ATLANTA — Former patients of an Atlanta doctor allege in a series of lawsuits that he botched plastic surgery procedures that left them with permanent scars and injuries.
Dr. Harvey “Chip” Cole calls himself an “eye person” on the website for his practice, Oculus Plastic Surgery.
Kayla Cannon, 29, was born with a congenital defect. She has no muscles under her eyelids and has had to have multiple surgeries since she was 9 years old.
She said Cole promised a permanent fix.
“He said I can fix you, I can make you better,” Cannon told Channel 2 consumer researcher Justin Gray.
Cannon said Cole convinced her to get additional cheek implants at the same time as the eye surgery.
“I’ve always worried about my appearance and I was so excited to finally be happy,” she said.
Instead, Cannon claims in her lawsuit that she suffered various complications and problems from the surgery, including serious infections and eye damage.
“He took half my eyelids off, so it was very tight. And he kept saying, ‘I’ll fix it.’ I’ll fix it. Then I got an infection on my cheek,” Cannon said.
Cannon’s lawsuit is one of four recently filed against Cole.
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Attorney Alex See is representing the patient and told Gray he has heard from several more patients that further lawsuits may be filed soon.
“What we’re experiencing here is a series of bad outcomes. And when you get so many of them, they stop being mistakes, they start to become a pattern,” Seay said.
Cole’s attorney, Scott Bailey, said he has just begun discovery and investigation into the allegations.
“He (Cole) takes this matter seriously and always has the best interests of his patients in mind. However, he (Cole) does not believe that he was negligent or used inappropriate surgical techniques,” Bailey said in a statement. I deny it.”
Cannon underwent seven more surgeries to repair the injuries the lawsuit claims Cole caused.
“He looks worse than when I started dating him. It’s a permanent scar,” Cannon said.
This is not the first medical malpractice suit against Cole.
In fact, the $1,256,000 judgment against him led to a landmark state Supreme Court case in 2010 overturning jury award limits.
Channel 2 Action News also reached out to Northside Hospital, where Cole performed the surgery with privileges. They declined to comment.
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