Not Guilty After Hair Transplant Leaves Scarring at Donor Site

Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois
Counsel: Anne Scrivner Kuban and Krista Frick
Demand 120,000
Asked: $195,000
Outcome: Not Guilty

Defendant dermatologist performed a graft hair transplant procedure on Plaintiff on December 12, 2012 utilizing an excised donor strip from the back of Plaintiff’s head. Hair did grow in the transplanted area at the front of Plaintiff’s hairline but Plaintiff contended that he had suffered excessive scarring in the donor area of his scalp. Plaintiff claimed that the scarring interfered with his ability to socialize, date, and keep a job. Plaintiff had undergone two previous hair transplants and this procedure was his third.

The defendant physician asserted that he examined Plaintiff’s scalp two weeks prior to the procedure, assessed Plaintiff’s scalp elasticity as poor and informed Plaintiff that there was an increased risk of scarring. It was brought out at trial that Plaintiff failed to comply with the preoperative instructions specifically the abstinence from alcohol 7 days prior to the surgery. Other medical records from Plaintiff’s primary care physician confirmed that Plaintiff consumed alcohol 4 days before the procedure. The defendant physician testified that he would not have performed the transplant had he known that Plaintiff consumed alcohol 4 days before the procedure due to the increased risk of scarring. The defendant physician offered to perform a scar revision on Plaintiff’s scalp but Plaintiff never returned to the defendant physician.