EXCLUSIVE I spent $10K on a nose job...and woke up with part of my face missing
Ashley Caselli, now 37, underwent a revision rhinoplasty, or nose job, with Dr. Lindsay Sturm in January 2021, in the hopes of resolving her breathing issues.
But when she woke up from the around three-hour procedure, the Iowa native says she was immediately plunged into a world of constant worries about her new nose.
'It just looked smashed,' she told DailyMail.com. 'It doesn't look finished. It looks like I am missing a piece of my face; My nose doesn't even have a tip anymore.'
Once a social mom who loved taking pictures of herself with her children, Caselli is now consumed by fear whenever she leaves the house and is always photoshopping herself in family pictures.
She also said her breathing is now 'much worse', and that she wakes up several times every night with a dry mouth and has to pull up her nose when she runs to get air in.
She said: 'It's just no way to live. It really hurts your self-confidence; it hurts your way of thinking whenever you do things and want to take pictures with your family.
'Every day, I look in the mirror and I am saddened by it, and when people look at me, I constantly wonder, are they looking at my nose?'
Caselli is one of at least eight patients to have come forward in recent months alleging harm by Sturm, who ran a clinic in Iowa until February this year.
The cosmetic surgeon and otolaryngologist, a surgeon specializing in the ears, nose, throat, neck and head, has also been accused of causing the death of her patient Angela Kettwig in a lawsuit, although she denies the allegation. The lawsuit is pending.
Others to come forward include Christine Heintz, who paid Sturm $20,000 for a 'mommy makeover' in November 2021, which included a breast reduction and lift, abdominoplasty and liposuction.
Just after the surgery, she said that a 'giant hole' opened in Heintz's right breast going back to her ribcage, with doctors saying most of the breast had died and could not be saved.
She underwent further reconstructive surgery in January 2023 which resulted in her losing most of her breasts.
In another case, patient AJ Gomez-Han visited Sturm in 2024 for skin removal surgery to his thighs and arms.
Afterward, he developed a bacterial infection that evolved into an open bleeding sore and required six weeks in the hospital to fix.
Sturm has not responded to previous claims against her and did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on Caselli's case.
Caselli has not filed a lawsuit, however, because the procedure happened too long ago for her to file a claim under Iowa law.
After her clinic, Sturm Cosmetic Surgery, abruptly closed on February 9, it told patients in an email that 'due to personal, emergent medical concerns, Dr Sturm is unavailable to provide ongoing care.'
Caselli is pictured above in the profile view before and after the procedure
Her nose is shown above from the underside before and after the procedure
The Iowa Board of Medicine charged her with professional incompetence, including failure of a physician to exercise a degree of care ordinarily exercised by the average physician, in May 2025.
Sturm opted not to contest the charges and has voluntarily surrendered her license, without admitting wrongdoing. She also filed for bankruptcy in June, according to local media reports.
In Caselli's case, the mother and property manager went for her first nose job with a different surgeon in 2018 to open up her airways and resolve a long-term breathing issue.
The initial procedure 'wasn't terrible,' she said, but she was still having trouble breathing out of one side of her nose and felt one side also appeared 'cuppier' than the other.
This led her to contact Sturm, who said she would be able to help Caselli breathe better and have a more appealing nose.
In a pre-op appointment, Caselli said Sturm told her that the previous surgeon had 'removed all the cartilage' from her nose, leaving it without proper support. (It is extremely unusual for surgeons to remove all the cartilage from a patient's nose).
Sturm suggested extracting some cartilage from the top of Caselli's right ear and implanting it into her nose to help with the breathing issue, Caselli said.
Caselli agreed, saying she was won over by the chance to be operated on by a female surgeon and Sturm's apparent personable and kind nature.
Just before the surgery in 2021, the pair prayed together for a successful procedure and a good outcome.
Caselli said after the surgery she had to wear a nose bandage and splint, a plastic device placed outside the nose after surgery to support its new shape, for about two weeks but, even with the swelling from surgery, became concerned about her nose every time she removed a bandage to wash it.
'I actually voiced my concerns because I did see some issues,' she said. 'One side of my nose that I wanted changed originally, that was still the same, and the side that was a little swollen didn't look right.
'I was also concerned because in the profile view of the side of my face, it looked different, the tip of my nose was missing, well, it didn't have a tip.'
She said Sturm initially told her that the appearance could be linked to the swelling from surgery but then retorted that she shouldn't ask for a perfect nose because no one's nose is perfect.
'I was shocked by that,' Caselli said. 'I told her that I am not trying to achieve the perfect nose, I just want a functioning nose that looks nice and normal, but this doesn't. It looks normal it looks very messed up.
'She tried to make me feel bad for that.'
Caselli also said that at one point a hole opened up in the middle of her nose after a suture came loose following the surgery.
During the procedure, Sturm was also meant to perform liposuction on the bottom of Caselli's chin, but Caselli said that this wasn't done properly, with the area she wanted removed 'still there' when she woke up from surgery.
Sturm offered to do a fat transfer to Caselli's nose after the surgery, Caselli said, but she refused, and says she's now seeking help from a new surgeon.
Caselli also claimed that her breathing is now 'much worse' than before, with now having to breathe through her mouth most of the time.
She said she holds up the end of her nose sometimes when she runs to get air in and is also waking up throughout the night, suffering from a dry mouth and breathing issues.
'I hope revealing this helps people,' she said. 'The irony here is that she was an expert and she still messed up my nose. Everyone should know the difference between a cosmetic surgeon and a plastic surgeon.
'I am lucky, but unlucky, people go through worse things, terrible things, but they can cover their bodies. For me, I can't cover my face.'
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