Olivier Gerbault has appealed against his two-year ban, saying he is the victim of a smear campaign by a rival surgeon
A French plastic surgeon was suspended from the medical register after patients complained he turned their noses into “potatoes”, it emerged on Friday.
Olivier Gerbault, dubbed “the nose maestro” by French media, will serve a two-year ban following a court conviction in November 2023 over cosmetic surgery that his patients say left them “mutilated”.
The 58 year-old has appealed and says he is the victim of a smear campaign by a rival surgeon.
Despite the ban, the French General Medical Council has filed a legal complaint for “illegal medical practice” over allegations he has flouted the decision and continues to practise, according to Le Parisien.
The charge carries a maximum two-year prison term and €30,000 (£24,000) fine.
In August 2020, Elisa, not her real name, decided to treat herself to “rhinoplasty” to straighten her “hooked” nose at Dr Gerbault’s clinic in Vincennes, east of Paris.
A regular at international cosmetic surgery conferences, the doctor was as renowned for his flamboyant fat ties as his claim to having “invented ultrasonic rhinoplasty”.
But Elisa said that she was shocked after waking up from her operation.
‘My left nostril was collapsing’
“My nose was long, crooked, thick and looked like a potato,” she told Le Parisien. “My left nostril was collapsing and I couldn’t get any air through.”
The doctor hailed the procedure a success but Elisa cried in front of the mirror. “When I drank water, my nose touched the glass. I couldn’t blow my nose, so I had to use cotton buds,” she explained.
Along with another patient, she filed a complaint with the medical ethics committee, and in November 2023 Dr Gerbault was handed a two-year disqualification from practising, a decision he appealed against.
It took Elisa two more operations and a €20,000 loan extension before she finally felt satisfied with the result. She is still repaying the sum. Her Facebook group on Dr Gerbault’s alleged failings now has 258 members.
A string of other patients have filed legal complaints including Chloé, not her real name.
Following the intervention in 2020, she said no longer recognised her face, producing “before and after” photos to demonstrate her point.
‘I lost all taste for life’
“I had a lump [in place of my nose], a big potato,” she said. Little by little, her nose became infected and necrotic, and her nostrils collapsed.
“From then on, I lost all taste for life,” she was reported as saying. Chloé lost her job and was diagnosed with depression.
She said Dr Gerbault operated on her again but her woes continued.
“I had a strange white button on my nose. In fact, it was a piece of cartilage sticking out. He massacred me,” she told Le Parisien.
After consulting various plastic surgeons in France who declined to operate because of the risks, she finally had reconstructive surgery in Italy.
Another alleged victim, named Alix, said she was horrified to discover that Dr Gerbault had fitted her with a chin prosthesis despite her telling her she didn’t want one.
‘The doctor must have used a trowel’
“I woke up with a Bogdanoff chin and an asymmetric nose,” she said, referring to the late Bogdanoff twins, two high-profile French science TV presenters famed for their penchant for serial plastic surgery.
“I feel like I’ve been mutilated,” said Alix, who said she has been in pain ever since. “When I woke up, I was vomiting litres of blood. The doctor must have used a trowel.
“Since then, I’ve had a horrible burning sensation, air rushes in too strong and gets on my nerves. Gerbault has ruined my life,” she is cited as saying.
Despite his ban, the doctor has received authorisation from the Hauts-de-Seine département, west of Paris, to continue his practice. The French General Medical Council said it had “appealed” against the decision.
Dr Gerbault told the newspaper that he has received a “provisional authorisation to practise” but has “ceased all surgical activity” since the start of the year.
Quizzed on the serious complications several patients alleged he caused, Dr Gerbault said he was the victim of a cabal by an unnamed rival to torpedo his career.
“These patients are all connected and the complaints are strictly the same, sometimes down to the last word. It’s obvious that they are being helped by a colleague, which is particularly serious and unprofessional,” he is cited as saying.
In addition, Dr Gerbault has been engaged in a PR war with a Marseille-based rival surgeon called Nicolas Lari.
In March 2023, the Marseille criminal court found Dr Gerbault guilty of “attempted blackmail with execution of the threat” against Dr Lari, 43, and sentenced him to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a €5,000 fine.
Dr Gerbault’s son, Nicolas, received a one-year suspended sentence and a €8,000 fine. Both have appealed.
In September 2022, Nicolas Gerbault and his co-director of a cosmetic surgery PR agency were found guilty of seeking to smear Dr Lari with negative reviews by fictitious patients on Google My Business, causing his rating to plummet.
Mr Gerbault and his co-director were fined an initial €486,000. Dr Gerbault, his son, and the PR agency’s co-director were then also fined another €114,500 and made to pay €7,000 in damages and €7,000 in costs incurred by Dr Lari.
They have appealed against the ruling.
