TikTok celebrity cosmetic surgeon reprimanded by regulator

A senior associate of the controversial clinic owner Dr Daniel Lanzer has been banned by the national health regulator from performing all types of cosmetic surgery and ordered to remove his social media posts.

The Australian Health Practitioner Agency (AHPRA) has imposed a range of conditions on Dr Daniel Aronov, who is the most followed cosmetic surgeon on social media with more than 13 million TikTok followers.

Dr Daniel Aronov is the world’s most followed surgeon on TikTok but the regulator has imposed conditions on him.Credit: www.drlanzer.com.au

It comes a month after a joint investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Four Corners uncovered allegations of troubling practices across Dr Lanzer’s network, including serious hygiene and safety breaches and botched procedures that have left patients in extreme pain and requiring further medical treatment.

Dr Aronov’s registration conditions follow an announcement by AHPRA that Dr Lanzer had entered a legally enforceable undertaking to stop practising medicine in Australia while it continued its investigation into him and his network of clinics.

Under the conditions, Dr Aronov is prevented from carrying out cosmetic or surgical procedures, including minor surgery. But they do allow him to continue to work as a GP if supervised by an AHPRA-approved supervisor.

It says, “the practitioner must not practise unless supervised and even when supervised, the practitioner must only practice as a General Practitioner.”

It says he can’t resume practice as a GP until a nominated supervisor has been approved by AHPRA.

“The practitioner must consult and follow the directions of the supervisor about the management of each patient before care is delivered and must be directly observed by the supervisor who is physically present at the site of practice at all times,” one of the conditions says.

A spokesperson for AHPRA said there was no time limit on the conditions and would remain until they were revoked by the Medical Board of Australia. “Usually this would only happen if the Board believes the restrictions are no longer necessary, on appeal by an independent tribunal.”

Other conditions relate to social media and include the removal of published material or information relating to cosmetic or surgical procedures on his social media accounts. Dr Aronov did not respond to requests for comment.

Dr Aronov is the world’s most followed cosmetic surgeon on TikTok, with 13.4 million followers. He also had more than 500,000 Instagram followers which contained videos of patients being operated on, hundreds of photos of near nude women and explicit lyrics. He has taken down his TikTok account, Instagram account and Only Fans account.

Consumer research advocates Michael Fraser and Maddison Johnstone spent more than a year monitoring 100 cosmetic surgery Instagram accounts and found that Dr Lanzer and Dr Aronov were the most active. They said the latest move by AHPRA to clamp down on social media is unprecedented and should put other doctors on notice about the responsible use of these platforms.

Dr Lanzer’s clinics stopped taking new patients within days of the revelations of the joint media investigation, then quietly reopened for business.

In Sydney, one of those patients, a 42-year-old woman, was found by her partner in a critical condition on November 16 and was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital hours after undergoing a tummy tuck and liposuction procedure by Dr Aronov at the Surry Hills Day Hospital.

David Faktor, a spokesman for St Vincent’s Hospital said the hospital was “very concerned about key aspects of the patient’s care provided by the cosmetic clinic.” He said the hospital would report its concerns to the appropriate governing authorities.

The patient’s procedures, including a tummy tuck and liposuction of 5 litres of fat, cost her $30,000. Her treatment in the public hospital over 11 days cost the hospital at least $50,000.

Medical expert Professor Mark Ashton, who was shown the patient’s vitals on arrival, said it was a miracle she was alive.

Dr Aronov is a GP, who, like many others in his field, moved into the lucrative field of cosmetic surgery. Under Australian regulations anyone with a basic medical degree, including GPs or dermatologists, can call themselves cosmetic surgeons, even though they aren’t registered specialist surgeons, who receive eight to 12 years of postgraduate surgical training like plastic surgeons.

Since the stories broke in late September, more than 140 patients have come forward with harrowing stories of their experiences at the clinics.

The latest medical emergency at St Vincent’s Hospital comes two weeks after the joint investigation revealed Dr Aronov had filmed a mock re-enactment of a separate medical emergency involving another patient, Suzanne Steward. Ms Steward was rushed to hospital with punctured lungs following a liposuction procedure earlier this year in Dr Lanzer’s Melbourne clinic. (Dr Aronov said he had no involvement in her liposuction procedure and that the mock video was a “self-mocking” video “aimed at boosting staff morale.“)

Dr Lanzer tried to stop the stories by taking urgent action in the Federal Court action, but was not successful.