Live-streaming plastic surgeon has license suspended over botched surgeries, privacy violation
POWELL, OHIO: Following charges of botched surgeries and patient privacy violation, a plastic surgeon who gained notoriety on TikTok had her medical license suspended. On TikTok, Dr Katherine Roxanne Grawe is referred to as "Doctor Roxy" and she has come under fire for allegedly violating patient privacy and giving priority to her online fan base above the lives of her actual patients.
She has over 842,000 TikTok followers, where she often posts videos of herself dancing in scrubs and chatting with livestream viewers during procedures. Her internet fame, however, has come at a high price: her medical license. Dr Grawe runs Roxy Plastic Surgery in Powell, Ohio, just outside of Columbus, and has followers on Snapchat, Twitter, and BeReal. On November 18, the State Medical Board suspended her license.
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It comes as regulators throughout the world caution against women engaging in surgical tourism, in which they fly to other countries such as Turkey to have cheaper treatments that frequently end up being botched, the Daily Mail reported. Dr Roxy is being sued by three patients who had serious issues after being operated on in her practice. State regulators were worried about Dr Grawe's use of social media, botched procedures, and failures to adequately care for patients after they were discharged. On October 9, 2018, the board issued a warning to Dr Grawe "about the need to safeguard patient privacy while posting photographs or video via social media."
On September 28, 2021, she received a second warning in which the board voiced concerns about patient privacy and ethics in relation to her social media use. It also referred to 'avoidable problems,' which necessitated repeated surgery for certain patients. According to the Roxy Plastic Surgery website, which has now been out under maintenance mode, Grawe has performed 3,621 surgeries over her 12 years of experience. But some of her patients aren’t part of her more than 51,000 “satisfied” clients that she boasts online.
Runyon, one of the three victimized patients, said that she was inspired to schedule a "Mommy Makeover" session by social media. Runyon stated, "I couldn't wait to get on there and watch the surgeries for the day. It showed you everything [detailed] step by step. I felt I was extremely prepared for these surgeries."
"The problem with social media is that there really has been no regulation by the local, state, or even the federal level on what is presented,” Dr. Robert Houser, a local surgeon, told WBNS. According to Houser, major aesthetic surgeries should involve rigorous research and trusted referrals. Patients who make appointments based strictly on social media often have no idea what they’re getting into.