Surgeon: Michael Jackson A 'Nasal Cripple'

Feb. 8, 2003 -- Although Michael Jackson says in a new documentary that he has had only two operations on his nose, a leading plastic surgeon believes he has had so much work done that he is now a "nasal cripple."

Dr. Pamela Lipkin, a prominent plastic surgeon in New York City who has studied photographs taken of Jackson at a California court appearance in November — in which his apparently scarred nose was covered by a small transparent bandage — believes something went wrong.

"What I think happened recently is that something in his nose — a graft, an implant, something — has now come out through the skin," said Lipkin, a nasal specialist who is not Jackson's doctor and has never examined him in person. "He's really got a hole in his skin."

"Michael Jackson has what we call an end-stage nose, a crippled nose, a crucified nose — one that's beyond the point of no return," she said.

People who have had so many surgeries on their nose that it becomes hard to breathe through are called "nasal cripples," Lipkin said.

Although Jackson's face has been splashed across the tabloids in recent months, Brittan Stone, photo editor at the celebrity magazine Us, says the singer's face is not being seen on magazines.

"The one thing you can't do with Michael is a beauty shot, because that shot simply just doesn't exist anymore," Stone said. "I don't think you can put Michael Jackson's face on the full-page of a magazine.... I think the flaws in his face become a little too evident, a little too frightening. It becomes like a medical study."

Jackson Denies Face-Changing Surgery

In the documentary, which aired in Britain and the United States this week, Jackson said the only surgery he had had on his face was two operations on his nose to help him breathe more easily so he could hit higher notes. He denied having any surgery done on his lips, cheeks, chin or eyes.

Primetime asked Lipkin to review photographs taken at different points of Jackson's career and give her opinion. The first photograph showed Jackson with the Jackson 5 in the early 1970s.