Toronto Star
Tanya Talaga
Staff Reporters
Three of the largest professional organizations representing plastic surgeons in Canada are filing formal complaints against a Toronto physician who hired a private investigator to spy on a colleague whom she suspected was causing a drop in her business.
The Ontario Society of Plastic Surgery, the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgery and the Canadian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery plan to ask Ontario's medical watchdog to investigate Dr. Behnaz Yazdanfar's decision to send an undercover female investigator to consult with plastic surgeon Dr. Sean Rice and secretly record the conversation.
As the Star reported last week, Yazdanfar used the recording as the basis of a $300,000 lawsuit against Rice, alleging the plastic surgeon slandered her reputation.
"Nobody has ever seen anything like this," says Dr. Michael Weinberg, a Toronto-area plastic surgeon and member of the three organizations filing complaints with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
"We would like them to investigate the ethics of wiring an investigator to come in, ask questions, to pretend to be a patient and pose naked."
Weinberg says members of the three organizations decided to file the complaints Monday.
"The medical community is very upset by this," he said. "I can't imagine that asking a woman to expressly lie to a doctor and then to have their breast examined by a doctor and that person being sent by another doctor for the sole purpose of trapping them could be considered in any way ethical."
College officials would not comment.
"I can confirm we are investigating Dr. Yazdanfar, but I can't provide you with details of the investigation or how the matter came to our attention," said Kathryn Clarke, college spokesperson.
Yazdanfar has been at the centre of controversy since Krista Stryland, a 32-year-old real estate agent and mother, was pronounced dead in hospital Sept. 20 following a liposuction procedure at Yazdanfar's Toronto Cosmetic Clinic.
Yazdanfar, a family physician without hospital privileges or a surgical specialty, claims in her lawsuit that she hired the investigator to determine whether Rice was the cause of a dramatic drop in her business this past fall – the same time Stryland's death was the subject of major headlines.
Rice tried to revive Stryland when she was rushed to hospital.
Neither Yazdanfar nor Rice has commented on the allegations in the lawsuit. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Michael Kestenberg, Yazdanfar's lawyer, said yesterday his client is unaware of any complaints filed against her. "Until such a time my client and I see the complaints, we are not in a position to comment."
Yazdanfar's lawyers have also sent a letter to two other plastic surgeons warning them to refrain from making disparaging comments about her to patients on the threat of legal action, the Star has learned.
Doctors say the case goes to the core of the physician-patient relationship.
"A physician has to be able to speak honestly to their patients," says Weinberg. "As a patient, wouldn't you want to go to your doctor and ask for an honest opinion even if it isn't to the benefit of a company, institution or another doctor?"
Dr. Brian Peterson, president of the Canadian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, said his organization's letter of complaint will be filed with the college this week.
"It will be about professional conduct," he said. "It's not normal activity to take the steps she's taken."
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