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[Ahri]

I decided to have my limb shortening experience with WBT and Dr. Yunus Oc - I'm going to try to be as straightforward and honest in my review as possible, and if people have follow up questions I'd be happy to answer any. My experience was not perfect, but despite that I still recommend WBT, but have serious suggestions for improvement for future patient care. 

Why I decided to have surgery:

First and the most obvious reason is aesthetics. Pre surgery I was around 172.5-173 cm. As a girl, I didn't like being this tall, and wanted to be closer to around 168 cm, or nearer to the average. Secondly, I'm training to be a nurse, and flight nursing is something I have an interest in. While it's not required to be shorter for this job, it's something that's useful and helps.

The Good:

My initial caretaker, Samin, was lovely. She helped me in the hospital and was so kind. We aren't as in touch now, but I'm thankful for everything she did for me. I truly hope the company can find a way to recontract with her sometime.

The doctor is honest and straightforward about what he can do and what he's comfortable with. I truly believe if you are interested in lengthening or shortening, he is one of the most thorough and provides stellar service. The rate of serious complications I saw from his surgeries seems very low, and most patients seem to be doing well under him. He told me 4.1 cm was the most I could do without looking weird (due to Tibia and Femur length), and that 4.5 was the absolute max he would do. Honestly, before coming I was hoping for closer to 5, but I understand he wanted to be safe about the surgery and not create odd proportions. I agreed to let the doctor make this call during surgery. He was thorough in his examination of my x rays, and he was honest about how long my full recovery was going to likely be, and that this would be difficult. I scoped out other doctors before coming here, and he is by far the most honest and professional I could find, and I felt safe going into the surgery. I do wish we got to see / talk with him a bit more about our recoveries, as he always seemed to be very very busy, but I understand. At the end of the day you aren't coming to Turkey for a holiday. You're coming here for a surgery to increase or decrease your height. If you don't trust your surgeon, it makes no difference if they have stellar facilities or not.

The Nurses: My hospital nurse team was lovely. They helped to make sure I was on pain killers whenever the pain got too intense, and they were sweet. Some of them spoke English, and I absolutely adored them. They pushed me to help me walk, but in a safe way. When I felt like I was going to pass out the first times using the walker, they were there to catch me and help me. I struggled A LOT during my initial days at the hospital. I had a lot of pain, blood loss, and I felt pretty anemic. Just standing on my own for the first few times I almost passed out or collapsed, so I felt much more confident having a medical staff there to assist me.

The physiotherapists are amazing, and I don't recommend missing a single day of physio. Mehmet is absolutely great at getting you to move again, and I personally want to thank him for all the help he gave me. He is the lead physio there, and he went above and beyond to provide stellar service, and I truly think he's one of the best physios I've ever seen. My boyfriend is also a physiotherapist (or used to be, anyways) and he's not as good as Mehmet is. WBT has probably the 3 best physios any company has to offer, and I fully trust them on when and how I can walk safely. Mehmet knew exactly when I could safely use crutches, and how much time I could spend walking daily, which specific muscles I needed to work on, and the types of exercises I needed to do. I'm so thankful to him, and I miss working with him. The other physios are also really good, and they will push you to successfully regain muscle movement. Each day I noticed improvements, and small little exercises I couldn't do yesterday I can do today. It makes me happy to know I can actually see physical gains.

The Days Inn Hotel. Ok - this is a controversial take because a lot of patients have issues with the hotel, and I'm going to list it in both categories, but I honestly liked it. The pool area was just completed and it's absolutely stunning. It's on the 15th floor, and you get a beautiful view of the city. There's beds up there to lay on, and lounge chairs so you can get sunlight. It needs easier accessibility for disabled people (we are all mostly in wheelchairs! Please step up on this) but it's really cool, and I imagine it would be amazing for hydrotherapy if some adjustments are made. The deaf employee at Day's took me around and showed me everything before it opened, and it was super nice of him.
The hotel also has very nice and modern rooms. I liked the hotel rooms a lot, and I thought they looked really pretty. I also spent a lot of time reading in the lobby business area. Where I'm from Day's Inn usually look awful, so I was pleasantly surprised that the hotel didn't look bad at all. If you're going to be stuck in a room for months, these aren't bad rooms to be stuck in, at least in my opinion.
The staff there were helpful to me whenever I had an issue. I felt like they genuinely cared, and a few of them spoke English. I was given a room change when requested (due to a safety issue) and they were happy to accommodate me and assure me they would keep me and other patients safe. The rooms have adjustable AC and are quite nice. My room did have a problem with the AC dripping that they never fixed, but honestly I don't really care since it still worked.

