What started out as a routine cosmetic procedure, has turned into a nightmare for one Michigan woman. Imagine going to the doctor for what appears to be a routine procedure and walking away scarred for life. That's exactly what one woman says happened to her after visiting an East Lansing plastic surgeon.

Victoria Michael is like a lot of women. After giving birth to two children, she was having trouble getting her old figure back. Two years ago, she decided to do something about it.

Victoria Michael, suffering after plastic surgery: "I've seen all of the shows on TV, and they were making everybody look wonderful, so I started to do some research."

She called doctors from all around mid-Michigan and Canada, and even scoured the internet looking for a qualified plastic surgeon. All of her research lead her to Doctor Lee Colony of East Lansing.

Victoria Michael: "He was board certified, he had been established for a long period of time. You could wallpaper your house with how much information was sent to me."

It's a decision she says she'll regret for the rest of her life. On June first, 2004, Doctor Colony performed liposuction and a tummy tuck on Victoria. Her problems began almost immediately after surgery. She began to notice that something wasn't quite right with her incision.

During her followup exam two weeks later, Doctor Colony told her that the area didn't appear to be getting enough circulation. Things quickly went from bad to worse. Victoria says her wound started to break down, her skin was dying.

That's when she started making weekly trips to Colony's office so he could cut dead tissue from her stomach. The painful routine went on for months. She says Colony told her it was only way to prevent infection.

Victoria Michael: "There was this huge hole, and it was like my flesh was getting eaten away, I could smell my skin rotting and it kept getting worse and worse."

Victoria Michael: "I was on Methadone, I was on Dolophine, I was taking 12 to 16 Percocet a day. He had me on antidepressants, he had me on sleeping pills. I mean, I was taking like 25 pills a day and it wasn't working."

Finally, after three failed skin grafts, hundreds of pain-filled hours, nearly four months after surgery, Victoria decided that she'd had enough.

She went to her old family doctor, and with one simple test, he discovered that Victoria had a bacterial infection that was resistant to the antibiotic she had been taking for the last four months.

Victoria Michael: "Until somebody can fix me, I'll be like this. This is as good as it gets for me. I feel like he took my life and this is what he's left me with."

Victoria Michael says she's in the process of suing Doctor Colony. Colony's attorney says because of that lawsuit, Colony could not speak to 6 News, but did say he denies doing anything wrong.

This is cache, read story here