By Cameron Houston and Chris Vedelago
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A Melbourne cosmetic surgeon faces a lawsuit over the removal of a 13-year-old girl’s labia, which allegedly left her disfigured and suffering serious psychological trauma.
In 2008, the girl, who The Age has decided not to name, had concerns about the appearance of her vagina and was advised by Dr Asarjahu Granot that there was an abnormality with her labia minora, which could be corrected by a surgical procedure known as labiaplasty.
Cosmetic surgeon Dr Asarjahu Granot.Credit: Eddie Morton
Now aged 26, the woman and her legal team claim the operation she had was inconsistent with the procedure to which she had consented.
Dr Granot, 71, is also accused of taking the girl’s labia minora and clitoral hood that he had removed and showing them to her mother as she sat in the waiting room of a Malvern East clinic, according to a writ filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
“In the course of the first operation, the defendant [Dr Granot] left the operating theatre and approached the plaintiff’s mother showing her the labia and clitoral hood that he had removed from the plaintiff,” the court documents say.
“[Dr Granot] then led her into the operating theatre to observe the plaintiff in an anaesthetised state in stirrups with her legs spread so that he could show to the plaintiff’s mother that he had removed the labia,” the court documents say.
Within eight days of the initial operation, the girl had to return to the clinic after allegedly experiencing complications, including clotting around the surgical wound.
It is alleged in the court documents that Dr Granot resutured the area of the labiaplasty without providing anesthetic, which caused “extreme pain”.
In 2015, the woman complained to Dr Granot about a loss of sexual function and sensation as a result of the operation.
Dr Granot, who has been a cosmetic surgeon for more than 30 years, suggested she used a vibrator, according to court documents.
A consultation in 2018 with gynaecology and fertility expert Dr Raelia Lew found the woman’s labia minora had been completely excised during the operation, which had also damaged surrounding tissue.
According to the writ, the woman has suffered from “depression with associated eating disorders, suicidal ideation and impairment in relationships” since the surgery.
She will pursue Dr Granot for damages in the Supreme Court over several counts of alleged negligence, according to the writ.
It is not the first time Dr Granot, who also goes by the name of Ashley Granot, has performed a cosmetic procedure on a teenager.
In 2014, Dr Granot confirmed in an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald that he had conducted liposuction on three of his daughters, one of whom was 17.
“Being a cosmetic surgeon means I look at everyone through a cosmetic surgeon’s eyes,” he said. “If I go to the beach, I don’t see women in bikinis – I see a collection of problems.
“When I look at my daughters, I scrutinise them, too, and have carried out liposuction on three of them. Other parents avail their children of their area of expertise. My area is cosmetic surgery, so why shouldn’t I do the same?” Dr Granot told the Herald.
His comments attracted the opprobrium of the nation’s health industry regulator, which accused the veteran cosmetic surgeon of breaking “some fundamental tenets of good medical practice”.
“Dr Granot is reprimanded for treating members of his family with liposuction surgery in circumstances which were not urgent or medically necessary and where one of the patients was underage,” the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency said in 2015.
“In so doing he, by publicising this, had brought the profession into disrepute.”
Dr Granot, who is yet to file a defence, did not respond to questions from The Age.
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correction
A caption in this article has been amended to refer to Dr Granot as a cosmetic surgeon. An earlier caption incorrectly called him a plastic surgeon.