In May 2011, Jennifer Swalberg went to a Utah plastic surgeon for a tummy tuck and liposuction. It appears she didn’t do her homework very well when choosing a plastic surgeon. While Dr. Joseph Berg claimed to be an “artist,” the work he produced was much more indicative of a hack.
Here is the laundry list of complications Jennifer experienced after her liposuction and tummy tuck:
- A series of jagged incision scars
- Lumps of hardened scar tissue
- Fat, skin, and tissue necrosis
- Abnormal tissue distribution
- Fluid accumulation
- Puss-filled wounds
- Draining blood and puss-filled fluid
Dr. Berg removed 8.8 liters of fat during the liposuction procedure. This is considered a dangerously large amount of fat to remove, and it significantly increased her risk of post-operative complications.
He Stabbed Her with a Pickle Fork!
You would think that after receiving such nightmarish results, Jennifer would have looked for another plastic surgeon to fix all of her issues. But for some inexplicable reason, she stuck by her man.
And boy did she regret that decision.
During one follow-up appointment to address 3-month-old wounds which hadn’t healed, Dr. Berg shot Jennifer full of steroids and local anesthetic before leaving her alone in the room for an hour. By the time he returned, the anesthetic had worn off. He proceeded to cut open the wounds and stab at them with a pickle fork.
Dr. Berg claimed the pickle fork stabbing would help break up the scar tissue. All his “dill treatment” really did was cause Jennifer excruciating pain and excessive bleeding. In his infinite wisdom, Dr. Berg tried to stem the bleeding by holding a paper wrapper against the wound.
Here’s what I’m wondering – did he use a Tootsie Roll wrapper, a Blow Pop wrapper, a Snicker’s wrapper, or one of those Trident wrappers that dissolves in your mouth?
Pickle Poker is a Pill Popper
“Pickle poker is a pill popper.” Try saying that one really fast 10 times in a row. Quite the tongue twister…
So Dr. Berg is not only a bad plastic surgeon and a gratuitous pickle fork poker, but he is also a drug addict.
At one of Jennifer’s other follow-up visits with Dr. Berg, she heard a loud crash in the hallway after waiting for 3 hours. She opened the door to see what was going on, and she found Dr. Berg sprawled across the floor with glazed eyes.
I know what you are thinking. There could be lots of reasons why Dr. Berg passed out with glazed eyes. It doesn’t have to be drugs.
Oh, but it does. The Utah Division of Professional and Occupational Licensing cited Dr. Berg after his staff saw him taking drugs and falling asleep while standing up in 2011. His license was eventually revoked after investigators discovered he was abusing prescription drugs.
Dr. Berg had 29 prescriptions for himself, one of which was for a controlled substance. He also had 21 prescriptions for his live-in girlfriend, and 20 of them were for controlled substances. Dr. Berg had the following drugs illegally in his possession:
- Hydrocodone
- Oxycodone
- Fentanyl patches
Like I said, pickle poker is a pill popper.
He’s a Kidnapper Too
Ok. Here’s where this story gets really weird. In November of 2011, Dr. Berg was arrested for kidnapping his girlfriend. That’s right, the same live-in girlfriend who pops all those pills with him. After kidnapping her, Dr. Berg tied her to a dresser with medical tape. He was sentenced to 6 months in jail. They are now engaged to be married.
Yeah. This is the guy I would want performing my plastic surgery. Great choice Jennifer.
So what is the moral of this story? I think there may be a few:
- Do your research when choosing a plastic surgeon. If he has a criminal record or a known drug habit, you may not want to work with him.
- If your plastic surgeon comes at you with a pickle fork, you may want to hit him over the head with a blunt object and get out of there as fast as you can.
- Is Utah really the place you want to go for plastic surgery? Even if you live there. I mean, there’s always plastic surgery tourism. Pick a destination like Southern California or New York City. You can have a nice vacation and still work with a highly regarded, board certified surgeon.
- Or better yet, why not just forget about the plastic surgery and just be happy with the hand you’re dealt. It’s much better than getting repeatedly stabbed with a pickle fork by a pill popping, kidnapping, hack of a surgeon.
