Investigation
Cosmetic Cowboys
Cosmetic surgery has become a multibillion-dollar business, with more and more Australians getting facelifts, tummy tucks and liposuction with the hope of looking younger and slimmer. The Cosmetic Cowboys investigation takes you inside one of the country’s best-known clinics and uncovers a litany of poor practices. It reveals what really goes on in this unregulated industry and what can happen when you are under the knife.
- Graphic content
- Investigation
‘It’s so scary’: Ella was hospitalised after cosmetic surgery went horribly wrong
A series of disfigured patients has led to calls for a royal commission into the lucrative cosmetic surgery industry.
- Adele Ferguson
- Graphic content
- Healthcare
‘Never, ever, ever own up’: Cosmetic cowboys running wild in the billion-dollar treatments industry
Dr Daniel Lanzer’s public presence depicts a fun and caring cosmetic surgeon. But former staff members, medical experts and patients present a different picture.
- Adele Ferguson, Lauren Day and Klaus Toft
- Graphic content
- Healthcare
‘Please don’t kill me’: Elite soldier feared for his life after cosmetic surgeon cut him open
Shocking revelations about botched cosmetic surgery are the tip of the iceberg in a lucrative growth industry that is out of control.
- Adele Ferguson
Strict new rules on who can call themselves a cosmetic ‘surgeon’
Doctors without suitable qualifications will be banned from calling themselves cosmetic surgeons.
- Adele Ferguson and James Massola
‘Cosmetic cowboys’ registered for private health rebates
Health Minister Mark Butler has ordered a review of private hospital licensing after health funds raised concerns about “cowboys” on the register.
- Dana Daniel
- Exclusive
‘Unchecked for years’: Ministers crack down on cosmetic surgery ‘cowboys’
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler is leading national action to protect Australians from rogue doctors.
- Adele Ferguson
Regulator announces cosmetic surgery crackdown but won’t hit pause on $1.4b industry
So-called cosmetic cowboys without specialist surgical training can keep offering procedures like facelifts, tummy tucks, breast implants and Brazilian butt lifts while the medical regulator works on a multi-year plan to create new accreditation standards.
- Dana Daniel
- Analysis
Cosmetic surgery reforms need more than a nip and tuck
While there are a few welcome recommendations in a review of the cosmetic surgery industry, Australians deserve a much tougher response.
- Adele Ferguson
- Opinion
This ‘solution’ for cosmetic surgery rogues fails patients
The regulator fundamentally misunderstands what is needed.
- Nicola Dean
- Exclusive
Secret cosmetic surgery review meeting ends in revolt
Doctors and cosmetic surgery experts have called for the leaders of the regulatory boards overseeing the troubled industry to resign.
- Adele Ferguson
- Exclusive
Cosmetic cowboys facing the knife after minister’s pledge to act
Health Minister Mark Butler has vowed to take urgent action to clean up the out-of-control cosmetic surgery industry after the extent of its problems was brought to light.
- Adele Ferguson and Naomi Shivaraman
- Exclusive
Health regulator accused of ‘gaslighting’ butchered patients
Labor Senator Deb O’Neill has warned people about cosmetic surgery cowboys operating with no effective oversight because of the failure of the national health regulator.
- Adele Ferguson
- Exclusive
Health regulator accused of ‘gaslighting’ butchered patients
Labor Senator Deb O’Neill has warned people about cosmetic surgery cowboys operating with no effective oversight because of the failure of the national health regulator.
- Adele Ferguson
Medical regulator ‘unaccountable to public they are meant to be protecting’
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has rejected allegations it is failing to protect the public from so-called “cosmetic cowboys” and vowed to take more action
- Dana Daniel
‘Completely unacceptable’: Anthony Albanese leaves door open to royal commission into cosmetic surgery industry
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says people are “shocked” by some of the stories uncovered by an investigation into the cosmetic surgery industry.
- Billie Eder
- Opinion
Anyone taking on the ‘cosmetic cowboys’ should take care, as I discovered
Patients are the greatest risk when someone with little or no training embarks upon surgery with no supervision. And yet, this is exactly what is happening in cosmetic surgery.
- Mark Ashton
- Opinion
The cosmetic surgery industry needs shock therapy and must be shut down
The only way to get the change needed to protect the public from serious injuries is to close down the entire industry for a period of three to six months.
- Allan Fels
- Graphic content
Butler puts cosmetic surgery regulation on health ministers’ agenda as calls for royal commission grow
Pressure is mounting for the federal government to call a royal commission into health regulation amid new allegations of patient exploitation by cosmetic surgery “cowboys”.
