The Miracle Worker

MiracleWorker
The
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n one episode of television’s short-lived of these faces and necks, but her lips are
Cop Rock, a plastic surgeon burst into a sealed-- and the wives and secretaries
song about how if you had the money, and aunts and mothers of other plastic
he could turn you into a honey because he surgeons, and gentlemen of respect
could “fix God’s mistakes.” By Chris Chase hairdressers and construction
Very funny, but what about
workers and accountants. (About
man’s mistakes? What if, in real life, a a third of her patients are men.) In the
plastic surgeon messes up? Who you course of this, despite herself, almost
gonna call? Nosebusters? “Revision,” as against her will, she has become a kind
it’s labeled when cosmetic surgery has to of Queen of Revisions. In the beginning,
be corrected, is a difficult art, and most she admits, she “sort of resented having
experience doctors would rather not be to fix up other people’s work. Why didn’t
bothered with it. It isn’t that they can’t do the patient come to me fist?” Then she’d
it, it’s that they don’t want to, according get interested in the patient’s problem
to New York plastic surgeon Dr. Pamela and forget all about her resentment. She
R. Lipkin. “Why should they waste their knows shes good (“Men who are in power
valuable time doing a revision,” she in this field are loath to help a woman.
says, “when operating the first time is so You have to be better than they are to
much easier?” Lipkin doesn’t do what get anywhere”), but only recently has she
they call body work. She confines herself begun to realize how good. And this may
into improves faces and necks, which she be because she has successfully corrected
has done on fashion models, actors, and so many flaws left in so many faces
society ladies-- you would recognize some by so many highly regarded surgeons.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAN WINTERS
Plastic Surgeon botch your nose? Not to worry. There’s always Pam the Knife.
The repair work started almost implants didn’t give him the look writes, “because of your initials.”
as soon as she opened her own her wanted, so he saved up and
In a world where most people
practice in 1984. A woman walked paid another doctor to take out the would rather die than admit they’ve
in who had been to a famous old chin implant and put in a new been nipped and tucked, Pamela
doctor for neck, face, eyes, and one. Now he’s had two operation Lipkin has patients who are willingnose. “And when the nose came on his chin, he still doesn’t look nay grateful- to confess. Here is
out lousy.” Lipkin says, he didn’t right- the second implant is so big the testimony of one woman:
want to fix it. He told her it looked it’s ridiculous- and he comes to
“I would say the shape of my
good. She went to another famous me. First thing I say is, “You have face was very full at the bottom,
doctor who said, ‘We can put a to get that thing out of your chin, the kid n that would get heavier as
cartilage graft in here, but who your face is too long to being with.” I aged. When I was thirty-eight,
did this to you?’ As soon as he
“The chin implant was put in a friend who worked for a plastic
heard the first doctor’s name, he perfectly, there was no error of surgeon on Long Island called me
up and said they has a
turned icy. ‘No matter
foolproof operation.
what I do, you won’t
‘You’ll
never
be satisfied.’ he said.
have to go jowly.’
Those big boys stick
“He hit me at the
together. So she came
moment I was feeling
to me. And she was so
vulnerable, and I
happy with the result,
went, and the did
I realized this would
liposuction. It left the
probably be my future
right side of my face
for a while, because
with a deep gouge, and
it takes years to build
pouches on either side
reputation in this city.”
of my mouth. It was
Now that she’s built
like when you have a
the reputation, Lipkin
small hill, and after all
continues to do revisions
the dirt around it has
anyhow- though what
been dug up, it looks
she says there would be
like a much bigger hill.
fewer needed if people
“They also left a line
knew how to choose a
down the side of my
plastic surgeon. The
face near my ear, kind
way the surfer roams
of like a pinstripe. So
the world in search of
there I was, and it was
the perfect wave, says
like walking around
Lipkin, candidates for
with a low-grade fever.
rhinoplasty roam the
omen will go to the
I would be feeling
Upper East Side seeking
okay, then I’d catch
the perfect nose, but they
plastic surgeon that their
a glimpse of myself
don’t do it intelligently.
in a window, and it
“Women will go to
gynecologist recommends!
was clear my face
the plastic surgeon
has been destroyed.
