14 DAY TRIAL // Once he was a divorced man, Vishal Thakkar of New York decided to do a very “selfish” and vain thing and get surgery on his nose, an intervention that, he believed, would make him more appealing to the ladies. Several years and 23 painful interventions later, he no longer has one – and is breathing through a tube.
Thakkar spoke to a Fox affiliate about the ordeal he’s been through these past several years, as the video below and Radar Online can confirm.
He’s taking Tulsa top surgeon Dr. Angelo Cuzalina, who is also President of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, to court over claims that he disfigured him and cut off his nose while he was under anesthesia on the operating table.
Between 2006 and 2007, the doctor performed 8 painful surgeries on Thakkar, including two of them which he had specifically asked not to get, which included taking cartilage from his ear and from his ribs in an attempt to reconstruct his nose.
Then, during the last procedure, Dr. Cuzalina decided to cut off the nose altogether. Thakkar is now breathing through a tube and says he’s yet to recover from the shock of waking up to find a gaping hole in the middle of his face.
“[Dr. Cuzalina] told me that there was an infection in there and since I was on the operating table and unconscious he had to make the decision,” Thakkar tells the Fox affiliate.
“There is no way I am going to live like this. It is worse than being dead. Other surgeons told me that, ‘Vishal, your case is so bad it is unheard of. You must be treated by someone at the top of this field’,” he explains.
He’s now being seen by another doctor, who will try to reconstruct his nose, but he must be prepared for more surgery and more pain.
“By the time I am able to breathe without pain and have a human-looking nose, I will have had 30 surgeries on my face thanks to Angelo Cuzalina,” Thakkar says.
In the lawsuit he filed against the doctor, Thakkar also claims he was prescribed insane amounts of medication which, if he’d taken, could have easily killed him.
“For his part, Cuzalina sent Thakkar a form stating, ‘… you are considered mentally unstable. Because of your ongoing threats and harassment against my staff, my practice and me personally…’ He declined to issue a further statement, citing patient confidentiality,” Radar Online writes.
Whichever of the two parts are right, the court will decide. Bottom line is that Thakkar is missing a nose.