WBT staff - for the most part they're really nice. I can't comment on all of them, but a few I interacted with were really good people. I had one of the staff come and help me out after I left the hospital. I had a panic attack after leaving, and he came back to talk to me and calm me down. I was able to get a prescription for Xanax from the doctor. He also was the one who came and helped when we had an issue with another staff member. Jana is kind and you can tell she's looking out for patient safety, and I appreciated that she was genuine and straightforward from what I could tell. I made great friends with Aylis, the nurse there, and I think she was absolutely one of the best people you could ask for to be doing that job. She left the company, but I hope the best for her and wish that she will continue to do good things. My only complaint is they should do more to increase patient satisfaction and make us feel like they're present. Besides Aylis and the physio guys, we have limited contact with the company outside of whatsapp.

[Ahri]

The Bad:

The doctor shouldn't be discharging patients within three days for this surgery. It just isn't safe, and it's my only complaint I have for the doctor. They recommended I head back to the hotel after 3 days, and they gave me the option to stay the full 5. I absolutely needed the full 5 days, and I think to be safe, no patient should be recommended a 3 day discharge after this, even if your recovery looks ok. The hospital food may not be the best, but this is a serious surgery, and you should really take full advantage of the medical staff while you can. Once you leave, you're much more on your own.

I only lost 2.5-3 cm. My starting height was 172.5-173, and my ending height is 169.5-170. This is kind of disappointing, since I was hoping for more loss than what I got. I can't blame the doctor for this, because I requested the bone, and it is indeed 4 cm. This could be due to muscle contracture in my legs, spine compression, some bow leggedness I had before surgery, we aren't really sure. But I want to be clear that just because you lose 4.1 cm of femur doesn't mean your height will also reduce by 4.1 cm. If I could go back in time, I probably would have pressed the doctor to go closer to 5 cm, even if the proportions would be more off with the additional cm.

The caretaker. One of the hospital caretakers, as noted in the other thread, sxxually assaulted me and another female patient. I'm not going to go in depth on this, but it was pretty scary for the two of us. The company did remove him, but the quality control manager in the other thread has me very confused and concerned about how it was resolved. Personally, I would like the company to reach out to me on further details on this. This man masqueraded as people's friends but was a predator. He lied and told me and my caretaker he was gay so that he could spend more time in my hospital room. The nurses had to chide him multiple times to leave and spend more time with the German patient he was supposed to be monitoring, rather than spending time in my room with me and Samineh. Had I known the company wasn't going to pursue it further, I would have pursued it myself.
Him taking photos of me sleeping in the hospital, telling the other female patient he was in love with her, trying to kiss and bite me, coming into our rooms past 10:30 PM without permission and asking to stay the night with a hotel master card (I was mostly nked under my covers at the time), hugging and putting his head and hands all over her while sitting and waiting for us by and in the elevator, saying he was in love with her. He'd say he'd would quit his job for her so he could be with her, even after she clearly told him no. He mass deleted ALL his texts with her when I warned him to stop, and then continued on anyways the next day. This was all horrifying to me, and I didn't expect it. I talked with Jana about this, and she was helpful and told me he was no longer allowed on or near hotel property (and despite this, showed up at the hotel to smoke outside with another patient the next day....) There is more to this, but please never let this man near any patient ever again.

A nurse should be present daily. There is always a risk of complication with surgeries like these, and it's important that people are there for support should anything go wrong. The nurse we had Aylis was lovely, and I'm sad she left the company. In the crossover period while Aylis was gone, some patients said they were not informed if a nurse would come that day or when, and never got to see her. This is not good. Patients with fixators absolutely NEED to be seeing that nurse, and multiple patients should not be missing their changes due to lack of communication. This didn't happen with Aylis, so please urgently improve this.

