Knives out on boob jobs

Claims docs operated after weekend of lessons

GENERAL doctors were allowed to perform breast implant operations after receiving as little as one full weekend of training in cosmetic surgery, it has been alleged.

Ten of the 12 doctors who operated at The Cosmetic Institute clinics have been accused in a class action of having little actual training in the field.

The doctors, advertised by the clinics as “award-winning surgeons”, were only “registered medical practitioners without any specialist qualifiIt cations, training or experience”, it is claimed. Those 10 doctors and an 11th, Dr James Kenny, the only one who was a general surgeon although allegedly not a specialist, are now being sued personally by almost 1000 women in a class action against the clinics and their surgical director Dr Eddy Dona for medical negligence after the insurers for the clinics cancelled their cover.

They are named in an amended statement of claim lodged with the NSW Supreme

Court along with Dr Dona, who it is alleged trained the doctors to perform one-sizefits-all boob jobs at the clinics, which operated like a “fast food franchise”.

The lawyer for the women, Turner Freeman partner Sally Gleeson, said patients put their faith in doctors to be properly qualified but most “were doctors who had finished their training at a basic level in medicine but did not undergo any surgical training of substance”.

Dr Dona was the only one who was an accredited plastic surgeon.

Court documents revealed each of the 11 other doctors – named as Dr Niroshan Sivathasan, Dr Van Nguyen, Dr Victor Lee, Dr Chi Vien Duong, Dr Ahn Tang, Dr Napoleon Chiu, Dr Daniel Kwok, Dr Pedro Valenta, Dr Farheen Ali and Dr Sri Darshn as well as Dr Kenny – paid the clinics $500,000 over three years to perform the breast augmentation surgeries, which cost a standard $5990. They received a proportion of the cost and were still able to make a profit.

The case was lodged after two of the women, including Amy Rickhuss, 24, were rushed to hospital after they had to be resuscitated on the operating table at two of the company’s clinics at Parramatta and Bondi Junction.

The clinics, including those at Concord Private Hospital, Holroyd Private Hospital and Southport on the Gold Coast, are all now closed.

is still legal for anyone with a standard medical degree to perform cosmetic surgical procedures in Australia, but the women claim the clinics breached consumer law through false and misleading advertising about experience the doctors who worked there didn’t have.

The women have moved to sue the individual doctors because they are covered by mandatory medical negligence insurance and they claim they have been left needing reconstructive surgery and suffered a myriad of problems.

A defence to the claims has not yet been filed.