Rimini, September 5, 2026 – She wanted to improve the appearance of her face with a facelift. Instead, she ended up with skin necrosis, a long period of dressings, a second surgery, and permanent scars. Almost 6 years after that operation, the Rimini Court ruling arrives: the doctor and the healthcare facility have been ordered to pay the patient about 50 thousand euros, plus interest and legal fees.
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The story begins in September 2020, when the woman, resident in Rimini, underwent a cervico-facial facelift with the goal of achieving facial rejuvenation. The surgery cost about 7,400 euros. A choice made for purely aesthetic reasons and which, in the patient’s intentions, was supposed to improve the appearance of her face. But the postoperative course soon took a completely different turn.
Necrosis appears, the woman files a complaint
Immediately after the stitches were removed, something went wrong: a significant area of necrosis appeared, that is, the death of a portion of skin tissue, accompanied by the opening of the wounds. A problem that turned what should have been a planned cosmetic surgery into a long and painful journey.
The situation required dressings for weeks and, a few months later, a new corrective surgery. However, the second surgery did not erase the aesthetic consequences. The scarring outcomes remain, destined to become one of the central points of the subsequent civil lawsuit. The woman thus decided to turn to justice and in 2023 brought the doctor and the facility before the Court.
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Compensation for damages
She requests compensation for damages claiming that the facelift was poorly performed and also complaining about issues regarding informed consent. The case therefore focuses both on the methods by which the surgery was actually performed and on the information that had been provided to the patient before entering the operating room.
According to the experts, the type of surgery chosen was correct and the guidelines followed were compatible with good surgical practices. Therefore, the decision to proceed with that type of facelift was not wrong. The error, however, occurred during the operation. The skin flaps were prepared too thin and subjected to excessive traction during suturing. Hence the necrosis. A complication that, according to the consultants, was foreseeable and avoidable with proper surgical execution.
How much the facility and surgeon must pay
A decisive step to establish the link between the conduct during the surgery and the consequences suffered by the patient. The Court’s orientation is clear: the necrosis, the delayed healing, the second surgery, and the scarring outcomes are therefore directly connected to the error made during the operation. These consequences are not considered a simple unavoidable risk related to the procedure. Between non-pecuniary and pecuniary damages, the final amount reaches 50,468 euros, plus interest. This sum includes the consequences recognized as directly attributable to the facelift and the subsequent path faced by the woman. The surgeon and the healthcare facility were jointly ordered to pay, thus being held jointly responsible for the compensation established by the Court.
