A rugby player who underwent cosmetic surgery has been awarded £26,000 after the operation left his nose – a different colour.
Carl Egonu, 49, decided to have the nose job after years of playing rugby left it battered and out of shape.
He feared the expensive operation would see him ”do a Michael Jackson” but a cosmetic surgeon assured him ”scarring would not happen”, a court heard.
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The procedure was meant to ”streamline” his nose, make it smaller and give it a ”cleaner, smoother profile”.
But the surgery left part of his nose ”raised and shiny” and darker than the surrounding skin on his face.
The operation left Carl, a building surveyor, with a large ”dark smooth scar” on the tip of his nose – which he will have for the rest of his life.
Experts say he is now stuck with the unsightly scar and any attempts to camouflage or skin graft it will ”not assist” the problem.
His new nose was supposed to make him more confident but instead left him ”depressed and withdrawn”, a court heard.
He sued cosmetic surgeon Dr Adeshola Adeniran who operated on him privately at Plymouth Nuffield Hospital in Devon in March 2006.
Carl, of Plymouth, Devon, was awarded £26,000 in damages at a county court but the cosmetic surgeon appealed.
London’s Appeal Court has now rejected the appeal and say the doctor failed to warn Carl about the risks.
Judge Christopher Gardner QC said Carl has been left with ”a significant cosmetic defect which he will have to bear for the rest of his life”.
He said his nose is ”something that people including his own children tend to ask him about”.
Judge Gardner said: ”Having reached an age where he had finished playing rugby in which sport his nose had been injured on occasions but not fractured he consulted Dr Adeniran to ascertain whether the shape of his nose, the bulbous tip of which he felt was too large, could be made more streamlined, and at the same time some small acne lumps could be removed or reduced although they were not his main concern.”
The court heard at an initial consultation Carl opted for a ”dermabrasion” op rather than the more invasive ”rhinoplasty” as he did not want to ”do a Michael Jackson”.
Dr Adeniran claimed he gave Mr Egonu a ”strengthened” warning about the potential downsides of the operation.
But after Carl’s wife expressed concerns, the surgeon ”reassured him scarring would not happen, and that, if it did, he would have to use him as a case study”, the court heard.
Carl, the court heard, then believed there was no risk of ”permanent adverse scarring” from the surgery.
Carl’s lawyers made no criticism of the medic’s surgical skills but said he failed to warn him about the possible risks of the procedure.
The court heard because Mr Egonu is black the surgery carried a higher risk of causing ”hyper-pigmented” scarring resulting in darker complexioned areas of skin.
The court heard Carl has since managed to put his scar ”to the back of his mind” but there is ”no doubt it had badly affected him”.
Carl has also had a session of hypnotherapy to come to terms with the blemish, the court heard.
Dr Adeniran’s QC, Richard Wilson, had urged the judge to reduce the pay-out as the scar was only visible at a ”conversational” distance.
The case reached London’s Appeal Court as Dr Adeniran challenged a county court ruling.
His lawyers argued that he gave his patient an ”express warning” about the risks of the procedure.
But Lady Justice Hallett, also sitting at the case, said Mr Egonu gave ”consistent evidence” that he would not have gone ahead with the operation had he been properly informed of the scarring risk.
Dr Adeshola Adeniran also carries out an NHS role as a locum consultant at Derriford Hospital.
