Anthony Labruna poorly performed two operations on me when I was only 18 years old. My mother and her husband had committed suicide only three years earlier and I needed time to adjust the way I thought of myself. Dr. Labruna was well aware of my mother's death. Both of the operations left me deformed. Prior to these deformities I had offers stacked in my inbox for actual modeling gigs, most of which offered to pay me substantial sums. My future was bright and hopeful but the way I felt about myself was complex due to the suicide of my family. I had also been put on an enormous amount of medications with serious side effects including emotional desensitization, cometic issues including weight gain and facial swelling, irrational behavior, insomnia, depression, even nasal discomfort, among others. Dr Labruna was well aware of the medications as well.
Still Dr. Labruna twice let me spend money my mother had left me after her suicide to make modifications I should not have been allowed to make so easily on two different parts of my face at a very young age. He barely spoke to me about the second procedure and did not make an effort to listen to what I was actually concerned about, which was nothing more than a very tiny lump of scar that had been left on my nose from a fall as a child, an issue so small I believe it was not something he could likely have solved anyway. Dr. Labruna told me no one would even notice the difference so I figured he knew what I was talking about but when I expressed concerns on the day of the procedure he was willing to speak to me for less than a minute. I was so young and on so many medications I became frozen like a dear in the headlights as his staff came to put me under. He ended up doing something very different from addressing the small concern I had expressed. He also did such poor work at the cookie-cutter job he did do that I have been left with visible deformities and an inability to properly breathe. I used to love to sing and it is what I wanted to do with my life. Dr Labruna was well aware of this as well. Now I cannot breathe well enough to do so properly. Over the next year after the procedures I watched and felt my face fall apart in front of me as the poor work done failed to settle properly. Dr. Labruna completely destroyed the hopes and dreams of an 18 year old boy by taking advantage of the fact that he was self conscious, very alone in the world, and had been left with some money after the suicide of his family.
I had been a straight-A student at Tisch NYU but never felt comfortable going back to school after the resulting deformities on the different parts of my face took hold of me. It became near impossible for me to feel comfortable around other people despite my extremely social nature, and I became deeply lonely in a way I had never experienced or known was possible. It has been years and I still don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror. I very often used to feel so confident, happy, and hopeful despite what I had seen and been through but since my encounters with Dr. Labruna I have been stuck in a world of pain, sadness, and regret, while having serious difficulty supporting myself and not knowing if my hopes and dreams will ever be possible again.