Surgery patient wakes up to missing belly button

HOUSTON -- A woman was forced to ask her doctor an unimaginable question: where's my belly button?

"I went in with the belly button and I'd like to know what you did with it? What happened to it? Did you throw it in the trash? Where is it?" Lori Jones, of Houston, said.

Jones, 45, said she saved up enough money to have some work done on her body after having multiple C-sections. Jones said with summertime coming, she wanted to be able to wear a two-piece bathing suit.

So Jones did her research and had several consultations before she decided to go under the knife. Plastic surgeon Dr. Younan Nowzardan performed an umbilical hernia removal and tummy tuck surgery in December 2015.

Nowzardan is world renowned, focusing on gastric bypass surgeries for overweight patients. He's even been featured on the TLC show "My 600 Pound Life." Jones said her tummy tuck turned out great. But the hernia, not so much. She spent weeks not completely seeing her results.

"Because the surgical tape and the gauze that's underneath, I couldn't see the incision, so the whole time I'm thinking my belly button is there," Jones said.

But when she took off the tape, her belly button was gone.

"I said well damn. Wait where is my belly button?" she asked.

Jones claims before the surgery the doctor did not warn her of the risks of losing her belly button.

"It was going to be in place and re-positioned and the hernia was going to be fixed," Jones said.

Nowzardan told a much different story.

"We did tell her before because she had a previous surgery in that area and she had a scar. And there's no way to save that area," Nowzardan said.

"We never discussed me not having my belly button. He told me my belly button would be re-sectioned," Jones argued.

"We can call Hollywood and get an Oscar nomination for her," the doctor replied.

Nowzardan said he can recreate Jones a belly button after six months of healing, but she said no, she wants to settle the matter in court. She's already contacted an attorney.

"I don't like it and for them to act like it's nothing, that's what's really bothering me," Jones added.