ATLANTA — Doctors call it the most dangerous procedure in cosmetic surgery.
A metro Atlanta practice has become internet famous for performing work live on Instagram while patients are wide awake.
A Channel 2 investigation found that many of the patients convinced by the glossy sales pitch are dealing with major medical and financial repercussions.
“How are you doing today, Dr. Z?”
“I’m doing great.”
“She’s doing amazing,” a doctor and Goals Plastic Surgery worker said in an Instagram live.
“Where we give you nothing but the hottest transformation,” said the worker.
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What they are selling is serious surgery.
“As you can see, he’s harvesting all of that beautiful liquid gold,” a worker said in another Instagram live.
Liquid gold – that’s what Goals Plastic Surgery calls fat. It’s big business for them.
“This vacuum is actually all that excess fat, what I like to, at Goals, call liquid gold. Check out all of that liquid gold this morning,” a worker said.
In part 2, an insider who worked at GOALS speaks out. She tells us who decides whether a patient is a good candidate for surgery, and it’s not the doctors. Watch this at 11 p.m. Tuesday on WSB Tonight.
But what they don’t show you on Instagram are pictures like a liposuction burn.
“The skin was completely off of my side,” said one Goals patient.
And they don’t share experiences like these: “Girls are screaming, like screaming because you can feel it all,” said a second Goals patient.
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“I noticed that I was getting like these huge hip dents that I never had before. And then I have this huge lump, just like in one part of my stomach,” said Tavie Porterfield, a Goals patient.
“I was suicidal. I was extremely traumatized. It looked worse than when I went in,” said the first Goals patient.
Goals Plastic Surgery started in New York City and expanded here to an Atlanta location last fall. But where most patients find them is social media.
“I was scrolling on Instagram and a popular rapper from Detroit was promoting for them,” said Porterfield.
“And those before and afters looked good?” asked Channel 2 Investigative reporter Justin Gray.
“Very good, very good. I mean it was amazing and I knew that I wanted to go there,” said the second patient.
Most patients go to Goals for one very specific procedure. It’s called BBL, the famous Brazilian butt lift.
Dr. Pradeep Sinha, the owner of Atlanta Institute for Facial Aesthetic Surgery, says it’s one of the most dangerous surgeries, period.
“One in 300 people have a major complication which includes death. So, that’s not a fun word to say when you’re a doctor, right, and especially for a cosmetic procedure, right if it’s optional,” Sinha said.
“Hi! My name is Tavie. I came to Goals because I am a mother for four and wanted to improve the appearance of my body,” said Tavie Porterfield in a recorded video.
She said the first indication something was wrong was that she was not able to meet with a doctor until the day of the surgery.
“The girls never meet the doctor before surgery. They only meet the doctor when they’re going in to get liposuction,” said Porterfield.
That’s what all the Goals patients Channel 2 talked to said.
“So, you never met with the doctor or talked to a doctor before the day of the surgery?” asked Justin Gray.
“No, I met my surgeon the day of and they told me I was going to have a completely different surgeon,” said the second patient.
Sinha said he doesn’t want to talk about what other practices do, but the veteran surgeon said he would never ever operate without first meeting and talking with a patient ahead of time.
“They always meet with me first before any decision is made, we don’t even talk prices or numbers or schedule anybody until they’ve met with me personally,” Sinha said.
Goals also does their Brazilian butt lifts under local anesthesia which means you are wide awake during surgery.
“I felt it all. I don’t know what numbing they had going on, but it didn’t work,” said the second patient.
“This is not getting a haircut, right? I mean, you’re actually having surgery near major organs near major blood vessels,” said Dr. Sinha.
Goals staff tried to prevent a Channel 2 photographer from getting video across the street from their metro Atlanta building.
“Public property, I can just stand right in front of you right?” said a Goals worker.
“I mean you could if you wanted to,” said the Channel 2 photographer.
Goals staff even called the police, who told them Channel 2 was doing nothing wrong.
Goals ignored our requests for interviews and have not responded to our repeated requests for comment.
But former patients have plenty to say.
We found more than one hundred Better Business Bureau complaints for Goals.
Former patients even set up an Instagram group of their own with more than one hundred unsatisfied customers.
“You don’t want to leave botched. You don’t want to leave traumatized. You don’t want to leave injured,” said the first patient.
“They’re really just looking at it from a dollar point and not caring for the people point,” said Porterfield.
There is no special licensing needed to perform cosmetic surgery in Georgia.
There are board certified plastic surgeons and cosmetic surgeons who are specially trained in these procedures.
But you can legally perform the surgery without any of that.
Anyone with a medical license in Georgia can.
The owner of Goals has a specialty in pediatrics.
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