Medical malpractice lawsuit filed against Omaha family practitioner for botched cosmetic surgeries

Family Practitioner, Dr. Gerard Stanley, pictured above at his cosmetic surgery center in Omaha, Nebraska

Another Omaha-area doctor and his cosmetic surgery clinic are facing charges of medical malpractice in numerous civil lawsuits filed by at least seven former patients a week ago.
   

Advertisement from Dr. Stanley's Sculpt surgery center

Dr. Gerard J. Stanley Jr., a family practitioner by trade and not a board certified plastic surgeon, was named as the defendant in civil lawsuits filed by seven women who claimed they were severely scarred and disfigured after receiving botched cosmetic surgical procedures from Stanley at his West Omaha clinic, Sculpt Contemporary Cosmetic Surgery LLC.

Omaha attorney James Martin Davis, who represent the seven women and two spouses, filed the civil medical malpractice lawsuits on behalf of the victims in Douglas County District Court filed last week.

The women allege they went into the cosmetic surgery center run by Dr. Stanley for a variety of elective cosmetic surgical procedures, including liposuction, buttocks lifts, breast augmentations, and eye lifts within the last two years, thinking Dr. Stanley was a board-certified plastic surgeon.

However, after undergoing the knife for the cosmetic surgical procedures in question at the clinic, they ended up leaving Dr. Stanley's care with scars, pain, and irreparable damage for life.
    

Dr. Gerard Stanley regularly advertises his surgical services to the public,
despite not disclosing that he is not a board certified surgeon

According to Dr. Stanley's own website, he first established the Sculpt surgery clinic in 2012 and graduated magna cum laude from Creighton University School of Medicine.

Davis claims, however, that Dr. Stanley is only certified to practice family medicine and doesn't have the educational training, experience or credentials to perform cosmetic surgeries.

Dr. Stanley is certified to practice family medicine with the American Board of Family Medicine, according to the American Board of Medical Specialties, the nation's largest accrediting body overseeing 24 medical specialty boards, but he is not certified or credentialed as a plastic surgeon.

"They all assumed based on his training, education, and experience that he was qualified to perform these invasive surgical procedures and obviously he wasn't because he is only a family practice doctor," Davis said. "He has no training, education, or experience in general surgery."

Oddly enough, in a hayseed Midwestern state like the state of Nebraska, it is not illegal for any doctor to perform surgeries, even if a doctor is not board certified or trained in any particular specialty in surgery. Thus, it appears that may be the reason why the state's medical board is not taking the lead in processing these patients' complaints of medical malpractice.

Davis argued that it is deceptive advertising to act like a board certified plastic surgeon, when one is not even certified as a surgeon. Staff members at Dr. Stanley's clinic have referred all comments to his attorney, Mark Novotny of Omaha.

The only question we have to ask about this very bizarre case is this: Why is a family practice doctor, who has no formal training or real credentials to perform surgeries, pretending to be a plastic surgeon in the first place, creating an entire medical practice based on cosmetic surgery? Something like this could only happen in a place like Nebraska.

References:

• Medicine of Omaha—SCULPT cosmetic surgical facility closes amid growing malpractice scandal against its medical director (10/18/17) 
• Medicine of Omaha—8 more women come forward to file suit against Omaha family practitioner for botched cosmetic surgeries (10/3/17)
• Omaha World-Herald—Medical malpractice suits filed against Omaha doctor, cosmetic surgery clinic (8/1/17)
• KMTV—Lawsuit: Omaha doctor botched plastic surgeries (8/1/17) with video
• WOWT—Seven malpractice suits for cosmetic surgeries (8/1/17)