Dr Skin accused of botched operations
A CELEBRITY cosmetic surgeon is accused of botching at least six ops and carrying out procedures despite being banned from performing cosmetic surgery.
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A CELEBRITY cosmetic surgeon calling herself Dr Skin is accused of botching at least six operations and carrying out hundreds of procedures despite being banned from performing cosmetic surgery.
Dr Cynthia Weinstein -- who runs the Dr Skin Centre in Armadale -- faced the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria yesterday over claims she bungled surgery on six patients since 2003.
She has been banned from performing most invasive surgical procedures since 2000, when the board found her guilty of professional misconduct over failed operations on two patients.
In 2005 the board also convicted Dr Weinstein for Medicare fraud when it found she had lodged 202 claims for work done by others at her East Melbourne practice.
Dr Weinstein has admitted performing 287 skin stitch procedures since 2003, where stitches are placed under a patient's skin to reposition dropping areas of their face.
Dr Weinstein has also admitted performing "fat bags" removals -- where fat is cut away from the upper and lower eyelids -- but claims the two procedures are non-surgical and therefore not banned under restrictions limiting her largely to the work of a dermatologist.
New allegations have been lodged by six patients including a woman who suffered a lopsided face, swollen jaw and puckering of her skin; a man who sustained a cosmetic disability with increased susceptibility to sunlight; and a woman who suffered infected eyes and eroded corneas after being exposed to a laser.
The board yesterday heard Dr Weinstein asked her nurses to re-use rollers impregnated with hundreds of needles designed for once-only use.
The CIT rollers are used to break the skin surface to release collagen, resulting in heavy bleeding during treatments lasting up to four hours.
A beautician who worked with Dr Weinstein from 2003 to 2006 told the board the rollers were washed with a toothbrush to remove blood and tissue, soaked in a steri-
liser and placed in bags for further use on the same or other patients.
"At one point the rollers had been used so much the pins were coming out in the patient's face," the beautician said.
"Quite often patients would come to me and say Dr Weinstein has recommended this, and I would say if it was me I would not have it."
The beautician told the board she had drawn up about 100 doses of silicone for Dr Weinstein, however the treatments were hidden from her after she questioned whether Dr Weinstein was allowed to administer silicone under her restricted licence.
Dr Weinstein had run a separate practice under the same roof as her husband Marshall Segan's Victoria Parade Day Surgery until December 2005 after they underwent a bitter break-up.
A nurse employed by Mr Segan told the board she was horrified by the re-use of the rollers and other non-sterile practices in Dr Weinstein's business, particularly after nurses were ordered to prepare a roller for re-use on a 24-year-old male even though it had just been used on a patient known to have hepatitis B.
"When I first saw the girls cleaning them, I thought it was dangerous. It is the equivalent of holding a bunch of hypodermic needles and scrubbing them to get the blood and tissue off them," she said.
Dr Weinstein's lawyer, Phillip Priest, said the CIT rollers were worth up to $700 and the manufacturer had indicated they could be re-used for the same patient.
Dr Weinstein was one of Australia's cosmetic surgery pioneers and a regular on television and in newspapers throughout the 1990s, as well as a chairwoman of the Australasian division of the International Society of Cosmetic Laser Surgery.
The Medical Practitioners Board will continue hearing the case until at least early June and could cancel Dr Weinstein's registration if she is found guilty of professional misconduct.