Further, the nurse area should really be somewhere separate from the physio room - I understand this is an additional expense and not easy, but it's not good that all the medical equipment is in a small room that is easily accessed by the patients. The AC was broken for awhile in the physio room (partially fixed now) and with temps reaching up to 100 degrees, it's highly possible the drugs used could spoil. The physio room itself also needs to be improved. It's too small and cramped, and while the physiotherapists themselves are amazing and helped to increase my mobility each day, I did not like how cramped the room was. I talked with some of the current and former employees, and a lot of them also missed having access to the larger areas Marin Princess offered. I don't know what the solution is for this, but please urgently think of one, since physio is the most important part of recovery for patients.

The hotel breakfast. The food would be great, but they have a SERIOUS fly problem. This has to be addressed urgently by the company on our behalf. We were regularly seeing maggots swarming jelly dishes, meats and cheeses. Even maggots forming. This is not OK, since we are dependent on this food and paying a lot of money for the accommodation. Myself and others took videos of how bad it got. I stopped eating anything down there besides the eggs and bread, and that made me pretty sad. Please please please talk to Days Inn about this immediately.

Wheelchair Accommodation at the hotel also needs serious improvement. There's no reason we can't even go outside on the first floor sun area, or up to the 15th because of the ledge bumps. When a huge fraction of your customer base are in wheel chairs, it makes no sense that we get blocked off from everything due to a lack of ramps. You can't even get the wheelchairs over the bathroom bumps in the physio room, you have to take a walker. This is just idiotic design. I can't blame the company for this, but again, it's important they advocate for us in this regard.

[Ahri]

-------------------------

I left Turkey and am now back home. The next part of my recovery is starting now, and I will probably use this thread to document how I'm doing when I can, as well as to explain what my orthopedic doctors in the US think my healing is like. I probably forgot some things, and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.

Would I recommend this surgery? Yes. I like the doctor, and for the most part, I liked the staff. It's a difficult surgery, and I cried a lot. It is mentally and physically draining, and there were times I was extremely depressed, but I did feel like I had some support. There are areas for improvement though, and these need to be looked into ASAP for the best patient experience possible. I saw a few other patients had good experiences, others had some issues of their own.

If anyone would like x ray images, or anything else, I can upload them here, just let me know

[WannaBeTaller-Official]

The Bad:

The doctor shouldn't be discharging patients within three days for this surgery. It just isn't safe, and it's my only complaint I have for the doctor. They recommended I head back to the hotel after 3 days, and they gave me the option to stay the full 5. I absolutely needed the full 5 days, and I think to be safe, no patient should be recommended a 3 day discharge after this, even if your recovery looks ok. The hospital food may not be the best, but this is a serious surgery, and you should really take full advantage of the medical staff while you can. Once you leave, you're much more on your own.

I only lost 2.5-3 cm. My starting height was 172.5-173, and my ending height is 169.5-170. This is kind of disappointing, since I was hoping for more loss than what I got. I can't blame the doctor for this, because I requested the bone, and it is indeed 4 cm. This could be due to muscle contracture in my legs, spine compression, some bow leggedness I had before surgery, we aren't really sure. But I want to be clear that just because you lose 4.1 cm of femur doesn't mean your height will also reduce by 4.1 cm. If I could go back in time, I probably would have pressed the doctor to go closer to 5 cm, even if the proportions would be more off with the additional cm.

