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Canada--Ontario doctors will have a comprehensive set of rules governing all cosmetic surgery procedures in place within a year, the president of the physicians' regulatory body has promised.

USA-- After racking up a state-record 26 malpractice judgments or settlements over the course of eight years, the New York Department of Health suspended Dr. Jacobs' license and initiated proceedings to revoke it indefinitely. The famous boob doc, who performed breast-augmentation procedures on Playboy and Cosmopolitan models, drove a Porsche with the vanity plate "BUNNYMAKR," and once held a press conference surrounded by buxom women to celebrate the return of silicone implants.

USA-- The Artistic Surgical Center was ordered to stop performing surgeries because officials say it lacks a license for the procedures. The center was performing breast enlargements, "extreme makeovers" and other procedures even though the clinic was not licensed as a surgery center.

China-- A recent survey by the Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group has found that Chinese women want to change the shape of their faces, while men want straighter noses. A Beijing-based cosmetic surgeon surnamed Huang said women wanted to look more Caucasian.

Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez railed against a new trend in beauty-conscious Venezuela, giving girls breast implants for their 15th birthday.

Runnin' Scared. No More Scars. A notorious boob doc is shut down with finality. The lawsuits, however, are still ballooning

by Chris Thompson

September 25th, 2007

Last month, the Voice described swanky Upper East Side plastic surgeon Brad Jacobs's fight to save his career ("Plastic Surgeon to the Scars," August 29).

After racking up a state-record 26 malpractice judgments or settlements over the course of eight years, Jacobs was targeted by the New York Department of Health, which suspended his license and initiated proceedings to revoke it indefinitely. This was a body blow to the famous boob doc, who performed breast-augmentation procedures on Playboy and Cosmopolitan models, drove a Porsche with the vanity plate "BUNNYMAKR," and once held a press conference surrounded by buxom women to celebrate the return of silicone implants. But even as women claimed that he had butchered their bodies and performed surgery while high on speed, a determined Jacobs appealed the decision and vowed to see his good name restored.

"We certainly are well on our way to presenting a picture of Dr. Jacobs that is diametrically opposed to this handful of disgruntled patients," said his lawyer, Michael Kelton, earlier this summer. "The case is going well—I will prevail!" Jacobs added.

But it was not to be. On September 13, Jacobs surrendered his license to practice medicine. A spokesman for the Department of Health announced that Jacobs "admits that he cannot successfully defend against the charges" of gross negligence, negligence and incompetence, and moral unfitness. The man who led one of the most fabulous careers in cosmetic surgery has retired to Long Island in disgrace.

"Dr. Jacobs came to realize that he could not get a fair hearing from the Department of Health," said Kelton in a prepared statement. "Under increasingly dire financial circumstances. . . . Dr. Jacobs made the painful decision to end his nightmare and to begin the process of moving on with his life."

Of the dozens of complaints against Jacobs, the case of Brittany Hendricks was easily the most sensational. Hendricks, a former Las Vegas stripper and crystal-meth addict, arrived in New York in 2004 to get a nose job. According to a deposition she prepared during her lawsuit, Jacobs set her up in an apartment near his office, where Hendricks, Jacobs, and the doctor's girlfriend smoked crystal meth for hours the night before the surgery. As theVoice reported last month, Jacobs and his girlfriend allegedly had sex in front of Hendricks and, when they couldn't get her to join in, allegedly asked her to videotape them. According to Hendricks's deposition, Jacobs partied till 4:30 in the morning, caught a few hours of sleep, and did a quick hit of crystal meth before reporting to his office.

Later that day, Hendricks testified, Jacobs gave her a nose job that ultimately mutilated her and left one nostril permanently detached from her face. When she saw the work he had done, Hendricks went back to Jacobs's apartment in despair, where Jacobs allegedly shot her full of drugs and then had sex with her. Jacobs has denied all of Hendricks's charges and called her "a blithering drug addict." But Hendricks's accusations were clearly the centerpiece of the state's case.

Although Jacobs's career is over, the lawsuits are far from finished. At least five patients still have malpractice cases pending against him, including charges that he left a surgical sponge inside a woman's breast, cut out healthy tissue during a lumpectomy but left the tumor behind, and deliberately inserted implants that were too large, seriously damaging the breasts of three women. Jacobs has denied the latter charge, but acknowledged that he missed the tumor and left some gauze in a patient's breast. Meanwhile, in response to theVoice's initial story, Jacobs's then girlfriend (now his wife) recently sent a letter to Hendricks and her lawyer, proclaiming her intent to sue for "libel, slander, and defamation of character."

