“Surgery and Second Chances”: Botched Surgery Leads to Lifelong Disability, But Paves A New Way For Ventura Woman
VENTURA, Calif.—Cindy Flores says she’s come a long way from a botched surgery 13 years ago, but she still lives with chronic pain.
“Every day that I wake up in the morning, I'm like Frankenstein. The pain is like it's a debilitating pain. I never know if I'm going to have a great day or not. I just have to get up and do it,” said Cindy, who now lives in Ventura.
What started as a simple surgery to remove an ovarian cyst led to multiple complications after the surgeon made a life-altering mistake.
The surgeon sliced part of her intestine. She had a perforated colon and was wheelchair bound for 3 years.
The surgeon also performed an unplanned hysterectomy because he suspected endometriosis.
Cindy says she was heartbroken when she learned about the hysterectomy after she woke up from the surgery.
“ I was in so much pain and so sick. I didn't have time to understand in the hospital what that really meant. That my decision now was taken away to never again be able to have children,” said Cindy.
The hysterectomy also sent her into menopause, but she says no one had told her that could happen.
“So I was having huge sweats, buckets of sweat, acne all over the place, hair all over the place. I literally felt like I was going to lose my mind. I remember sitting on the couch and telling my dad that I felt like I was going to lose my mind. I thought it was just because I was so sick. I didn't know that those were symptoms of menopause,” said Cindy.
Cindy was able to get corrective surgery at Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara and says the level of care has been great.
Though she still deals with pain, she said her journey has been a reminder to live life to the fullest.
“Always my dream was to work in Hollywood. And so when I nearly died and came back, I said, I'm going to go do it. I’m going to do it,” said Cindy.
Since then she’s worked with Latin icons like Dolores Huerta and Esai Morales.
And now, Cindy is sharing her story in the docu-series “Balance” — a series that confronts perimenopause and menopause.
“Balance” is dropping on Amazon Prime and Apple TV on January 30th.
