A Central Ohio surgeon known for her videos on TikTok has had her medical license suspended.
Dr. Katharine Roxanne Grawe has been in private practice in Ohio since 2010 and operates out of Roxy Plastic Surgery, located in Powell.
Dr. Grawe is better known to her patients as 'Dr. Roxy,' the surgeon who posts behind-the-scenes videos of her procedures. But now, she is facing several lawsuits accusing her of failing to appropriately treat some of her patients.
A letter to Dr. Grawe from the State Medical Board of Ohio notified her of her suspension effective Nov. 18, 2022.
In part, the letter said: The Secretary and the Supervising Member of the State Medical Board of Ohio have determined that there is clear and convincing evidence that you have violated sections in the Ohio Revised Code and have further determined that your continued practice presents danger of immediate and serious harm to the public.
The letter also stated that Dr. Grawe is entitled to request a hearing within 30 days of the suspension notice on Nov. 18. The State Medical Board of Ohio confirmed to ABC6/FOX28 that Dr. Grawe requested a hearing. The administrative hearing is scheduled for Monday, May 15, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. and will continue through Friday, May 19, 2023, as needed at the Rhodes State Office Tower, Room 336.
The news of Dr. Grawe's suspension sparked a dialogue on Facebook. A private page was created titled "Enough is Enough. Have you been a victim of Dr. Roxy?" Some of Dr. Grawe's former patients have used the page to share their experiences at Roxy Plastic Surgery.
ABC6/FOX28 connected with several of those women. Some chose to keep their identity hidden for privacy reasons.
"My belly button had detached," one patient said. "My stomach had completely opened up. It was oozing and oozing. I was infected. I look like Frankenstein, honestly, through all of my surgeries."
"I had a completely opened wound," former patient Jessica Maggard said. "It was pouring blood."
These women had procedures like tummy tucks, breast augmentations, and Brazilian butt lifts. One patient said she went to Dr. Grawe for reconstructive surgery after her battle with breast cancer.
"I just wanted to feel better about myself," she said.
But some of the patients said they began to deal with complications post-operation.
"I went to the emergency room because I literally was, I thought I was going septic," one patient said. "I begged the emergency room doctor to give me a referral to somewhere else because I didn’t want to go back."
"Before I left the recovery house, I just felt like something wasn’t right," Maggard said. "I called her office with my concerns and quickly realized I was on my own."
Maggard said she turned to other doctors for help.
"I went to the wound center and that following week I was scheduled for an emergency skin graft with a different surgeon."
The patients said they found 'Dr. Roxy' through her social media pages and were attracted to her because of what they called her ‘bubbly personality’ and focus on ‘women empowerment.’
"I went to her because, I thought, from all of her social media that she uplifted women. That she helped women empower themselves. But she didn’t," the patient said.
'Dr. Roxy's' TikTok page is private, but her account has over 14 million likes and over 843,000 followers. She would use her social media platform to give patients a behind-the-scenes look at surgeries and answer their questions.
In one of her TikTok videos found on her YouTube page, Dr. Grawe discussed why she live-streamed surgeries.
"Do we live stream surgery? It’s Dr. Roxy, let me give you the scoop. Yes, we do. We show our surgeries every single day on snap chat. 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."
The TikTok videos on Dr. Grawe's YouTube page have been removed.
"I truly felt that if someone was brave enough to put live surgeries on social media, she had to be legit," Amber Runyan said. "I invested a lot of time watching her videos."
Prior to the suspension of Dr. Grawe’s medical license, she had received two warnings from the State Medical Board of Ohio.
“In a letter dated October 9, 2018, the Secretary of the Board cautioned you regarding the need to maintain patient privacy when sharing photos or videos via social media. You responded in a letter dated November 11, 2018, that you had remediated these concerns by instituting an updated patient consent form.”
"In a letter dated September 28, 2021, the Secretary of the Board cautioned you a second time. The letter articulated multi-faceted issues with your care of these patients including concerns regarding lack of informed consent, ethical concerns related to privacy and social media, and avoidable complications that required surgical revision.”
The Board recommended Dr. Grawe take a remedial education course related to complications of plastic surgery and professionalism and ethics. It requested Grawe provide the Board with certificates of completion along with summaries of what she learned and how she would apply it to her practice.
On December 20, 2021, the Board said Dr. Grawe provided information documenting the completion of the remedial education. But stated that after the completion, she continued to video produce and live broadcast medical procedures of some patients.
“During some videos/live-streams you engage in dialogue to respond to viewers’ through online questions while the surgical procedure is remains actively ongoing,” the State Medical Board of Ohio wrote in the suspension notice to Dr. Grawe.
The letter notifying Dr. Grawe of suspension also outlined, according to the board, examples of of mistreatment of three patients, whose names remained confidential.
Some of the patients ABC6/FOX28 spoke to said their surgeries were documented for Dr. Roxy’s social media. Even though they said they agreed to it before going under the knife, they said it felt like she put her social media presence over her patients.
“It’s been anger, humiliation. I already have so much regret and then it’s so sickening to know that she did this to so many people.”
"I've done this for 36 years. It's the first time I've ever seen anything like this." - Attorney James Arnold
There are three active lawsuits against Dr. Grawe. Attorney James Arnold is representing those women.
"The first one that came to me was a very egregious case," Arnold said. "She went in for several procedures. One of which was liposuction procedure and it appears as if the cannula that was used, lipoed some of the fat from her abdominal region and pierced her bowel several times. She was to stay at the Roxy recovery house for several days. What I've learned is that the nurses and the recovery staff would always encourage people not to call 911. They were not to go to another hospital. Fortunately, my client disregarded those instructions and she called the emergency squad. She had to have emergency surgery. If she hadn't had the stamina to disregard the instructions they had given her, she probably wouldn't be here today."
Interview with Attorney James Arnold:
"The one thing that is clear is that she had an intense focus on her TikTok presence," Arnold said. "I know that it seems like there was an inordinate amount of attention paid to her TikTok presence and I am told many patients who went to her did so because of her TikTok presence. It's alarming from the perspective that there were times when she was performing a procedure on a patient and instead of giving that patient 100% of her attention, it appeared to me, at least on one occasion that I saw, that she would turn away from the patent and address a camera, a telephone, what every they were using to record it."
None of the women ABC6/FOX28 spoke to have filed a lawsuit, but some say they wish they had when they had the chance.
“Man, I should have spoken out sooner,” Maggard said.
Maybe if I would have spoken up, these women wouldn’t have to go through this. I feel partially responsible.
“This was an elective surgery, I know,” Maggard said. “So, you feel ashamed when it wasn’t supposed to be that.”
ABC6/FOX28 asked Dr. Grawe’s former patients their response to critics who may argue that they chose to have these surgeries.
“I think that’s why a lot of people don’t speak up because it was a voluntary surgery, that’s exactly true,” Runyan said. “It doesn’t matter what procedure you have done. Ethics are ethics and she should have been ethical from start to finish.”
ABC6/FOX28 attempted to contact Dr. Grawe by phone, email and stopped by her home to hear her side of the story. Sabrina Sellers, an attorney representing Dr. Grawe said both she and Grawe could not comment on the allegations.
The state medical board said anyone who had received improper care from Dr. Grawe could file a complaint to the Board. You can find the link by clicking here.