Channel 2 investigation prompts GSP to ask Botox clinic to close amid shelter-in-place order

ATLANTA — The Georgia State Patrol has asked a local cosmetic clinic to close its doors after a Channel 2 Action News investigation.

Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday afternoon that aestheticians can go back to work starting Friday, but we found the clinic open during the governor’s shelter-in-place order.

While many Georgians couldn’t get medical procedures done, some were still able to get Botox.

Channel 2’s Sophia Choi started looking into the issues after being tipped off by a nurse practitioner.

Choi spent the day calling the clinics to see what was going on. She found that The Ageless Center in northeast Atlanta was still taking appointments.

Channel 2 Action News had been looking into the clinic for the past week and each day saw clients coming and going from the center in Lenox Village.

Choi started looking into the clinic after hearing from a woman who only asked to be identified as Sarah. She is a 20-year medical professional with big concerns about what was going on.

“It’s just, it’s just egregious,” Sarah said. “It’s not for the health and safety. It’s not to join others in the medical community to reduce the burden of pain and suffering. This is all for money.”

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The governor’s shelter-in-place mandate, which remain in effect until April 30, specifically states aestheticians should “cease in-person operations and close to the public while this order is in effect.

But the Ageless Center's own website shows it's taking appointments for cosmetic procedures, stating, "As of March 20th, we have made the decision to book appointments for Botox and Xeomin treatments only. This is only temporary while we attempt to increase our social distancing efforts."

On staff are aestheticians and a nurse practitioner -- but no doctor. The clinic offers only nonsurgical procedures.

“They are really putting the public in danger,” said Cindy Collins, a physician's assistant.

Collins wants the clinic shut down and complained to the state.

“For any med spa or retail clinic that is continuing to practice to put Botox in patients is taking away gloves, and masks and Lysol wipes and anything else that is needed for those health care workers that are in the hospitals that are dealing with this that are literally fighting for the lives of their patients and their own lives,” Collins said.

Records obtained by Channel 2 Action News shows the state patrol checked out Collins’ complaint and visited the facility on April 14.

“The responding trooper spoke with personnel who stated the procedures they were performing were not for cosmetic purpose, but medically necessary,” GSP said.

But yet, Choi was still able to get an appointment for cosmetic Botox.

Collins said she offers Botox as her Buckhead spa, The Flawless Skin Boutique. Like most Botox facilities across the state, she shut her business down to follow the governor’s order.

“It’s not OK for most of us to be closed, and the ones that think that they are in more need than we are as far as economically, that it’s OK for them,” Collins said.

Dr. Sheldon Lincenberg, a Sandy Springs plastic surgeon, also shut down.

“With COVID-19 being an existential crisis we’re dealing with right now, we should be following the guidelines,” Lincenberg said

He said not only did he shut down, Lincenberg offered his plastic surgery offices to help in the coronavirus fight saying it’s just the right thing to do.

“We took the extra step of converting my office to a laceration clinic which could potentially take a little bit of the burden off the emergency departments,” Lincenberg said.

Lincenberg believes The Ageless Center is just making the coronavirus fight harder.

“I think this is definitely an unnecessary risk that is adding to the problem, when there is no reason to add to the problem.”

Nurse practitioner Sarah said patients getting Botox are increasing their chances of getting COVID-19, with potential exposure in a close, intimate setting and by lowering their immunity with injections.

“We know this virus is deadly. So anything that’s going to lower your immunity even temporarily, why do it? Why do it right now?” Sarah said.

Out of 15 metro Atlanta clinics, Channel 2 Action News found only two doing cosmetic Botox: The Ageless Center and the Chamblee Skin and Vein Clinic.

“I’d like to see them shut down. I’d like to see them get fined. And not just a small fine,” Sarah said.

“We have to make these sacrifices for the greater good,” Collins told Choi. “We need to all stick together. We need to all ban together. This needs to be a community effort, or it’s not going to work.”

Channel 2 Action News contacted The Ageless Center to see what they had to say about all of this, but no one returned Choi’s phone calls.

While making the appointment, Choi asked the person on the phone how the clinic was able to stay open while other clinics were closed.

The employee told Choi that the clinic was cleared by the state as long as long as it took safety precautions like using protective gloves and masks when they saw patients.

Channel 2 Action News also alerted the governor’s office that the clinic was doing cosmetic, not just medical procedures.

The governor’s office said it is now taking a second look at the clinic.

The Ageless Center sent a statement Monday saying it's in contact with the health department.

The clinic says it believes that it followed all laws and “we employ licensed medical professionals and not aestheticians to perform our medical grade services.”

Gov. Kemp announces "limited, sensible" steps to reopen Georgia Kemp also said he is allowing the statewide shelter-in-place order to expire on April 30 at 11:59 p.m.

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