Ever since I was a child, I thrived on being liked. I always behaved, did my homework, was respectful to persons of authority, and tried to elicit praise. Who doesn’t like to be liked?

When I set up Yager Esthetics, my goal was to create a practice that offered the Hispanic Community a safe place where they would be treated with respect and care, and the highest level of service possible. I invested a lot financially and emotionally in the building of the practice, and try to make each patient happy.

Unfortunately, you cannot make every patient happy. Sometimes, it is that their expectations are not realistic, although I try to explain the limits clearly before surgery. Other times, they do not get the response from a loved one or coworker they were hoping for, and in their mind it can only mean that the result was not good. It is almost never the case that the technical aspects of the surgery were not perfect.

I recently had a patient who came for correction of a poorly performed surgery done elsewhere. I reviewed the goals and risks, showed what I could do, and executed the procedure perfectly. Afterward, she was unhappy, and brought me photos of women who looked horrible, fake, and were a totally different body type. None of this was done at any of our 3 visits before surgery.

The patient agreed I did a beautiful job, and the results were natural. She just wanted to look like these photos she brought, and also wanted me to redo the surgery at no cost for her. On the one hand, I do not like an unhappy patient. On the other, I am a physician, and I cannot in good conscience create something esthetically unappealing, not to mention risk complications.

Even if she were to pay me double, I would not do it. Sometimes, happiness is not something plastic surgery can achieve.