Plastic Surgeon Livestreams Procedures on TikTok and Loses License

Social media is host to many subcultures. Some people are obsessed with cat videos, and others, with makeup tutorials. There is even a huge following for those obsessed with plastic surgery procedures. From before-and-after photos to video clips of surgeries in process, some plastic surgeons have millions of followers, who can't stop watching them cut into human faces and bodies. However, according to the Ohio Medical Board, one MD has taken things a little too far. This week, Katharine Gawe lost her medical license for livestreaming plastic surgery procedures on TikTok.  

Katharine Grawe, formally MD, known to her followers as Dr. Roxy of "Roxy Plastic Surgery," made it a practice of livestreaming real-life procedures. However, while it gave her followers a glimpse into what it looks like to actually go under the knife, it also put her patients in danger, per the medical board. 

During the procedures, it was common for the MD to stop working and to look into the camera while answering viewer questions. According to the group of medical doctors, this could have resulted in seriously hurting the people on the operating tables. 

Dr. Grawe first had her license suspended in November. On Wednesday she sat before the board and defended herself, in hopes of remaining a doctor. 

"I ask you from the bottom of my heart to please consider my thoughts with an open mind. This has humbled me more than you can know," she said, according to CBS Austin. "I am willing to change my social media practices, and I will never livestream a surgery again."

However, according to the news network, a medical board didn't care. "We've seen an extreme lack of professionalism. Her posts are done as a marketing ploy," the board member said. "Dr. Grawe's social media was more important to her than the lives of the patients she treated."

Grawe was first warned in 2018 about livestreaming surgeries. The medical board even listed three patients of Grawe's who, suffered severe complications and needed intense medical care after she operated on them. In one of the cases, a woman's intestine was found to be perforated a week after her surgery. She suffered severe damage to and bacterial infections in her abdomen, as well as loss of brain function from the amount of toxins in her blood, according to the medical board.