A mother of three has been left blind in one eye after paying $13,000 for a partial facelift.
Dian Keller, 70, from Florida, underwent surgery in February after being inspired by friends who looked “great” after their own procedures.
But when she woke up after nearly three hours of surgery, the marketing expert was hit with a world of pain that felt like “someone had poured kerosene in my eye and set it on fire.”
Ms. Keller, once a loyal gym-goer and pillar of her Florida community, has now become a recluse who spends almost all of her time indoors.
‘My quality of life has been destroyed,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘I can’t really go outside, I can’t see, I’m still walking around in constant pain — and now I’ve got all these other medical bills.
Dian Keller, 70, of Florida, paid $13,000 for a partial facelift — but said she was “screaming” in pain as soon as she woke up. Doctors say her surgeon pulled her skin too tight, preventing her eyelids from closing
She is now blind in her right eye, allowing her to only make out vague shapes, but thankfully she has managed to regain her vision in her left eye
‘I love dancing. I used to go out a lot and meet friends, but now I can’t do that anymore and I find that very annoying.’
In the days following the operation, she could no longer see anything except for the occasional bright light coming from both eyes.
The photo shows Dr. Carlos Spera. He has not seen Mrs. Keller since the surgery, she says.
The vision in her left eye has now largely recovered, but she can still only make out vague shapes in her right eye. She has to wear a bandage to cover its visibility.
It is unclear whether she will ever regain full vision.
Mrs. Keller said she has also lost feeling in her forehead and scalp since the surgery and an incision has reopened, but these problems pale in comparison to the problems with her eyes.
According to doctors, her vision problems were caused by her skin being pulled “too tight” during surgery, preventing her eyelids from closing.
This dried out the cornea, the outer, clear, dome-shaped layer of the eye that bends light to help a person see. Ulcers developed, which disrupted vision.
Some doctors suspected that a chemical had been spilled into her right eye during surgery, causing problems with her vision.
Mrs. Keller will undergo another operation in September to close her eyelids again.
She estimates she may have to pay $60,000 in medical bills because she had to get care out of her network.
The mother of three also shared these images with DailyMail.com from the days following her surgery. She has repeatedly contacted her surgeon, Dr. Carlos Spera, who has three clinics in Florida, and says he has not offered any follow-up assistants.
Ms. Keller, whose case first came to light by 7 News Miami — plans to sue her surgeon, but has not yet found a lawyer willing to take on the case.
Her surgeon was Dr. Carlos Spera, who has three clinics in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Online, he describes himself as a “beacon of aesthetic excellence” and a “top plastic surgeon” who delivers “excellent results” for patients.
His website states: ‘As an experienced professional and licensed physician in Florida, Dr. Spera brings his extensive expertise to plastic surgery in Miami.
DailyMail.com has reached out for comment but the practice’s staff have hung up the phone twice.
Plastic surgery has become extremely popular in the US in recent years because it makes people look younger naturally.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), a whopping 26 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2022, the latest year for which data is available. That’s a 19 percent increase from 2019, amid a surge in Ozempic use and social media.
Ms. Keller says she has made an appointment with him for a brow lift, a common surgery for people between the ages of 40 and 60. The surgery is performed to minimize loose skin. It involves making an incision on either side of the hairline and lifting the outer third of the eyebrow and forehead.
She specifically chose this procedure because it was less invasive than a full brow lift, which lifts the entire skin in this area.
It also differs from the partial — or mini — facelift, which is used to address early signs of aging by slightly lifting the skin on the lower face. It is often performed on patients in their 30s to 40s.
Mrs. Keller said that before the surgery she partied with her neighbors three nights a week and also went to the gym and went for walks regularly.
Shje is pictured below with two friends on a night out before her surgery debacle
But when she woke up, Mrs. Keller said: ‘I was in constant pain, I was completely blind and I panicked.
‘I screamed and reached up into the air, and I felt my face. I couldn’t close either eye.
“And I felt my eyebrows, they almost reached all the way to your hairline. And I was in a lot of pain.”
Ms. Keller says she believes her surgeon performed a full browlift instead of the temporal surgery (or mini-browlift) she had requested.
She was picked up by a friend and taken straight to a local doctor, who she says did the ‘saving’ job of restoring her vision in her left eye.
Since then, she has also sought advice from several doctors, including Ivy League professionals, who all said her first surgeon had been “overzealous” with the skin tightening.
Mrs. Keller described the impact on her life this way: ‘I have a lot of trouble with little things now.
“I can’t cook — the fumes are causing this whole cascade of events with my eyes. I can’t use perfume, I can’t use fans. Too much air conditioning is not good, too much heat is not good.
Mrs. Keller is pictured before her surgery with her two sons
“My eye just starts watering uncontrollably. Honestly, I feel like I could have done laundry with the amount of tears coming out of my eye.”
She has also been diagnosed with corneal dysesthesia, a pain caused by nerves in the cornea. This can cause a burning, aching, dull or glowing fire in the eye.
It is caused by dryness in the eye, often as a result of direct injury to the eye from a foreign object, exposure to chemicals, or infection.
All hopes are pinned on her surgery next month, which will hopefully allow her eyelids to close again.
Ms. Keller says she has contacted Dr. Spera repeatedly since the surgery, but he has either not responded or has refused to help her.
In one case, she was driven to his office and sat in the waiting room for three hours to see him before she had to leave. She could hear him in the office at that time.
He previously told 7 News Miami that he “did not operate on her eyelids” and that he had asked her to come back for checkups. He also offered to schedule her for another checkup last week for a post-op evaluation.
Mrs. Keller chose her surgeon because she had previously undergone upper eyelid surgery with a colleague of his and was pleased with the results.