Prominent cosmetic surgeon facing avalanche of lockdown charges and civil lawsuits

A prominent doctor banned from practising cosmetic surgery after eight of his patients ended up in hospital is facing a spate of charges for lockdown breaches and civil court claims for personal injury.

Cosmetic surgeon Dr Reza Ahmadi, who previously consulted at upmarket Cosmos Clinic in Hawthorn, is facing legal action by Mornington Peninsula woman Taylor over a Brazilian butt lift that she claims left her with fat necrosis, scarring and disfigurement.

Dr Reza Ahmadi, who was a cosmetic surgeon at Cosmos Clinic on Hawthorn, in a social media post.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald can also reveal that Hawthorn Day Surgery Pty Ltd, which trades as Cosmos Cosmetic Day Surgery Melbourne, and Ahmadi together have been charged with more than 100 offences over allegedly performing surgeries during lockdown in breach of chief health officer directions.

The clinic, at the centre of the cosmetic cowboys scandal that sparked calls for a royal commission, has been suspended from offering surgical services, anaesthesia and liposuction in Victoria. The Health Department started investigating the clinic last October.

Ahmadi, known for his flamboyant social media posts which included him posing with a red rose between his teeth, was banned from performing surgery by the medical watchdog in April last year after being accused of mutilating several women. But he can still work as a general practitioner.

As well as Taylor’s case, Cosmos Clinic is facing four other civil lawsuits in NSW.

Taylor first sought advice from Ahmadi in May 2020 for a Brazilian butt lift procedure, known commonly as a BBL, with liposuction and fat transfer. She again attended in March 2021 for subsequent consultation.

Supreme Court documents allege Ahmadi assured her he could fix the sagging appearance of her right buttock during the surgery a few days later. Court documents also claim Taylor was assured by Ahmadi that she was a good candidate for the procedure, even though she wasn’t.

“He told me everything that I thought I wanted to hear,” said Taylor, who requested this masthead not use her last name. “‘I can make you happy.’ That’s why I went ahead because I thought he was going to give me what I thought I was after.”

Taylor went under the knife in March 2021, and had five post-surgical massage sessions at the clinic in the following months. But, she claims in court documents, Ahmadi inserted too much fat into her right buttock, and did so unevenly.

Cosmetic cowboys operate with little oversight

• Cosmetic surgery industry is worth $1.4 billion a year in Australia
• An estimated 500,000 cosmetic surgery procedures are performed a year. There is a lack of official data
• If you include laser surgery, injectables and non-surgical fat reduction, Australians spend more than $6 billion a year on procedures
• Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of patients have been maimed, scarred and permanently damaged by botched surgeries. Again, there is no official data
• Some 540 patients have joined a class action against Daniel Lanzer’s cosmetic surgery clinics
• Sixty-five patients have contacted lawyers regarding a class action against Cosmos Clinic
• There is a confusing maze of regulators at state and federal levels
• Different states have different rules about what is safe

During those massages, she claims, she bled. It caused her significant pain and a “fatty mass” which has failed to be integrated into the rest of her body.

Court documents describe her injury as “a large lump, fatty mass that has not integrated with the surrounding native fatty tissue, resulting in the development of fat necrosis, inflammation and infection and pain; scarring and disfigurement”.

She said the pain has intensified since the surgery, and is now at its worst. She said she then suffered from post-surgical pain and bleeding, and has endured adjustment disorder stemming from the trauma of the operation and subsequent treatment.

“Now nearly two years later, it’s the worst it’s ever been and it’s also spread to the other side, where I’ve now got pain. I didn’t have that previously ... so we’re going to have to get another MRI soon,” Taylor said.

In February 2022, Cosmos Clinic terminated Ahmadi’s employment after an investigation by this masthead revealed a litany of patients were hospitalised after being treated by him. In 2021, at least eight of his patients ended up in hospital with serious infections.

Cosmos Clinic is a national cosmetic surgical practice and has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, the Gold Coast and Adelaide. Multiple attempts to reach Ahmadi and Cosmos Clinic went unanswered.

Maddens Lawyers principal lawyer Kathryn Emeny said the firm had received more than 150 inquiries from Cosmos Clinic patients from across Australia, who claim to have experienced adverse outcomes.

“People are reporting dreadful experiences. Some people, like Taylor, have been left with excruciating pain whilst others have experienced physical disfigurement, scarring and numbness,” Emeny said.

“The psychological impact of the surgeries and the ‘botched’ results is also very significant.”

In June last year the NSW Supreme Court ordered 60 Minutes, the Herald and The Age to provide draft copies of an investigation by journalist Adele Ferguson into the cosmetic surgery industry, so they could be inspected by lawyers for Sydney cosmetic surgeon Joseph Ajaka, who believed they may defame him or constitute an injurious falsehood against his Cosmos Clinic.

Ajaka had been asked a number of questions by Ferguson and launched the court action after a promo for a 60 Minutes investigation was broadcast. The NSW Court of Appeal overturned the court order.

Ajaka has interviewed and claims to be a friend of Mehmet Oz, better known as television physician “Dr Oz”, who recently lost the Pennsylvanian Republican senate race in the United States.

The $1.4 billion cosmetic surgery industry has been rocked by repeated reporting of patients left injured and disfigured by procedures.

Emeny also said her firm was preparing a class action against celebrity cosmetic surgeon Dr Daniel Lanzer and his colleagues, Dr Daniel Aronov and Dr Ryan Wells, to be filed in the Victorian Supreme Court, for which the law firm has received more than 900 inquiries.

In August last year, a confidential briefing organised by the national health regulator days before the release of a report into the industry deteriorated into a slanging match, when the regulator accused doctors of failing to report patient harm.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler and his state counterparts agreed to sweeping changes focusing on who can call themselves a cosmetic surgeon, limiting surgery to proper accredited facilities and introducing new hygiene and safety standards.

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