The caretaker. One of the hospital caretakers, as noted in the other thread, sxxually assaulted me and another female patient. I'm not going to go in depth on this, but it was pretty scary for the two of us. The company did remove him, but the quality control manager in the other thread has me very confused and concerned about how it was resolved. Personally, I would like the company to reach out to me on further details on this. This man masqueraded as people's friends but was a predator. He lied and told me and my caretaker he was gay so that he could spend more time in my hospital room. The nurses had to chide him multiple times to leave and spend more time with the German patient he was supposed to be monitoring, rather than spending time in my room with me and Samineh. Had I known the company wasn't going to pursue it further, I would have pursued it myself.
Him taking photos of me sleeping in the hospital, telling the other female patient he was in love with her, trying to kiss and bite me, coming into our rooms past 10:30 PM without permission and asking to stay the night with a hotel master card (I was mostly nked under my covers at the time), hugging and putting his head and hands all over her while sitting and waiting for us by and in the elevator, saying he was in love with her. He'd say he'd would quit his job for her so he could be with her, even after she clearly told him no. He mass deleted ALL his texts with her when I warned him to stop, and then continued on anyways the next day. This was all horrifying to me, and I didn't expect it. I talked with Jana about this, and she was helpful and told me he was no longer allowed on or near hotel property (and despite this, showed up at the hotel to smoke outside with another patient the next day....) There is more to this, but please never let this man near any patient ever again.

A nurse should be present daily. There is always a risk of complications with surgeries like these, and it's important that people are there for support should anything go wrong. The nurse we had Aylis was lovely, and I'm sad she left the company. In the crossover period while Aylis was gone, some patients said they were not informed if a nurse would come that day or when, and never got to see her. This is not good. Patients with fixators absolutely NEED to be seeing that nurse and multiple patients should not be missing their changes due to lack of communication. This didn't happen with Aylis, so please urgently improve this.

Further, the nurse area should really be somewhere separate from the physio room - I understand this is an additional expense and not easy, but it's not good that all the medical equipment is in a small room that is easily accessed by the patients. The AC was broken for a while in the physio room (partially fixed now) and with temps reaching up to 100 degrees, it's highly possible the drugs used could spoil. The physio room itself also needs to be improved. It's too small and cramped, and while the physiotherapists themselves are amazing and helped to increase my mobility each day, I did not like how cramped the room was. I talked with some of the current and former employees, and a lot of them also missed having access to the larger areas Marin Princess offered. I don't know what the solution is for this, but please urgently think of one, since physio is the most important part of recovery for patients.

The hotel breakfast. The food would be great, but they have a SERIOUS fly problem. This has to be addressed urgently by the company on our behalf. We were regularly seeing maggots swarming jelly dishes, meats and cheeses. Even maggots forming. This is not OK, since we are dependent on this food and paying a lot of money for the accommodation. Myself and others took videos of how bad it got. I stopped eating anything down there besides the eggs and bread, and that made me pretty sad. Please please please talk to Days Inn about this immediately.

Wheelchair Accommodation at the hotel also needs serious improvement. There's no reason we can't even go outside on the first floor sun area, or up to the 15th because of the ledge bumps. When a huge fraction of your customer base are in wheel chairs, it makes no sense that we get blocked off from everything due to a lack of ramps. You can't even get the wheelchairs over the bathroom bumps in the physio room, you have to take a walker. This is just idiotic design. I can't blame the company for this, but again, it's important they advocate for us in this regard.

I have carefully noted all of your remarkably self-explanatory and reasonable comments/criticism. I don't claim to be able to eliminate them all at once. But all of them will definitely be on our agenda and we will try to find and implement solutions as soon as possible.
I kindly ask you let me to explain all confusion and disappointment that you had caused by the statements made by me regarding the harassment you experienced.

As I stated in my reply to another of your comments, our aim was to cut off the relationship with the caretaker as soon as possible and we gave priority to this. We did indeed receive your harassment complaints just before our conversation with this caretaker. We needed time to confirm these. Because we couldn't cut our ties with him on such an accusation without clear confirmation in view of legal and professional manner. If we had done this, he could have filed a lawsuit against us, claiming that he had been slandered, which he already claimed was slander, and prolonged the process unnecessarily. Article 267 of the Turkish Penal Code: "In case the simple form of slander is committed, the perpetrator of the crime of slander is sentenced to imprisonment from one year to four years." contains the provision. I am not suggesting that you are slandering him here, please do not misunderstand. I am trying to tell, you it wouldn't do us any good, legally and professionally, if we just went through the claims of the patients without any definitive evidence. We already had more concrete and professional evidence to break our ties with him. He could not deny them and could not oppose us. Thus, we have already achieved a result that will drive him away from you and all our other patients, in accordance with labor law. Personally, I would never deny your allegations of harassment. I have a personality that hates harassment and similar crimes, and if asked, I would say that I think all abusers should be executed. However, as I mentioned before, we cannot do more than direct the parties to a competent legal authority in an event where both parties make contrary claims. Unfortunately, as you know, the company cannot exceed the law due to its official position. I hope I made myself more clear in this time.
Thanks again for all your constructive criticism.

