Dr. Katharine Roxanne Grawe, an Ohio plastic surgeon specializing in elective (vanity) surgery, recently got her license lifted. (It had been suspended since last November.) The state medical board acted based on her Tik Tok livestreaming of the operations she was performing, and on some botched jobs reported by her patients.
At the hearing, doctors on the board said that Dr. Grawe, known online as “Dr. Roxy,” had previously been cautioned about protecting patient privacy on social media. They also spoke about her treatment of three unnamed patients who had reported complications from procedures, including one whose surgery Dr. Grawe had broadcast a part of on social media. (Source: NY Times)
Dr. Roxy, an attractive forty-something bottle blonde (meow) appeared at her hearing wearing a low cut, cleavage baring blouse. And she was even more of a cleavage barer on her show. Because if you specialize in procedures like liposuction and Brazilian Butt Lifts, you have an image you want to convey, a brand you want to live up to. Who wants to see boring clunky Dr. Katherine Grawe with mousy hair, when they can get their work done by cool, hip and happenin' Dr. Roxy, star of Tik Tok and Instagram. She had a large following on her now-private Tik Tok, and 100,000 followers on Insta.
Dr. Roxy, not surprisingly, wasn't practicing boring clunky medicine by fixing up kids with cleft palates or helping disfigured accident victims restore their appearance. Her practice was focused on optional vanity surgeries.
And she was apparently more focused on her social media presence than the health of her patients, who were pretty much cast as extras for her social media extravaganzas. The VP of the Ohio medical board that recommended the revocation of her license characterized her behavior as providing "life altering, reckless treatment."
“These outcomes were not normal complications like those that exist in the routine practice of medicine, but were rather caused by recklessness and disregard for the rules governing the practice of medicine in Ohio,” [Dr. Jonathan B. Feibel] said.
He said Dr. Grawe’s social media presence “amplified her reckless behavior” and accused her of using it to grow her brand, not to educate.
Her desire to educate was the defense that Dr. Roxy offered. She said that:
...she made social media videos because she loved teaching and wanted to explain cosmetic surgery to people outside of the medical field.
Loving teaching, sure. But loving the exposure, the follows, the likes, the customers, errrrr, patients her social media presence attracted.
Among other things, Dr. Roxy took questions from her audience during her livestreams, which was presumably something of a distraction.
One of the medical board's gripes with Dr. Roxy was that in 2018 and in 2021, the board had sent her warning letters, cautioning her about her social media work.
In the second letter, the board secretary recommended Dr. Grawe take remedial education courses about plastic surgery and “professionalism/ethics.”
She did take some classes, but this didn't result in the board-desired outcome. She kept on broadcasting up until a few weeks before her license was suspended.
I'm not a big fan of cosmetic procedures. On the one hand, sure, it's your life, it's your money, do what you want with it. On the other hand - which is the hand I favor - couldn't a plastic surgeon's talent, skills, education, abilities be put to better use helping people who were in need of more than a tummy tuck or a Brazilian Butt Lift.
Dr. Roxy's license has been permanently revoked. And my understanding is that, once you've lost your license in one state, you can't just cross the state border and hang a new shingle out. She has the right to appeal, and the revocation may well be overturned.
But given that there are plenty of areas in the country where there's inadequate healthcare - and, I suspect, there are plenty of them in Ohio - why not just tell Dr. Grawe that she's free to practice family medicine. Or work in an ER. Or a nursing home. Or a hospice. Just not squander her time and talent on liposuction, etc., however lucrative such procedures might be. No more Dr. Roxy on Tik Tok and Insta, and for a vainglorious doctor, that'd be a loss. But she'd still be a doctor, and, presumably, she became a doctor because she had a desire at some point in her life to help people.
I'd be happy to give Dr. Grawe a chance. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too far gone around the narcissistic bend to take it.
The motto of her practice was "Let your beauty be magnified and your confidence soar with ROXY plastic surgery."
Maybe Dr. Grawe's got some inner beauty she could magnify yet.
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