Quote from: fodawupa on May 11, 2019, 07:55:11 AMunicorn ur story is sad. ur opinions of guichet are 100% right. he is very very very unethical. ppl should never forget to trust their own judgement before putting full faith on a doctor in a forum board. i think this guy was banned from marsaille in france and so he went to italy. if u ask he will tell u that there is no "world class isokinetic center" in marsailles. as if that is the only one pt center that can help an LLer. marsailles has a professional football club, dont tell me they travel to isokinetic center in italy for pt.
if u tell him u dont have time for pre-op training or logistics issues, then he will happily say it's ok its not necessary anyway.
he is an arrogant monster. a rogue surgeon. he shouts if u question anythng he is uncomfortable about. he "shouts".
also unicorn i am happy u are thinking responsibly about having a child. having a child is a LOT of work and responsibilites. u are bring a new life and are responsible for everything of that child. everyone underestimates the effort and responsibilities of raising a child. dont take any rash decisions until u are emotionally stable. think of whether u can support the child financially, socially and mentally for at least 25 years of the child's life.
all the best!
Yes, all true. Let me put it in plain words.
1) PRE-OP TRAINING £3000
Not necessary. Many surgeons laugh at this gimmick. It's a great way to charge £3k extra. One of my classmates arrived in London 10 days before his surgery and joined us at the gym. He was aghast when he later received an invoice for £3k pre-op training that he did not subscribe to nor was notified about beforehand.
And the PT is the very same one who does everything else. He instructs us to do sets on 10 machines and 1 cardio, and leaves us to juggle his other responsibilities. Guichet is never present at the gym, pre or post op.
2) CYBER TESTS 2 x £170
Again, not necessary as it means nothing. Better yet, I failed my cyber test on one leg and yet I was approved for CLL.
3) PRE-OP PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION £300
Might be helpful but in my case, he passed me with flying colours and wanted to continue seeing me to help me solve why I'm still single (!). And the psychiatrist on the Guichet approved list was located outside London, in a makeshift office above his parking garage with a broken down sofa.
In addition, 2 non-native English speaking female patients of Guichet automatically failed their £300 psychiatric evaluations. And the ONLY option left was for them to get another last minute evaluation (from Guichet's approved list) with an additional fee of ~$1k more. At this price, they passed with flying colours. We were all crying because Guichet had threatened her that if she didn't pay and pass her 2nd psychiatric evaluation, he would cancel her surgery and confiscate her surgery payment.
So the irony is, no test was administered on us and the most basic DSM-IV diagnosing tools were not even used. But one of these girls got labeled 'Narcissistic Princess' by Guichet, which I'm sure is not a mental disorder. And a doctor who values discretion should not be trash talking his existing patients to newbies.
4) PRE-OP TESTING PACKAGE £5000
All the pre-op tests are conveniently included in this prepaid package and we get a brand new Guichet backpack as well. Wow. However, when one of our classmates signed up for it, he was shocked that most of the test centres he went to on Guichet's approved list didn't even have a pre-paid agreement with Guichet. So this patient had to pay double and then beg for his £5k back from Guichet.
5) HYALURONIC ACID £2000
He prescribes 6 syringes of hyaluronic acid for us to buy for ourselves before surgery so that he can use it during surgery. But he then tells us not to buy it ourselves as he can obtain them cheaper from France. So after surgery, he told us he didn't have time to buy the cheaper French version and had to buy it last minute at Princess Grace Hospital (who charges 20% extra dispensing fees) and that we will 'bleed' when we find out the price. This is one of the excuses he uses, for not refunding back our initial £3k surgery deposit.
In addition, I never realized patients are expected to procure their own in-surgery medications? I mean, was I supposed to bring my own anaesthesia mix as well?
6) ISOKINETIC CENTRE
So the only upside of going to the Isokinetic centre is they have a nice bathtub for hydrotherapy. But we probably got 5 sessions in a 2-month period. For the rest of the time, the professional Isokinetic trainers are not allowed to touch us. They're allowed to watch us while we do our stretches and even then, they're usually not even there the whole time. So it's a gimmick yet again.
The more sinister part is the doctor at Isokinetic actually contradicts Guichet and dispenses separate advice regarding the speed with which we were being lengthened, and the timescale we were promised for full recovery.
And recently, a potential LL patient went to inquire at Isokinetic in London if they could help him with post-op physiotherapy after he gets lengthened by another doctor. Lo and behold, his data got shared by Isokinetic to Guichet, and he received a phonecall from Guichet trying to persuade him to use the g-nail instead. So this potential LL patient freaked out and filed an official complaint regarding the violation of private information. Isokinetic promptly issued an extensive apology letter for this data breach. Guichet is not officially affiliated to Isokinetic. https://www.isokinetic.com/en/staff/londra/18302683/
AND MORE
And the list goes on... Better yet, former patients who had finished lengthening would continue to receive invoices. In my case, after I had fully paid up for my first 3 surgeries, 8 months after... I received an invoice for £30k more because he now claims I had not paid Administration Fees for each prior surgery (which in the fine print are fully included), the extra years of his diligent monitoring and lastly, for the g-nail that he broke when I was under anaesthesia.
So you guys can imagine that as patients, we were so stressed out as we were not used to being so harrassed for money before and many of us broke down emotionally because we were in pain, we were blind, we were shouted at (one classmate got punched in the stomach) and we were constantly being milked by the very hands in which we had entrusted our lives.
It's like the fox who guards the hen house. That's what we were, helpless crippled hens.
CONCLUSION
Total Guichet staff during our lengthening period (9 patients) between July to October 2016 = 1