Regards,
Necmettin Turan

[Ahri]

I have carefully noted all of your remarkably self-explanatory and reasonable comments/criticism. I don't claim to be able to eliminate them all at once. But all of them will definitely be on our agenda and we will try to find and implement solutions as soon as possible.
I kindly ask you let me to explain all confusion and disappointment that you had caused by the statements made by me regarding the harassment you experienced.

As I stated in my reply to another of your comments, our aim was to cut off the relationship with the caretaker as soon as possible and we gave priority to this. We did indeed receive your harassment complaints just before our conversation with this caretaker. We needed time to confirm these. Because we couldn't cut our ties with him on such an accusation without clear confirmation in view of legal and professional manner. If we had done this, he could have filed a lawsuit against us, claiming that he had been slandered, which he already claimed was slander, and prolonged the process unnecessarily. Article 267 of the Turkish Penal Code: "In case the simple form of slander is committed, the perpetrator of the crime of slander is sentenced to imprisonment from one year to four years." contains the provision. I am not suggesting that you are slandering him here, please do not misunderstand. I am trying to tell, you it wouldn't do us any good, legally and professionally, if we just went through the claims of the patients without any definitive evidence. We already had more concrete and professional evidence to break our ties with him. He could not deny them and could not oppose us. Thus, we have already achieved a result that will drive him away from you and all our other patients, in accordance with labor law. Personally, I would never deny your allegations of harassment. I have a personality that hates harassment and similar crimes, and if asked, I would say that I think all abusers should be executed. However, as I mentioned before, we cannot do more than direct the parties to a competent legal authority in an event where both parties make contrary claims. Unfortunately, as you know, the company cannot exceed the law due to its official position. I hope I made myself more clear in this time.
Thanks again for all your constructive criticism.

Regards,
Necmettin Turan

Thank you for your response to this - That helps me to understand a bit more. He never should have been going into my / the other girl's room after 10-11. He had no reason to be there, so it's hard for him to deny. Did he have an explanation for why he went to two girl's rooms so late into the night? What he did in my room and in the elevator (unless they have cameras) is impossible for me to prove beyond my claims and the other girls claims, since there are no cameras in the rooms, only outside them. However, he had some inappropriate texts with the other girl which she told me she took some screenshots of, including a text saying he was in love with her and would quit his job to be with her. He showed me some of these texts before mass deleting everything. Please ask her for these so they are on record. Hopefully him going into our rooms is on the hotel cameras, as well as him obtaining the master card to enter the rooms. He deleted all his whatsapp messages to her, and that alone is pretty suspicious. I don't understand why he did this if he had nothing to hide. - Not sure if those can be recovered, but if they were he would be easily incriminated.

[WannaBeTaller-Official]

Thank you for your response to this - That helps me to understand a bit more. He never should have been going into my / the other girl's room after 10-11. He had no reason to be there, so it's hard for him to deny. Did he have an explanation for why he went to two girl's rooms so late into the night? What he did in my room and in the elevator (unless they have cameras) is impossible for me to prove beyond my claims and the other girls claims, since there are no cameras in the rooms, only outside them. However, he had some inappropriate texts with the other girl which she told me she took some screenshots of, including a text saying he was in love with her and would quit his job to be with her. He showed me some of these texts before mass deleting everything. Please ask her for these so they are on record. Hopefully him going into our rooms is on the hotel cameras, as well as him obtaining the master card to enter the rooms. He deleted all his whatsapp messages to her, and that alone is pretty suspicious. I don't understand why he did this if he had nothing to hide. - Not sure if those can be recovered, but if they were he would be easily incriminated.

You're welcome. We owed this statement to you.

