Yazdanfar surrenders license

December 21, 2011 - Toronto - Behnaz Yazdanfar has finally been stripped of her medical license in Ontario, Canada. Unfortunately, the CPSO has given her another chance after the two-year suspension. The recent press coverage has been enormous. Nearly every major newspaper and media outlet has carried the story. Their web site for the TCC has still not published the story as requested by the CPSO.

Michele Mandel's column in Toronto SUN - December 21, 2011

Doc in lipo death gets off lightly

TORONTO - A little boy left without his mother sends balloons to heaven with notes hoping she’s okay. And the unqualified cosmetic surgeon who cost his mom her life? Dr. Behnaz Yazdanfar has just been suspended for two years and banned from ever operating alone again.

But she can apply to be reinstated after a year and when she does get her licence back, she can still be a surgical assistant. It hardly seems punishment enough. Ensuring she never practises again was the penalty advocated by the lawyer for the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

It was also the sentence sought by the little boy’s father and the rest of the family of his late mom, Krista Stryland. “When (my son) grows up,” the dad wrote in his victim impact statement, “I want to be able to look him in the eye, explain to him what happened and let him know that although this was a terrible, tragic loss, the system did not fail him in how it dealt with these doctors.” He hoped for too much.

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• Download full CPSO disciplinary decision in .pdf

The TCCLINIC.COM web site makes no mention of Yazdanfar unless you looked at the cached archives or some of the old pictures.

If you use the Google search term "site:tcclinic.com yazdanfar" and go to the cached version you can still see the original ads in Elevate Magazine where she claims to be a cosmetic surgeon.

There are two certified plastic surgeons who are listed on their web site. The CPSO had demanded that Yazdanfar's story be placed on their web site. So far this has not happened.

Yazdanfar, the original "owner" of the clinic, could still be the owner of the clinic. IF she is, then she can still be operating the clinic without actually having a medical license. I don't believe that the CPSO has the power to stop her. We also do not know if her husband has any interest in the company. Were the assets sold-off to the new doctors?

The TCC is still advertising as if nothing ever happened there. The same device used in the deadly tragedy involving Ms. Stryland is still on their procedures or services pages. They are still doing breast implants and other surgical interventions.

Did the Ministry of Health actually approve the clinic?

Does the CPSO intend to inspect the clinic in the future?

Stay tuned for further developments.

BTW - There is still a civil lawsuit against Yazdanfar and the clinic.

Yazdanfar's lawyers appeal quashed to remove license restrictions

Yazdanfar's legal team filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Toronto to remove any restrictions imposed on her license following the disciplinary hearings. She lost the appeal and had to pay $10,500 in court costs.

• Full text of Appeal

MD under fire from colleagues for hiring spy

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/284716

Toronto Star

Three groups of plastic surgeons file complaints against doctor at centre of liposuction controversy

December 12, 2007

Robert Cribb
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."