully. Two hours before my surgery was to occur I received a phone call to state that the physician was "called away to emergency surgery" and could not perform my surgery as well as the anesthesiologist need to speak with me.

The anesthesiologist then informed me that he was not the doctor that put me under during the last procedure but had some concerns that I did not wake up as easily as he would have liked me to (he was not there). This was taken from some "nurse's notes" on the file as the previous anesthesiologist made no worrying notes at all. He then suggested that my BMI was 1 number off and he would like for me to bring that down by losing 6 lbs.

On June 15th 2009 I visited the center and got the final approval for my surgery. The doctor said we were fine to proceed with the follow-up surgery as he was happy with everything. He even went as far as indicating that he saw including additional weight loss since the procedure and was very pleased with that. At no stage before the previous surgery or throughout the entire year since was there any mention that I even needed to lose any additional weight.

I flew into Miami on the 11th and did all of my blood work as well as paid for my surgery - $2500.00. On August 4th I booked and paid a deposit to confirm my surgical date. I booked my airfare along with a companions fare to travel with me, car, hotel and the services of an aftercare nurse. There were no issues with my blood work and I also filled my prescriptions in preparation of the surgery.

The morning of the 12th - 2 hours before surgery I was very surprised and shocked to receive this cancellation phone call. Needless to say I was not pleased.

The center now refuses to give me my money back. I also did a follow-up phone call with the anesthesiologist who admitted that losing 6lbs may have no impact on my ability to wake up sooner from surgery. In fact, the notes indicated that there was a nasal tube put in for 15 minutes or less - not an extraordinary amount of time.

After the last procedure I was never told of any issues or that it took me longer to wake up.

Besides the expense that I have had to incur to come to Fort Lauderdale Im also very concerned that this useful piece of medical information was not passed onto me as a patient. I cannot express how disappointed I am that in the last year no one spoke to me about this issue. This might have been an important medical piece of information I needed to have.

Why was this information never given to me? Why is the anesthesiologist just now looking over my file and calls hours before the procedure? Does he not do more prep work before then?

When you know that patients are traveling from overseas additional steps should be taken to handle those cases and your staff would know that they are incurring additional expense to make the trip. Theres no international client support whatsoever.

I followed with with a phone call to the doctor and after the cancellation and found out that the staff at the Florida Center lied to me about the surgeon having emergency surgery and not being available for surgery that did. The doctor indicated to me that was NEVER the case and he was surprised they would tell me that.

Given this additional information I certainly want no further dealings with this company. I have requested a refund and reimbursement of my expenses. They have had their lawyers respond to me saying that they will issue a refund if I sign a release form but refuse to give me my expenses back.

I'm refusing this and will take them to court. Customers should be aware of this. When I googled this facility I then found out they have had many lawsuits. Some of their doctors have no malpractice insurance and I would warn any sensible person not to use this facility.