1000 women in a class action against cosmetic clinic doctors
Almost 1000 women are suing a group of doctors who performed ‘one-size-fits-all’ breast implant surgeries at scandal-plagued clinics after as little as a weekend’s training, documents allege.
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General doctors were allowed to perform breast implant operations after receiving as little as one full weekend of training in cosmetic surgery, it has been alleged.
Ten of the 12 doctors who operated at The Cosmetic Institute clinics have been accused in a class action of having little actual training in the field.
The doctors, advertised by the clinics as “award-winning surgeons”, were only “registered medical practitioners without any specialist qualifications, training or experience”, it is claimed.
Those 10 doctors and an 11th, Dr James Kenny, the only one who was a general surgeon although allegedly not a specialist, are now being sued personally by almost 1000 women in a class action against the clinics and their surgical director Dr Eddy Dona for medical negligence after the insurers for the clinics cancelled their cover.
They are named in an amended statement of claim lodged with the NSW Supreme Court along with Dr Dona, who it is alleged trained the doctors to perform one-size fits all boob jobs at the clinics.
The lawyer for the women, Turner Freeman partner Sally Gleeson, said most of the doctors “did not undergo any surgical training of substance.”
Dr Dona was the only one who was an accredited plastic surgeon.
Court documents revealed each of the 11 other doctors — named as Dr Niroshan Sivathasan, Dr Van Nguyen, Dr Victor Lee, Dr Chi Vien Duong, Dr Ahn Tang, Dr Napoleon Chiu, Dr Daniel Kwok, Dr Pedro Valenta, Dr Farheen Ali and Dr Sri Darshn as well Dr Kenny — paid the clinics $500,000 over three years to perform the breast augmentation surgeries which cost a standard $5990 for which they received a proportion of the cost and were still able to make a profit.
The case was lodged after Amy Rickhuss, 24, had to be resuscitated on the operating table after being operated on by Dr Sivathasan in January 2015.
It is still legal for anyone with a standard medical degree to perform cosmetic surgical procedures in Australia but the women claim the clinics breached consumer law through false and misleading advertising about experience the doctors didn’t have.
A defence to the claims has not yet been filed.