ATLANTA — There are new developments in an ongoing Channel 2 Action News investigation.
Some patients of an Instagram-famous plastic surgery practice in Atlanta have started the process of taking legal action against Goals Plastic Surgery.
More women have come forward to tell Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray about their injuries and complications from Brazilian butt lifts performed at Goals.
“As you can see, he’s harvesting all that beautiful liquid gold,” said a Goals worker on Instagram Live.
Goals surgeries, performed while you are wide-awake, are designed to grab the attention of social media users interested in Brazilian butt lifts. The liquid gold is fat.
“This vacuum is actually all that excess fat, what I like to call at Goals liquid gold,” said the worker on Instagram Live.
A series of Channel 2 Action News investigations into Goals have shown what goes on after the camera is turned off. Since our stories aired in early August, many more patients have reached out to Channel 2 about injuries from their Goals surgeries.
“It’s a nightmare. It’s like I’m living a nightmare,” said an Atlanta woman who is embarrassed to show her face.
But she wants people to look at the graphic, difficult-to-see picture of her body taken two months after her Brazilian butt lift at Goals.
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“I was in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that half of my side was missing. It was gone completely gone, an open wound,” the Atlanta woman said.
Brenda Thompson flew from Los Angeles to Atlanta for her Goals surgery. She also has scarring. The burns on her body were from the inside out.
“It was a burn that you couldn’t pour water on, if that makes sense. It just continuously burned,” said Thompson.
Channel 2 previously reported how Goals patients say they didn’t see a doctor until the day of surgery.
A former Goals employee told Channel 2 it was people like her with no medical training who decided who was a good candidate for surgery.
“Are you supposed to tell someone they were a bad candidate?” Gray asked.
“No,” replied former Goals worker Tavie Porterfield.
“Everyone was supposed to be a good candidate?” asked Gray.
“Yeah,” answered Porterfield.
Board-certified plastic surgeon Adam Rubinstein told Gray that might be the most concerning thing of all for him.
“The idea that someone who’s not a doctor, that is not even medically trained in most cases is giving this kind of advice based only on photographs, it’s a little frightening to me. And it’s certainly unethical and bad medicine,” Rubinstein said.
Wednesday medical malpractice attorney Susan Witt sent an official legal notice letter to Goals.
She has agreed to represent several former Goals patients.
“It takes a lot for me to take on a case, but we immediately upon review of these cases saw a pattern of practice that had been going on for awhile that now we are seeing the result of many injured patients,” Witt said.
“It’s not always about cheaper. And it’s not always about following what’s going on on social media, which we all get so caught up in what we see and what we think we want to be like, and the chase for that has so many of us damaged,” Thompson said.
Goals has not responded to any of Channel 2′s repeated request for comment.
By Georgia law, any doctor can set up a practice performing any kind of surgery. They do not need special training.
The owner of Goals is a pediatrician.
Rubinstein repeated over and over to Channel 2 that prospective patients need to check for themselves if the doctor is a board-certified plastic surgeon.
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