Snapchat Plastic Surgeon Jokes Put Patients at Risk
Plastic surgeons can do big business through social media , but some surgeons take entertainment to the extreme, like dancing in front of a camera during surgery or holding excised tissue close to them like babies. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons wants to take tough action.
Take this doctor , for example. On the web page of the New York Cameo Center for Surgery, he’s Scott M. Blair, MD. He is a cosmetic surgeon with a list of awards and accomplishments, signatures for “over a hundred” journal articles, medical research and degrees from SUNY Stony Brook Medical and Dental Schools. “He retains one additional key advantage that sets him apart from the rest: compassion,” says his bio. “Doctor. Blair truly cares for every patient he touches. “
But on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, he’s ” Dr. Bfiksin .” He loves his “job, [his] patients and what he rocks!” He posts videos of him and his staff dancing to pop songs as they work, celebrating the artists. With a newly removed mound of pink fat on his forearm, Blair, in full surgical regalia, shakes Boogie and Don Kew under Bag on Me while the anesthetized patient lies motionless. In another video, a liposuction tool bangs back and forth across the unconscious body as the camera pans from the booging Blair to four of his co-workers dancing in a line. The song is called “Mi Gente” by J. Balvin, and Dr. Bfiksin is publishing it to congratulate the reggaeton singer on topping the Spotify chart. He tweets to celebrities offering big boob jobs and declares his enthusiasm for partying and 40s.
According to Clark Schirle, MD, plastic surgeon and lecturer at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, he is one of those plastic and cosmetic surgeons who use gaudy social media attention-grabbing tactics. “They regularly cross the line to see how rude their content can be and to grab attention,” says Schirle.
Can there be ethical shots during surgery?
Schirle is co-author of a new online code of ethics for plastic surgeons that will be presented at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Orlando this week. There is currently no online code of conduct in society.
The new standards will require patients to give “informed consent” to the use of video recordings of their surgeries. This means that they receive not only “adequate information” about their operations, but also about the “potential risks and benefits” of video clips of procedures on the Internet. It would also prohibit members of the public from “banalizing situations where patients are under anesthesia and are at risk of serious harm.”
Schirle says plastic surgeons have long asked patients to allow them to document their procedures. In some cases, this is done for educational purposes. They are videotaping surgeries as a teaching aid for medical students and so that potential patients can better understand the procedure they are considering. In other cases, the images are used for advertising purposes. In a competitive environment, plastic surgeons are looking for before and after photos that showcase their work.
In the past few years, videos posted online have become popular with those who simply craved the thrill of viewing and manipulating a slit body, Schirle said, and some surgeons vying for social media followers were happy to attract them.
This has been facilitated by Snapchat, which allows users to share content that will be removed shortly after being viewed. The app is known to be useful for users sharing sexually explicit images while reducing the risk of their being stored, leaked, and / or used as revenge porn. “It encourages the sharing of content that is more piquant and naughty, and the idea that I can get away with it because it disappears within 24 hours,” says Schirle. “As board-certified plastic surgeons, I think we should have higher moral standards than a 13-year-old girl having sex with her boyfriend.”
According to Schirle, the behavior of some surgeons on Snapchat is more scandalous and stupid than on Instagram or Twitter. While it’s difficult to document due to the nature of Snapchat, he says he saw surgeons parading abdominoplasty specimens in front of the camera and juggling with breast implants. Schirle says one invited viewers to a promotional event, tempting them with free drinks and a DJ while he was performing surgery.
Schirle showed us a Snapchat snapshot, which he said he had saved from Dr. B. Fixin’s account. In it, Blair and another man in a surgical suit take pieces of fabric with smiley faces of children on them in the cradle. Happy Mother’s Day, it says. “I don’t think Dr. Bfixin is a little daddy.” Blair is white and the bump emoji face he holds is brown. (Blair did not return a call asking for comment.)
The proposed ethical principles are based on two general principles. First, plastic surgeons should not perform purely recreational activities while the patient is under anesthesia. “When you do a Brazilian butt lift, there is no reason to stop what you are doing, play the instrument and dance your booty,” says Schirle. Every aspect of a video posted on the Internet should have educational value, he said.
Second, given that the physician-patient relationship is a “power imbalance,” surgeons should do what is best for the patient, in addition to obtaining consent for videotaping during anesthesia. If it is not really in the patient’s best interest to be at the center of a dance program or video invitation to a party, surgeons should refrain, he says, even if the patient has given their consent.
“Plastic surgeons always dissuade patients from doing things that are harmful to them,” in the long term, says Schirle. “Part of our job is to protect 40-year-old you from 20-year-old.”
Schirle believes that some plastic surgeons have gone so far off the rails because the procedures are elective, so there is a need to promote oneself, which is not the case in other fields. Plus, “the pitch has a celebrity vibe,” he says. “Patients are often celebrities, so doctors try to look like celebrities too.”
Meet Dr. Miami
Perhaps no plastic surgeon has achieved social media fame as effectively as Michael Salzhauer, MD, aka “The Doctor.” Miami “. He has over 83,000 followers on Twitter and 661,000 on Instagram. He told Vanity Fair that a million people have logged onto Snapchat to watch one of his operations. Schirle calls him “patient zero of this phenomenon”.
Regardless, Salzhauer says he read Schirle’s ethical guidelines and has no objection. “If they go to the vote, I’ll vote for them,” says Salzhauer from his Florida home.
Dr. Miami’s Instagram account doesn’t have operating rooms like Dr. Bfixing. Salzhauerdos dresses his employees in elaborate themed costumes, such as from the movie Aladdin . He also poses with recording artists and other prominent Snapchat surgeons who visit his office.
But his operating videos are generally limited to operations. They are fast and often contain a rude factor. In one, it empties cyst tissue when someone vomits. In another, he shows the fat removed by breast reduction in a video in a few seconds and encourages fans to tag a friend to “tell them about breast reduction today or ruin their lunch.” In a recent video, a “dancing hot dog” filter is applied to a tummy tuck .
“The dancing hot dog is a very funny meme,” says Salzhawers, “which, like Bitmoji, can be superimposed on any photo or video with a swipe of your finger.” Over the past three years, I have never had a patient who complained about any filter or bitmoji. ” He says the hot dog looked funny to the man under the knife in the video.
He says he wants his social media to reflect the “fun vibe” of his office, and mistakenly believes that operating rooms are always festive or stressful places. “This is more than what you see on the Mash TV show,” he says.
This week, plastic surgeons are considering the idea that a patient’s well-being isn’t enough to justify adding the shed fat to a crude video or reaching out to a pop star. Salzhauer, who adds that his practice is scheduled for the next two years, says patients should be trusted to decide what kind of surgical experience they need, even if it may seem foolish to others.
“I think the people who come have seen our social networks and know what they are getting into,” says Salzhauer. “It attracts a certain clientele because they saw what we were doing. This is the highest degree of informed consent. “