An Ohio plastic surgeon who shot to infamy on TikTok is bidding to have her medical license restored after she was barred from medicine for livestreaming operations – including botched liposuction that caused a perforated bowel.

Dr Katharine Roxanne Grawe was struck off in November after the state medical board found she violated standard procedures.

She is now attempting to get her license back. A decision will be made in July.

Grawe was known to her thousands of social media followers as ‘Dr Roxy’, and many of her clients came to her after they were impressed by her TikToks.

In one video she shared on her YouTube page, she discussed why she live-streamed surgeries, arguing that it was fun to patients to be able watch their procedures back. 

Dr Katharine Roxanne Grawe, a plastic surgeon who operated in her clinic in Powell, Ohio, lost her license in November. She is now seeking to have her license restored

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Grawe frequently livestreamed her operations, arguing that it was educational

‘Do we livestream surgery?’ she asked. 

‘It’s Dr Roxy, let me give you the scoop. 

‘Yes, we do. We show our surgeries every single day on Snapchat. Patients get to decide if they want to be part of it. And if you do, you can watch your own surgery. 

‘I do this because it’s kind of fun to see what’s going on back there. 

‘It’s educational for people who are planning to do a surgery and want to know all about it.’

Grawe claimed she always asked permission, but the state medical board said it was inappropriate to share the footage – and that the procedures should have had her full attention. 

Some of Grawe’s patients admitted they were seduced by the social media content.

Kelsey Cardenas told ABC 6 that she chose Grawe for her July 2022 breast augmentation after watching the TikToks.

‘She was the first person that I found that matched my energy,‘ Cardenas said. 

‘As a woman, we already know how we pick ourselves apart about stuff. So to think it’s that easy to go into her office and she can fix everything that is wrong with you.’ 

Kelsey Cardenas said she agreed to livestream her breast augmentation, but now regrets going to Grawe’s surgery

She agreed to have her operation shared on social media.

But Cardenas said her operation was a disaster, and left her with huge scars that would not heal. 

‘It was all black, starting to open,’ she said. 

‘I am calling them freaking out, but their office is saying, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine.’ They kept telling me, ‘It will be better in two weeks, it will be better in two weeks.’ 

‘It took 25 weeks. It was not until December that it was fully closed and I didn’t have some sort of scab.’ 

She said she is now traumatized by the footage of her operation.

‘I let her record me. I signed all the papers,’ she said. 

‘I was so excited when I first had the surgery to look back at the video. 

‘But then this all happened and I was going back, watching my video and watching her just jabber on working on me. 

‘She’s just sewing away and hacking away. There is gauze and blood on me. She’s talking to the camera and working on me.’ 

Cardenas said she turned to other doctors for help, who were horrified at her results.

‘I went to the wound center,’ she said. 

‘The doctor there was appalled. He said this is never going to look normal again without reconstructive surgery.’

Grawe had thousands of followers on social media

Grawe filmed a TikTok of herself dancing in her clinic to a Megan Thee Stallion song

Cardenas strongly believes that Grawe should not have her license restored, telling the news channel: ‘I don’t want her to hurt anyone else ever again.’

Four women are suing Grawe over complications following surgery.

The state medical board warned her in September 2021 that it was wrong to livestream her operations.

She was urged to undertake remedial education courses related to plastic surgery complications, professionalism and ethics. 

She was asked to provide certificates of completion of the courses, รีแพร์ กระชับช่องคลอด along with summaries about what she learned and how she would apply it to her future practice. 

Yet Grawe continued to livestream the operations, the state medical board said.

‘Aspects of these productions include, but are not limited to, preoperative photos, รีแพร์ กระชับช่องคลอด preoperative interviews with patients about their bodies, livestreams of procedures, postoperative still images of patients taken in the operating room, and the cost of the procedure,’ the notice addressed to Grawe reads. 

‘During some videos/live-streams you engage in dialogue to respond to viewers’ online questions while the surgical procedure remains actively ongoing.’ 

In November 2022 the board revoked her license, citing ‘clear and convincing’ evidence that her continued practice presented ‘a danger of immediate and serious harm to the public.’ 

In one case cited by the state medical board a patient was sent to the emergency room by a nurse practitioner at Roxy Plastic Surgery less than a week after receiving liposuction, a Brazilian butt lift and a skin-tightening procedure from Grawe. 

Free air was found in her abdomen and medical staff discovered that she was suffering from hepatic encephalopathy – loss of brain function when a damaged liver fails to remove toxins from the blood. 

Surgeons found her bowel had been perforated and she had a serious bacterial infection. 

The patient required a prolonged stay with multiple procedures to remove dead tissue, plus open abdomen and skin grafting, according to Grawe’s notice of suspension.

At least part of her procedure at Grawe’s office was livestreamed on social media, according to the board.

Grawe would often talk to the camera during her operations

The board said Grawe was looking and speaking to the camera while performing liposuction on the patient’s abdomen, and was evidently distracted from the surgery.

‘Despite liposuction being a blind surgery that requires awareness of the tip of the cannula (thin tube) to avoid injury, your attention to the camera meant at those moments you were not looking at the patient or palpating the location of the tip of the cannula,’ the suspension notice reads.

Sabrina Sellers, รีแพร์ กระชับช่องคลอด Grawe’s attorney, insisted the surgeon’s social media was not to blame for the post-operation complications.

‘She will tell you that although three patients did experience adverse outcomes, that there were known risks and complications of the procedures and they were not caused by a breach in the standard of care,’ Sellers said. 

‘The reason she places those videos out into the public, are to relate to her patients. It’s to educate, relate and demystify. 

‘She has nothing to hide.’