Alleged botched boob job comments on Facebook prompt leading plastic surgeon to take defamation action

Comments made on Facebook about an alleged botched boob job has prompted a leading plastic surgeon to take one of their clients to court.

Allegations made on social media about a botched boob job has prompted a leading plastic surgeon to take defamation action against a former client.

Award-winning doctor Anh Nguyen performed a breast augmentation operation on Rebecca Hinsley in 2018.

But the patient was unhappy with the outcome, posting comments on Facebook that her nipples had been ruined by the procedure done by an “incompetent” and “cruel” doctor.

Plastic surgeon Anh Nguyen performed a breast augmentation operation on her patient in 2018. Picture: Facebook

Ms Hinsley posted the comments on two Facebook groups — Tummy Tuck Western Australia and Botched Surgery Support Group — and also sent a private message to one person.

It prompted the experienced doctor — known as Dr Anh — to take legal action, claiming she had been defamed in several ways.

“The first plaintiff ... contends she was defamed by four natural and ordinary defamatory meanings,” according to a West Australian Supreme Court document.

“(That) the first plaintiff is an incompetent plastic surgeon in that she ruined the defendant’s areolas ... (and she) is underhanded in her work as a plastic surgeon in that she charged the defendant for a breast lift that she knowingly did not perform.

Rebecca Hinsley made the comments on social media. Picture: Facebook

“(Also), the first plaintiff is cruel in her dealings as a plastic surgeon ... (and her) patients have to learn the hard way that the first plaintiff does not have a revision clause in her contracts.”

A separate group post included a link to negligence lawyers, which allegedly suggested Dr Anh was a “negligent plastic surgeon who ought to be sued by her patients for compensation”.

In a Facebook Messenger exchange with another person, Ms Hinsley is also accused of defaming Dr Anh by claiming she fired a nurse who suggested she “fix a patient who suffered severe wound breakdown”.

But Ms Hinsley argued all of her claims were true.

Dr Anh Nguyen claims she has been defamed. Picture: Facebook

She also made a counterclaim against Dr Anh, seeking damages for a “breach of the duty of care, (or) alternatively for a breach of the standard of skill and care”.

Ms Hinsley said following Dr Anh’s operation she suffered complications, including pain in her breasts and a change to the size of her areolas that “spread in five different directions”.

As a result, she required corrective surgery or treatments, her legal team argued in a statement of claim.

“If the first plaintiff had performed the procedure competently, the defendant would not have suffered the complications or all of the complications, and it would not have been necessary for the defendant to submit to and undertake the corrective surgery,” they said.

However, Justice Kenneth Martin last week ruled much of Ms Hinsley’s arguments should be thrown out.

“Given the magnitude of the paragraphs struck out and their internal relationships within the pleading, the most feasible course is for the entirety of the ASDC (amended substituted defence and counterclaim) to be struck out,” he said.

Ms Hinsley’s lawyers now have 21 days to provide amendments.