When we asked the person about the allegations against him, he immediately denied it at all, said that you dished on him and he wanted to confront you about the claims. He even said for willing to sue it against you. That was just it. (I already don't think he can explain anything considering what you've put forward.)

We also stated that both parties have such a right by nature, they are free in this regard, therefore it is the decision on the matter of the parties.

[Ahri]

You're welcome. We owed this statement to you.

When we asked the person about the allegations against him, he immediately denied it at all, said that you dished on him and he wanted to confront you about the claims. He even said for willing to sue it against you. That was just it. (I already don't think he can explain anything considering what you've put forward.)

We also stated that both parties have such a right by nature, they are free in this regard, therefore it is the decision on the matter of the parties.

I'd love for him to sue me and the other girl so that his texts and behavior on the hotel video can be subpoenaed from his phone by a court. It's definitely an empty threat. In the future, if someone denies such claims, please show them the video of him entering the room on camera and ask for an explanation. He can't deny explicit proof of him on video entering my room (there was a camera directly outside it). While you are a separate entity, it's definitely important patients be kept safe from predators and to advocate on our behalf. When he had barged into my room without consent, I was mostly nked under the covers and felt very vulnerable. I have no way to protect myself in that situation. I don't regret explaining to Jana what happened with him, though I was initially scared to out him to the company. She actually heard about the behavior from another patient and then asked me for clarity on the situation. That's honestly as much as I want to talk about his behavior though, because for me it is still a bit difficult to deal with and was only a minor part of my experience. For the most part I actually recommend WBT and feel like my experience was good (well, as good as it can be with two broken femurs), and that the doctor seems educated on the procedure and performs it like clockwork. My recovery is still going well and my range of motion continues to increase.

Also, for anyone reading, please be aware this post is sponsored. This is based entirely on my own experiences while here with Dr. Oc and while staying at the hospital and WBT facilities and Days Inn Hotel. Your experience may differ (hopefully because some things are improved upon by the time you come ^^ !) It's required we disclose this information according to the FTC / Ad Standard Guidelines in Canada and in the U.S.

[blaublaki]

so let me get this straight

this female here is 172 cm but decided to shorten her femurs to become 168?

is this a joke?

what planet do you live on?!

[WannaBeTaller-Official]

I'd love for him to sue me and the other girl so that his texts and behavior on the hotel video can be subpoenaed from his phone by a court. It's definitely an empty threat. In the future, if someone denies such claims, please show them the video of him entering the room on camera and ask for an explanation. He can't deny explicit proof of him on video entering my room (there was a camera directly outside it). While you are a separate entity, it's definitely important patients be kept safe from predators and to advocate on our behalf. When he had barged into my room without consent, I was mostly nked under the covers and felt very vulnerable. I have no way to protect myself in that situation. I don't regret explaining to Jana what happened with him, though I was initially scared to out him to the company. She actually heard about the behavior from another patient and then asked me for clarity on the situation. That's honestly as much as I want to talk about his behavior though, because for me it is still a bit difficult to deal with and was only a minor part of my experience. For the most part I actually recommend WBT and feel like my experience was good (well, as good as it can be with two broken femurs), and that the doctor seems educated on the procedure and performs it like clockwork. My recovery is still going well and my range of motion continues to increase.

Also, for anyone reading, please be aware this post is sponsored. This is based entirely on my own experiences while here with Dr. Oc and while staying at the hospital and WBT facilities and Days Inn Hotel. Your experience may differ (hopefully because some things are improved upon by the time you come ^^ !) It's required we disclose this information according to the FTC / Ad Standard Guidelines in Canada and in the U.S.

If he's as confident as you are, he might consider filing a lawsuit. I wish he would do that too, so that the truth comes out. But I don't think he will, and I think we both know why he won't. It was great that you shared your experiences with your consultant and informed us. Thus, we will further improve our awareness and preparedness level against undesirable events. Currently, our contract includes clauses that protect both the patient and staff against harassment, insults, and undesirable behavior. All we need is "professional/official proof" to enable us to apply these items without hesitation. We will concentrate on the measures that can provide us with this evidence.

I am pleased that you have forwarded your constructive criticisms and positive comments to us. Stay well...