You may know her as a health guru or motivational speaker. Her followers say Chalene Johnson has helped them lead their greatest lives.
But she says she’s now utilizing her platform for affected person advocacy after what she says she skilled with a well known plastic surgeon. The surgeon denies the allegations, and he’s suing her for defamation.
She and greater than 30 former patients are suing him for medical malpractice. In the method her story is as soon as once more drawing consideration to the California Medical Board and a affected person’s means to examine their physician’s historical past.
It’s an issue the NBC-4 I-team has adopted for years, from the time it takes the Board to finish investigations, to the punishments it arms down.
“Every time I look within the mirror, I see his work,” Johnson mentioned. “I see what he subjected me to and it’s devastating.”
It all began along with her want for smaller breast implants and a revision of her C-section scar. She mentioned she thought she’d fastidiously vetted her surgeon, Dr. Arian Mowlavi, often known as Dr. Laguna.
“I checked to verify, okay is he licensed, is he in good standing,” Johnson mentioned. “I am going search the web to see what the critiques are. They are all glowing. And after all, I talked to different previous sufferers who all had actually nice issues to say, so I felt good about all of this.”
But she mentioned she felt uneasy from the preliminary session.
“I saved dismissing these voices in my head,” Johnson mentioned, telling herself, “He’s an artist, they’re eccentric and also you’re simply being a prude.”
About every week after surgical procedure, Johnson spoke about it on her podcast:
“I don’t have any issues, in truth I’m fairly proud of my outcomes, however I’m actually sad with the expertise,” Johnson mentioned.
Just a few days later, the bandages got here off and he or she mentioned she realized she’d made a horrible mistake.
“I used to be upset with myself for having made the choice after which realizing that the one that I had entrusted, who I had paid prime greenback to, hadn’t listened to something I’d mentioned and was careless and reckless,” Johnson mentioned. “I awakened with a scar from hip to hip from a C-section scar I used to be making an attempt to revise.”
Johnson mentioned she then found a brand new addition on Dr. Mowlavi’s licensing page on the Medical Board of California’s website. It was posted on August 25, 2021, simply three weeks after Johnson’s surgical procedure.
The govt director of the Medical Board of California filed an accusation in opposition to Dr. Mowlavi associated to the demise of a affected person, citing a analysis of “hemorrhage from surgical intervention resulting in cardiac arrest and cerebral anoxia” and alleging that Dr. Mowlavi “dedicated gross negligence in his care and therapy of Patient A which included (permitting) surgical techs to carry out liposuction.”
Even extra startling to Johnson, the surgical procedure and death described within the accusation had truly occurred three years earlier, in August 2018.
“It’s unhappy to me that the California Medical Board, they are saying that their mission is to guard sufferers, however to assume that even to at the present time it’s actually nearly unimaginable for folks to seek out something about that case,” Johnson mentioned.
According to court docket data, in August 2020 the household of the lady who died reached one million greenback settlement with Dr. Mowlavi.
However till October 2022, at a fast look Dr. Mowlavi’s report with the Medical Board appeared clear.
“I don’t know what legislators must get entangled, however the legal guidelines have to alter as a result of now we have to guard sufferers,” Johnson mentioned.
Johnson mentioned she felt she wanted to take motion, sharing her story and considerations on her social media platforms. She quickly discovered she apparently wasn’t alone.
“Women began flooding my inbox saying, ‘I do know who you’re speaking about, simply primarily based on what you described.'”
She mentioned she’s talked to greater than 50 former sufferers and filed her personal criticism with the Medical Board. But as of the top of October, she’d had no response from the Board.
In response to questions from the I-team, the Medical Board says it can’t tackle and even affirm lively investigations as a result of they’re confidential by legislation.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for the Medical Board to take motion,” Johnson mentioned.
She and greater than 30 different former sufferers are actually suing Dr. Mowlavi. The criticism contains allegations of battery, medical malpractice, negligent hiring, coaching and supervision. The submitting additionally contains graphic photos after surgical procedure of among the ladies suing, and display pictures of video from the physician’s working room.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys say that was offered by a gross sales rep who says the video she took exhibits a surgical tech performing liposuction as Dr. Mowlavi – unmasked– held his fists beneath the affected person.
Dr. Mowlavi responded in a separate court docket submitting contending the video is “irrelevant” saying the gross sales rep will not be a doctor and “they don’t perceive what they’re seeing.” As for post-surgery photos, Dr. Mowlavi mentioned they’re “not an correct depiction of the surgical procedure’s outcome.”
That submitting was made in Dr. Mowlavi’s lawsuit in opposition to Johnson for defamation, through which he contends her Instagram posts and podcasts are “patently false” saying, “Under the guise of serving to others [she] has weaponized her advertising expertise and social platform of 700,000+ followers by exploiting a falsified medical expertise with plaintiff Dr. Mowlavi for her personal monetary achieve and notoriety.”
Both fits are at present on maintain due to a chapter submitting by Dr. Mowlavi. But regardless of the defamation swimsuit, Johnson mentioned she’s not protecting quiet.
“I’ve been lucky to have had a really profitable profession largely due to my group of ladies, so I really feel a accountability to guard them,” Johnson mentioned. “Every time I cease speaking about it, then I study that some else has gone to see him. I do know I shouldn’t really feel responsible about that, however I do. It’s not about my outcomes, its about defending the general public.”
Just days after the interview with Johnson, the Medical Board of California revealed a decision within the case associated to the 2018 affected person demise. The resolution adopts a stipulated settlement which was not an request for forgiveness. The disciplinary order contains:
- A 90 day suspension of Dr. Mowlavi’s license
- 10 years probation
- A health care provider should monitor Mowlavi’s follow
- He’s prohibited from performing or collaborating in VASER Liposcution surgical procedures till finishing a medical competence evaluation program.
The I-team reached out to Dr. Mowlavi’s attorneys who dealt with the settlement over the affected person demise, the Medical Board case and the present litigation. They didn’t reply to our request for remark. The lawyer representing Dr. Mowlavi in his defamation swimsuit in opposition to Johnson declined to touch upon the report.
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