Last December, Jacobs was riding so high that he wrote an open letter to Britney Spears, offering free surgery to touch up her abdominal muscles. "My trained surgeon's eye uncovered all the enduring effects of your recent C-section birthing experience," Jacobs wrote. "Therefore, as one of your devoted fans who happens to be a leading plastic surgeon, I'd like to give you a holiday present—a tummy tuck that will restore your midriff. . . . I'd like to give 'sexy' back to you."

Clinic Ordered To Stop Surgeries

Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 - 08:30 AM Updated: 09:06 AM

The state Department Of Health has ordered a medical clinic to stop performing surgeries because officials say it lacks a license for the procedures.

Investigators say the Artistic Surgical Center was performing breast enlargements, "extreme makeovers" and other procedures even though the clinic was not licensed as a surgery center.

The clinic is run by Dr. Curtis Perry, who is licensed to practice medicine. But under state law, a facility must be licensed as a surgery center to perform most procedures that require sedation or anesthesiology.

Perry is an ear, nose and throat doctor though his web site claims he's certified to perform facial and plastic surgery. The Department of Health says he's not a Board Certified plastic surgeon.

Health officials say the department began investigating after a woman complained about postoperative complications.

The Department of Health has received 11 complaints against the doctor, most had to do with him allegedly misrepresenting his credentials.

NBC 10 called the Perry home but the woman who answered had no comment.

Poll: Chinese women want to look more Caucasian

By Shan Juan (China Daily)

Chinese women want to change the shape of their faces, while men want straighter noses, a recent survey by the Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group has found.

The survey polled nearly 1,600 people aged 18 and 55 from Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen. The results were given on the independent polling company's website.

Almost 33 percent of women wanted to improve the contours of their faces, the survey found. Eyelid surgery was second most popular at 29 percent. A face shaped like a goose egg and double eyelids were favorite, it showed.

Fat removal from the stomach and waist ranked third, followed by liposuction of the legs. Nose sculpting came last among the top five most sought-after procedures for women.

A Beijing-based cosmetic surgeon surnamed Huang said women wanted to look more Caucasian.
They particularly wanted to look leggy, busty and skinny, he said.

In comparison, men were less concerned about fat and only 7.5 percent would consider liposuction, the survey said.

Nearly 45 percent of men said they wanted to straighten their noses to give them a more masculine look.

Nearly 33 percent said they would consider double eyelid surgery, followed by cosmetic improvement of the teeth and face shaping.

Many men did not want their partner to have breast implants, even though women did it to please them, cosmetic surgeon Huang said.

There are about 1 million plastic surgery operations performed every year in China, according to official estimates.

More women than men choose to go under the knife.

Chavez rails at teenage breast implants gift fad

Sep 24, 2007

By Saul Hudson

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez railed against a new trend in beauty-conscious Venezuela, giving girls breast implants for their 15th birthday.

"Now some people think, 'My daughter's turning 15, let's give her breast enlargements.' That's horrible. It's the ultimate degeneration," Chavez said late on Sunday on his weekly TV show that lasted a record eight hours.

Venezuela is well known for its beauty queens, who have regularly won world crowns, and many women have plastic surgery in the oil-rich country where there is widespread spending on consumer items that would be considered luxuries elsewhere.

But Chavez, the anti-U.S., self-styled revolutionary who came to office in 1999, is seeking to change those attitudes to create what he calls the "new man" to build a socialist society in this South American nation.

Chavez complained about the new fad of giving the plastic surgery operation at 15 -- when Latin Americans celebrate a girl's coming-of-age -- during a diatribe against what he says are Western-imposed consumerist icons such as Barbie dolls.

While breast implants are advertised on TV and banks offer special credit lines for such operations, if girls do get the enlargements they are not expected to become sexually active afterward.
Venezuelans' have a habit of avid consumerism since the 1970s oil boom in the OPEC nation. They have won the nickname of the "Give-Me-Twos" in the tourist destination of Florida for buying double the amount of typical consumers.

Breast implants cost thousands of dollars in Venezuela.Chavez's answer? He has told his supporters to give away any extra goods they do not need, urging them to leave out in town squares items such as fans or refrigerators.