that their gynecologist
recommends!” she says, “And techniques, but it was not what “I lived with it for two or three
more plastic surgeons don’t have the boy needed. It was not the years, a constant reminder that
the proper training to work inside right thing to do on that face. someone I trusted has used me
the nose. If the septum is not We discussed it endlessly. He was as a guinea pig. I then went to
corrected when it needs to be, and in town with his mother, who another surgeon who said ‘Oh,
adjustments are made cosmetically was driving me crazy, she kept you were experimented on.’ He
to compensate for that, it just telling me he was so depressed attempted a revision, and I don’t
creates more of a deformity. When her was on Prozac. I took out the think he hurt me, but he certainly
the underlying framework is not implant, he was back to square did not help. Then I met a woman
good, you wind up with a bad job.” one, but he was massively better.” at my health club, a wonderfulSometimes, Lipkin has found, Proof of what she says lies there looking woman in her sixties who
undoing is better than doing. A on her desk in a letter from the appeared to be much younger
young man came to her with a sad now implant-less patient. He says than her years. She was very open
story. “A doctor is his hometown he’s no longer depressed, and and she told me Pam Lipkin had
had suggested a chin implant, so when his dog breeds, he would done her face. I couldn’t see scars,
he had one. This is a kid that’s like to send Dr. Lipkin a puppy. the skin was not distressed or shiny,
not making much money. The “It’s name should be Pearl,” he and I said wow and went to Pam.
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“She was extremely concerned make-up. When asked her age, she Kamer, the famous Beverly Hills
with what had happened to me. says only, “I’m older than I look,” re-modeler of movie stars, who go
She was involves as though she and politely closes the subject. for plastic surgery as casually as
were a member of my family. She Someone who knows her told me they do lunch.
phoned the first doctor, found out she could have been a concert
Lipkin says celebrities in New
exactly what he has done, talked pianist, but she won’t discuss this York are different; they don’t
to other doctors, and by and large either. “There are many surgeons like to admit a scalpel has come
everybody said to her, ‘This is who are pianists,” she says.
anywhere near them. “Even if you
tough. Lots of luck.’ Because the She is single, she has a boyfriend, see somebody with a night-anddamage was on either side of my she likes antiques, and she used to day difference, they adamantly
mouth, a dense area with small jump horses and ski “aggressively,” deny it.” But didn’t Joan Rivers
muscle fiber, it would have been but now she sticks to intermediate actually talk about having her tail
easy to poke something and cause runs for dear of damage to her lifted in her act?” Lipkin laughs. “I
temporary paralysis.
hands. And you’re not going to wish I had one of those patients,”
she says.
“I felt trapped. I
There are, of course,
was constantly being
times
when even a
reminded that I’d
daring revision artist
opted for something
like Lipkin has to
that wrecked my face.
say no, I can’t help
But Pam said, ‘Look,
you. “You get a lady
I think I know how to
who had a very low
do it, and I’m going
brow. A doctor lifts
to fix this.’ And in the
her upper eyelids. If
operating room, she
she still complains
labored so long that the
that she’s too heavynurses were saying, ‘Dr.
browed, the doctor
Lipkin, will you come
says, ‘Okay, come
on?’ And her attitude
back and I’ll remove
was we’ll be here until
more skin. I’ve had a
this gets done the right
woman tell me, ‘After
way.
two eyelid operations,
“When she came to
I still don’t like the way
my bedside after the
I look.’ I have to say,
surgery, she leaned over
‘You didn’t need your
me and said, ‘Move
upper lids done, you
your mouth.’ And I
needed your brows
moved my mouth.
lifted, but now I can’t
“The guy who did
do it because so much
liposuction on me used
skin was taken our of
metal clamps on my
hen things work out
your lids you wouldn’t
face. Pam used very
be able to close your
fine sutures. She was
eyes.’
you’re the hero. Otherwise,
also able to move most
A former fashion
of the original incision
photographer
who
behind my ear. On top
your’re a you-know-what.
takes
before
and
of that, I hadn’t has
after pictures of
earlobes, and she made
me earlobes. I have told her that find out much more than that plastic surgery patients refuses,
I think she’s from another planet. about her personal life. Her office for obvious reasons, to single
She gave me back more than a is not in a townhouse or a Fifth out as “best” and of the doctors
corrected area around my mouth, Avenue suite, but in an ordinary for whom he works. “All of my
she gave me back my peace of apartment on York Avenue; it’s doctors are good,” he says. But
mind. I don’t know how to put a small and cluttered and drives ask him point-blank about Lipkin,
value on that.”
anyone who works there crazy. and he’ll tell you she has “magic”
To patients like this one, Lipkin But her own mind is always on hands.
is Michelangelo with different something else, like the next
The liposuctioned lady whose
tools, but she takes praise with a surgery. She says she’s planning to peace of mind Lipkin restored
grain of salt. “When things work get a more impressive place, but says the photographer got it
out, you’re the hero,” she says she’s been saying that since she exactly right. “I think Pam’s kind
wryly. “When they don’t, you’re started her private practice.
of talent must be a curse and
a piece of you-know-what.”
With a degree from the State a blessing . she looks at things
New York-born, Lipkin is a University of New York, she and she sees what you don’t
pretty blonde with the skin of a trained at Manhattan Eye, Ear, see, and she suffers because she
twenty year old, and had the time and Throat Hospital, then went wants everything to be perfect.”
she doesn’t even bother to wear west and apprenticed with Frank
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