Hope for Model after Botched Plastic Surgery

Seventeen years ago Debra Dunn, a former model, decided to have plastic surgery to remove a very small bump on her nose.

She got a lot "less" than she bargained for. "When he took off the cast I started to cry," she said. "The surgeon pretty much removed the mid-section of my nose."

Over the years she had three more revision surgeries, but it only got worse. Dunn said she was embarrassed and would hide behind her hair.

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That's until she met Dr. Andrew Jacono, a reconstructive plastic surgeon at North Shore University Hospital. Jacono said Dunn's ordeal is just one of the many horror stories he hears on a regular basis.

"The statistics of the American Academy of Plastic Surgery says there are huge jumps in the number of people getting plastic surgery and they are not necessary done by qualified doctors," he said.

But there is hope. Jacono said there are very few cases that can't be fixed.

Similarly, Betty Fenster was unhappy with the shape of her eyes after she had a bad eyelift. Jacono said her corrective surgery, like many "redos," was far more complicated than the first one, but still doable.

"With eyelid surgery, because skin is usually removed, you either have to replace it or borrow it from another place," he said.

Dunn's nose had to be completely rebuilt. She had the surgery two months ago. Doctors used ear cartilage to help build her nose back up. They recreated the tip of her nose and now Dunn has the nose she always wanted. "I feel like me again," she said.