"I am calling on your conscience, fathers of this country, mothers of this country, they are our sons, they are our daughters," Chavez said.

Still, Chavez, who happily describes himself as ugly, may struggle to change Venezuelans' mind-set to spending on plastic surgery.

In elevators, at huge, jam-packed shopping malls, women can be overheard openly boasting about their recent, conspicuous operations.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Rondon)

© Reuters 2007

New rules to police cosmetic surgery

Promise comes in wake of woman's death following liposuction surgery at Toronto clinic Sep 25, 2007 04:30 AM Joseph Hall Health Reporter

Ontario doctors will have a comprehensive set of rules governing all cosmetic surgery procedures in place within a year, the president of the physicians' regulatory body has promised.

Admitting the rapidly expanding field has outpaced the medical community's ability to properly regulate and monitor it, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario president Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull said new rules on all cosmetic procedures will be in place by next fall.

"We're going to push that very, very quickly," Turnbull said yesterday.

"I would anticipate that you're going to have something sooner than a year." Turnbull's promise comes in the wake of a Toronto real estate agent's death last week following routine liposuction surgery.

Krista Stryland, 32, a popular and successful realtor, died after undergoing the fat removal procedure Thursday at the Toronto Cosmetic Clinic on Yonge St. just north of Finch Ave.

Clinic officials did not return requests for comment yesterday.

Dr. James Edwards, regional supervising coroner for Toronto East, said his office is investigating the death but that it would be several weeks before a decision is made on whether to call an inquest.

Edwards said an autopsy was conducted Friday on Stryland but that it would still be weeks before a complete set of blood and tissue tests could determine the cause of death.

Turnbull said the college, recognizing the need to move in the area, began working on the issue in April, setting up a cosmetic surgery task force with a broad mandate to forge new regulations and policing procedures.

"This is a very unfortunate reminder that we have to get going faster," he said of Stryland's death.
Turnbull's pledge also comes almost 18 years after an Ontario inquest jury recommended the college introduce programs regulating quality assurance, training requirements and monitoring procedures for cosmetic surgeons and their facilities.

The college responded to that 1989 inquest with the simple requirement that doctors moving from other specialties into cosmetic surgery notify the regulatory body of the shift.

"Since that time, however, there has been a wide explosion of different plastic surgical procedures, not only in the amount but the nature," Turnbull said.

"And the college is now trying to respond to that with enhanced policies that allow us not only to regulate and watch what is happening out there ... but to ensure that those individuals have the necessary skills and competency to do it."

Currently, Turnbull said, the college does not even have a handle on which doctors are performing what surgery and where they are doing it. He said information on physician practices usually comes from hospitals or OHIP billing records. Much of the cosmetic surgery preformed in Ontario is done outside hospitals and the medicare payment system.

"Our first challenge is to gather that formal information as to what's being done out there, who's doing it and what's their training," he said.

"I should be able to answer that question and we need that formal data." Turnbull said the task force will also be outlining public education programs and will set up monitoring procedures for both doctors and their facilities.

"Some of this may need legislative changes to allow us to do it," he said.

Turnbull said cosmetic surgery today covers a wide range of procedures, from simple botox injections to complex facial reconstruction.

He said different levels of training should be required for each procedure and that the type of facilities needed for each should be spelled out in the new regulations.

In the meantime, anyone seeking to have liposuction or other cosmetic surgery preformed in Canada must follow one cardinal rule, experts in the field say.

"Unfortunately it's `consumer beware,'" said Dr. Don Lalonde, immediate past-president of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons.

The vast majority of doctors advertising themselves as cosmetic surgeons in hospitals or clinics have undergone extensive and recognized training in plastic surgery, Lalonde said.

But there are many doctors who are trained in other specialties – or who are simply family doctors – who have hung up cosmetic surgery shingles in the simple hope of creating a more lucrative practice, he said.

Lalonde said his group believes that all cosmetic surgeons should have a plastic surgery designation, which in Canada takes at least five years of residency training after receiving a medical degree.

Lalonde said fewer than one in 1,000 people undergoing liposuction procedures will die of complications from the surgery, which uses tubes inserted into fat deposits to suck out the unwanted tissue.

He said complications leading to injury or death usually involve pulmonary embolisms – blood clots in the lungs – post-operative staphylococcus infections or abdominal perforations.

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