- Dana Daniel
- Video
"I could feel them with the cannula ramming me"
Ella Callis was hospitalised after her cosmetic surgery went horribly wrong.
- video
The most followed cosmetic surgeon on TikTok
Dr Daniel Aronov has built an audience of nearly 13 million followers, sharing extremely graphic footage of his surgeries which the regulator ordered to be removed.
- Opinion
‘Body parts thrown around’: TikTok cosmetic doc fights to get back the scalpel
A tribunal this week heard ‘breathtaking’ allegations against cosmetic surgeon Daniel Aronov including him throwing human body parts around the theatre.
- Adele Ferguson
- Opinion
Cosmetic surgery industry needs more than a tummy tuck
This under-regulated corner of medicine does not need to be killed off, but it does need serious oversight.
- Allan Fels
- Opinion
Worse than Wild West: cosmetic cowboys must be reined in
Regulatory gaps concerning cosmetic surgery in Australia exposes the public to significant undisclosed risks by untrained or inadequately trained practitioners.
- Mark Ashton
- Exclusive
Top doctors back calls for crackdown on cosmetic surgery ‘cowboys’
Many of the doctors are demanding an end to the unfettered use of social media by practitioners and laws to stop rogue medicos calling themselves “cosmetic surgeons”.
- Lucy Carroll
- Exclusive
Associate of cosmetic surgeon Lanzer charged with alleged attack on elderly man
An associate of celebrity cosmetic surgeon Daniel Lanzer has been suspended by the national health regulator, charged by the police and embroiled in a class action.
- Adele Ferguson
- Opinion
‘Makes my skin crawl’: Dancing ‘Jolene’ doctor not a specialist anaesthetist
Cosmetic surgeon is not the only title in medicine that is under scrutiny.
- Adele Ferguson
‘Cosmetic surgeon’ title under review as states crack down on cowboys
The federal and state governments have launched a landmark review aimed at overhauling laws into who can call themselves a cosmetic surgeon, increasing the penalties for deceptive advertising and social media abuses.
- Adele Ferguson and Lauren Day
- Opinion
Controversial cosmetic surgeon Dr Daniel Lanzer quits as regulators circle
Just over a month after an investigation by this masthead revealed a series of disturbing allegations, celebrity cosmetic surgeon Dr Daniel Lanzer has retired.
- Adele Ferguson
- Opinion
The problem with the cosmetic surgery turf war
As a GP, I see the horrors of inadequate surgical training. But I also know there is a plastic surgery monopoly and a dangerous shortage of highly qualified surgeons – and that is where we can fix this crisis.
- Dr Samantha Saling
- Opinion
The jig is up: Time to rein in the cosmetic surgery industry
Regulators must take meaningful steps to rein in the Wild West that is Australia’s cosmetic surgery industry.
- Adele Ferguson
‘Profit over patient safety’: Health regulator launches review into cosmetic surgery industry
The national medical regulator has announced a sweeping review of the multibillion-dollar cosmetic surgery industry following an investigation by the Herald and The Age.
- Adele Ferguson and Lauren Day
- Opinion
Start with the name for true reform of cosmetic surgery
A review of patient safety issues in the cosmetic sector after decades of devastating patient harm is long overdue, but there is a long way to go before true reform takes place.
- Dr Robert Sheen
- Exclusive
‘Miracle she was alive’: Cosmetic clinic patient rushed to ICU recounts horror
A 42-year-old mother of three who was rushed to hospital after cosmetic surgery in November recounts her harrowing experience.
- Adele Ferguson
- Exclusive
TikTok celebrity cosmetic surgeon reprimanded by regulator
Dr Daniel Aronov has been banned by the national health regulator from performing all types of cosmetic surgery and ordered to remove his social media posts.
- Adele Ferguson and Lauren Day
- Opinion
‘Unimaginable things’: Whistleblowers lift lid on cosmetic surgery underbelly
Submissions made to a parliamentary inquiry into the health regulator make one thing clear, the cosmetic surgery sector has exploited weak regulation, hurting patients along the way.
- Adele Ferguson
- Exclusive
Celebrity cosmetic surgeon’s patient in ICU after major blood loss
A woman was found unconscious and rushed to hospital this week after receiving liposuction treatment and a tummy tuck from an associate of Dr Daniel Lanzer.
- Adele Ferguson and Lauren Day
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- 4 stories
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