Dr. Katharine Grawe (CBS and TikTok screenshots)
A plastic surgeon in Ohio has been banned from practicing medicine after she gained a large social media following by livestreaming several of her patient’s surgeries on TikTok, and several patients reported surgical complications.
The Ohio Medical Board on Wednesday voted for the “permanent revocation” of the medical license of Dr. Katharine Grawe, better known to her followers as “Dr. Roxy,” determining that she failed to “meet the standard of care” required to practice and violated patients’ privacy, online records reviewed by Law&Crime show. The board also voted to fine Grawe $4,500.
According to the report, Grawe had been reprimanded numerous times for livestreaming patient surgeries from 2018 through 2022. The medical board determined that she exhibited more concern for the videos she posted on social media than those under her care.
Three of Grawe’s patients were forced to get post-surgical treatment after complications while under Grawe’s scalpel.
Grawe was initially suspended from practicing in November 2022 after a former patient filed a complaint stating that she suffered severe post-operation injuries that required several additional surgeries after her surgery.
“In 2022, Dr. Grawe live streamed a surgery of a patient, in this case, identified as Patient One, who ended up being injured by that procedure,” Assistant Attorney General Melinda Ryan Snyder wrote earlier this year. “The patient was found to have six puncture wounds in the small intestines. She had to have multiple surgeries to repair those injuries.”
Dr. Jonathan B. Feibel, vice president of the medical board, said that Grawe’s license had to be revoked because of the “life-altering, reckless treatment” those three patients received.
“These outcomes were not normal complications like those that exist in the routine practice of medicine, but were rather caused by recklessness and disregard for the rules governing the practice of medicine in Ohio,” he said during Thursday’s meeting, the New York Times reported. “I strongly recommend that there never be a Dr. Roxy or patient one, two or three — and protect the people of the state of Ohio from this reckless physician.”
The board also found that many of the livestreamed videos of her surgeries were posted without patient consent, violating their patient privacy.
Given the chance to defend herself, Grawe said that she had learned from her mistakes and, if given the chance, would no longer use her job as a medical professional to amass social media followers.
“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 in her opening statement, USA Today reported. “I am willing to change my social media practices, and I will never livestream a surgery again.”
Grawe reportedly said she understood “how many of those videos appear silly and unprofessional” in hindsight, explaining that she only made them because she was enthusiastic about explaining her profession to those not in the medical field.
“I understand how my actions at times seemed careless and offended my patients and colleagues,” she said.
The board was not swayed, with one member reportedly saying her videos were nothing more than a “marketing ploy.”
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