Two women who are suing a plastic surgeon for his alleged botched operations bravely appeared on camera for the first time to discuss their traumatic experiences.
Sara Dunham and Kayla Cannon are among at least nine former patients who are suing Dr. Harvey ‘Chip’ Cole over his surgeries at Northside Hospital facilities in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dunham says that she was left ‘disfigured’ at the hands of Cole after undergoing surgery on her face in 2022.
Dunham said Cole recommended a cheek lift, lip lift, eyelid and ear-pinning surgery after she told him she ‘wanted to look a little refreshed’.
But she claims the surgery left her battling slew of side effects including right facial paralysis, the inability to close her eye, impaired eating and drinking and dry mouth.
‘I’m embarrassed how I look. I’m embarrassed with how I try to talk. I’m embarrassed that I have to keep taking swigs of a liquid to moisturize my mouth to be able to talk,’ she told WVUE-TV in an interview published Monday.
Dunham accused Cole of ‘damaging the facial nerve’ and ‘removing too much tissue’ during the procedure, her lawsuit alleges.
Cole, also known as ‘the eye guy’, denies any wrongdoing and his attorney claims they will ‘fight the claims against him’.
The hospital group is also being sued over allegations of negligence and confirmed in December that Cole is not an employee.
Cole is being sued by at least nine former patients who claim his operations left them permanently disfigured.
Several of his former patients are now speaking out about the trauma they have endured from the doctor’s alleged ‘damaging’ procedures.
Cannon, who went to Cole seeking treatment for a ‘birth defect’ that left her without muscles in her eyelids, told the TV station that her condition is ‘maybe worse’ than before he treated her.
Cannon, 29, claims that although she went to Cole for treatment for her eyelid condition, he also said ‘my cheeks were very flat’ and recommended implants.
In her lawsuit, Cannon claimed the procedure went well, but just weeks later her eyelid dropped back to its original location.
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.
Cannon has now had seven more surgeries to try and fix the injuries, but says she is still ‘permanently deformed’.
‘I look worse than when I started and it kills me,’ she told WVUE and further accused the doctor of ‘taking all of my 20s away from me, the most important years of my life’.
Cole has also previously been the subject of malpractice lawsuits featuring similar allegations.
Among those suing him is Julie Kimmerling, who claims the surgeon nicked a blood vessel and nerves in her neck during a procedure in January 2023.
Kimmerling was left with permanent brain injuries and facial paralysis after losing more than a liter of blood, according to her complaint.
Her case cited five former examples including a settlement over the 1999 death of Jeannie Huff during an eyebrow lift surgery.
Another woman alleged that her face became infected after Cole used dirty surgical tools for her operation, according to her attorney.
Betty Nestlehutt and her husband won a $1.2 million payout in 2008 after accusing Cole of destroying the blood supply to her face and leaving her with permanent disfiguration.
Cole’s attorney, in a statement to the TV station, said the surgeon is ‘dedicated to his patients’ and ‘known to handle some of the most difficult cases in his field’.
‘He has grave concerns about the methods that may have been used to identify and solicit his patients, and he questions how it is possible that a single plaintiffs’ attorney has been retained by several former patients,’ Cole’s lawyer added.
Alex Seay, representing the patients, alleged that Cole has demonstrated a ‘pattern in practice of upselling patients for procedures they don’t need and then doing those procedures incorrectly’.
Last year, Cole and his wife Susan Cole filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after four patients sued him for malpractice.
The couple declared $13.6 million in debts and $37,000 in assets. Since then, a further six patients have launched legal action.
Cole is not certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, a non-regulatory organization considered to be the ‘gold standard certification’ for plastic surgeons.
He is, however, certified by American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, the American Board of Laser Surgery, and the American Board of Ophthalmology.
Georgia Composite Medical Board executive director Jason Jones previously said that the board treats complaints with, ‘the utmost seriousness’, but that no public action has been taken against Coe.
‘Every investigation is unique and requires time to ensure that all concerns are thoroughly addressed,’ Jones said last month.
‘We are currently reviewing and assessing all internal processes to ensure continued integrity and effectiveness in our regulatory responsibilities.’