The Ohio Medical Board permanently revoked the state medical licence of a plastic surgeon who livestreamed dangerous surgeries on YouTube. Katharine Roxanne Grawe, better known among her followers as Dr. Roxy, pleaded for leniency during a board meeting on Wednesday, July 12.
“I ask you from the bottom of my heart to please consider my thoughts with an open mind,” she said, according to CBS Austin. “This has humbled me more than you can know. I am willing to change my social media practices, and I will never live-stream a surgery again.”
Katharine said she livestreamed her operations because it was fun for patients who watched the procedures later, and claimed that she asked permission. Katharine did have some fans, but four women are also suing the doctor over health complications after their surgeries.
The state medical board warned Katharine in 2021, urging her to go for remedial education courses related to plastic surgery complications, ethics, and professionalism. However, she continued live streaming the procedures.
"Aspects of these productions include, but are not limited to, preoperative photos, preoperative interviews with patients about their bodies, livestreams of procedures, postoperative still images of patients taken in the operating room, and the cost of the procedure," the notice addressed to Grawe reads, according to Daily Mail. "During some videos/live-streams you engage in dialogue to respond to viewers' online questions while the surgical procedure remains actively ongoing.”
{{/usCountry}}"Aspects of these productions include, but are not limited to, preoperative photos, preoperative interviews with patients about their bodies, livestreams of procedures, postoperative still images of patients taken in the operating room, and the cost of the procedure," the notice addressed to Grawe reads, according to Daily Mail. "During some videos/live-streams you engage in dialogue to respond to viewers' online questions while the surgical procedure remains actively ongoing.”
{{/usCountry}}Katharine’s licence was revoked in 2022. The board stated that there was "clear and convincing" evidence that the practices she engaged in were "a danger of immediate and serious harm to the public." In one case, a patient who received liposuction, a Brazilian butt lift, and a skin-tightening procedure from Katharine had to be sent to the emergency room less than a week after the surgery. According to medical staff, the person was suffering from hepatic encephalopathy. Katharine had reportedly livestreamed part of the process.
The board accused Katharine of speaking and looking into the camera while performing liposuction. "Despite liposuction being a blind surgery that requires awareness of the tip of the cannula (thin tube) to avoid injury, your attention to the camera meant at those moments you were not looking at the patient or palpating the location of the tip of the cannula," the suspension notice read.