Former patients of an Atlanta-based eye doctor have filed lawsuits claiming he botched their plastic surgery and left them permanently scarred.
Dr. Harvey ‘Chip’ Cole, also known as ‘the eye guy’, operates Oculus Plastic Surgery and promises ‘unparalleled expertise’, according to his website.
Cole has been accused of breaching the standard of care in surgeries he performed on four Georgia patients between February 2022 and January 2023.
The procedures were performed at Northside Hospital facilities in both Atlanta and Sandy Springs.
Kayla Cannon, 29, filed her suit against the doctor in February after being operated on by him in February and June of 2022.
Cannon claims that Cole cut away too much tissue from her eyelids, damaged her eye and also failed to remove cheek implants after they got infected
Cannon, seen here before the surgery, was born with a birth defect that means she has no muscles at the bottom of her eyelids, and has already undergone multiple surgeries
She claims that Cole cut away too much tissue from her eyelids, damaged her eye and also failed to remove cheek implants after they got infected.
Dr. Harvey ‘Chip’ Cole, also known as ‘the eye guy’, operates Oculus Plastic Surgery and promises ‘unparalleled expertise’, according to his website
Cannon was born with a birth defect that means she has no muscles at the bottom of her eyelids, and has already undergone multiple surgeries.
Speaking with WSB, she said: ‘He said that I can fix you, I can make you better. I’ve always struggled with my appearance, and I was just very excited to finally get to be happy.’
She told the outlet that she was talked into have cheek implants as well as the eye surgery.
‘He took half my lid off, so it was extremely tight. And he kept saying, I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it. Then I got infections on my cheeks’, she added.
Cannon has now had seven more surgeries to try and fix the injuries, adding: ‘I look worse than when I started seeing him. Permanent scarring that will never go away.’
Another plaintiff, who has not been named but agreed to have her image published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Cole damaged her facial nerves.
The woman claims the surgery, performed at the Northside Hospital Atlanta in 2022, left her partially paralyzed and unable to close her eyes or move her mouth.
Cannon has now had seven more surgeries to try and fix the injuries, which she said has left her permanently scarred
According to WSB, this isn’t the first case of medical malpractice brought against Cole
One other claims in another lawsuit that Cole gave her lopsided eyebrows when he operated on her. She now requires Botox injections to keep them even.
The fourth alleges that during a January 2023 surgery, Cole performed procedures that had not been agreed or even discussed with.
Attorney Alex Seay who is representing the patients told WSB: ‘What we have here is a series of bad outcomes.
‘And when you have so many of them, they stop being mistakes and they start being a pattern.
‘He made promises to fix things and all he did was create problems and permanent injury. What he did cannot be undone.’
Another plaintiff, who has not been named but agreed to have her image published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Cole damaged her facial nerves
Cannon and her lawyer appeared on NewsNation alongside Ashleigh Banfield last night in their first national TV interview.
Scott Bailey, an attorney for Cole and Oculus, said that Cole had complied with every medical standard in all of the cases.
He said: ‘He prioritizes patient safety and satisfaction and has dedicated his professional life to the specialty of facial and oculoplastic surgery.
‘It is a basic tenet of cosmetic surgery that each patient’s anatomy is distinct and there are known complications that are rare but well-recognized.’
According to WSB, this isn’t the first case of medical malpractice brought against Cole.
In 2010, a $1.256 million judgement against him lead to a landmark state supreme court case which overturned limits on jury awards.