Ok I understand. I am just really stressed out about the 'refund' meeting I will have next week. The surgeon is based in Europe by the way, I am just originally from Australia.
I know that I will get a refund for the surgical fees since no surgery was performed. I am just stressed out about the possibility of not getting the 3 day hospital stay cost refunded, which was already paid by the surgeon to a seperate clinic prior, and also not getting the manufactured implant cost refunded. In total, these are 1/3 of the total I paid, which is A LOT and it is hard to bear the thought of losing it. :'(
Same deal if guy is in Europe. Will depend on laws and ethical codes doctors are bound by in that area and if his actions and/or his 'reactions' to anything you did, were out of bounds. So, all hinges on whether or not he REFUSES to refund, his grounds of refusal and whether or not his grounds were legitimate. There are LOADS of facts and circumstances associated with that. But again, they would be in the venues of law and/or ethics and therefore professionals who are very conversant in those venues.
I understand the anxiety of (potential) financial loss. But YOU first have to establish yourself by asking the party who was the recipient of your funds (the doctor). If he refuses any refund, then time to get a lawyer.
Now, I'm going to ask you some questions that I think you could answer openly without violating your privacy or the doctor's. However, you don't need to. But you should be able to identify (in your own head) which questions relate to your interaction/contract with the doctor. All the questions relate to the doctor possibly engaging you in some type of GAG ORDER type contract and whether or not there were questionable clauses in it or questionable demands he made of you that a lawyer could challenge IF you didn't get a refund. But, of course, first you have to FIND OUT if he gives you a refund and IF he doesn't, what his grounds were.
The questions are in the venue of contract lawyers, type to pursue IF you don't get a refund.
1: Does the reason for your needing 'privacy' have more to do with the DOCTOR'S need for privacy than yours? Like does it have something to do with a 'GAG ORDER' being drafted in your contract. Is there anything in your written contract that says something to the effect that anything you could say about him/your experience with him in an open venue (such as this one or other types like this) will become 'HIS' copyright? Like does he make a claim that your 'freedom of speech' won't be yours anymore because you have assigned him copyright to it? Is there anything in your contract that in some way conveys that future surgery with him is some kind of 'secret' and you're not allowed to discuss anything about it in any open venue where people getting similar types of surgeries congregate? Do you feel that the doctor was somehow 'punishing' you for doing so? Do you feel that he made any demands on you regarding what you could say and couldn't say or where you could or could not talk about your upcoming surgery that infringed on your basic rights to do so? Does anything in the contract he got you to sign (or his verbal explanation of what it meant) actually PRECLUDE you from participating on open venues about maxfax type surgery?
2: Have you shared any documents, such as surgical plans, that on them say something like: 'Copyright (intellectual property) of Dr. so and so, not to be shared without permission'...anything like that? Like he could claim they were his intellectual property or copyright, in which case the protocol is to request you remove them. But when you do remove them, you basically fulfilled any obligation to take them down. Like that alone might not be grounds to cancel your surgery AND not give you a refund.
3: A doctor can cancel a surgery if he feels you/a patient would be 'unhappy' with the outcome or not 'emotionally or physically ready', lacked capacity to follow pre or post surgical instructions...etc. Usually stuff that would relate to your own good. However with stuff in cosmetic surgery venue, they can cancel for lack of rapport/cooperation. There can be a cancel fee with that. But there's got to be some code of ethics or law that doctors are bound by to preclude them from keeping all your money if they cancel. If not, it would be very LUCRATIVE for unethical doctors to collect advanced fees and scam patients out of their money on the basis on some 'contract violation', especially so if there was some questionable contingency within it. For example: 'Oh, you exercised your right to free speech on a message board in violation of my copyright to your free speech that prevents you from exercising it on message board.'
4: When he cancelled your surgery so abruptly, did he also formally sever the doctor patient relationship so you're not his patient anymore and won't be in the future. Like did he give anything in writing explaining why he was ending the doctor/patient relationship? Did he help you find another doctor? Could you have found another doctor in that short span of time? Do, you feel his conduct caused you emotional harm? For example, a lawyer (or the ethics board) would want to look at the ethics of a doctor severing the doctor/patient relationship so abruptly with no formal written explanation of WHY and especially so if he doesn't give you some refund.
5: Claim that you are MENTALLY UNFIT. If he claims you are mentally unfit and that becomes the basis for his not giving you your money back, than you would have also been mentally unfit to sign a contract with him in the first place. Mentally unfit is not too far from signing a contract under duress in which case makes the contract unenforceable. Like you could be mentally unfit or unsound mind. But that would not bind you to financial penalties imposed by his contract. It would void them.
DISCLOSURE: I am NOT a lawyer. I just have a social history of being in close surrounds and having lawyer 'buddies' who were top professors at Harvard Law. I'm not giving you legal advice. I'm just suggesting what type of lawyer (contract law) IF the guy doesn't give you your money back. Basically, if the doctor claims YOU 'violated' your contract and 'that's why' he refuses some refund, maybe you didn't violate it at all. Like maybe you just violated some illegitimate clauses in it that you're not really bound to abide by or maybe you are mentally unfit to engage in a contract which would tend to void any financial forfeit on your part regarding money he wants to keep for himself and not give back to you.
