Fresno plastic surgeon, facility face lawsuits over allegations of botched procedures
A plastic surgery center in Fresno that promotes its doctors as artists in body sculpting has been sued at least 10 times in the past four years over allegations that patients were left permanently scarred, in pain and disfigured.
Athenix Body Sculpting Institute at Herndon and Maple avenues in northeast Fresno has its share of positive reviews on social media. But there are also troubling accusations of medical malpractice, negligence and sexual harassment.
At the center of several of the malpractice lawsuits filed in Fresno County is Dr. Kevin Ciresi, an Athenix surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery.
Ciresi and Athenix did not respond to requests from The Fresno Bee to comment on the suits and allegations.
Ciresi, who is on probation, is currently allowed to practice medicine, according to the medical board.
Since 2009, according to Athenix’s web page, Ciresi has performed plastic, reconstructive and vascular surgery at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield. Before that he was in private practice in San Ramon. He has served as assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as chief of surgery and chief of staff at the San Ramon Regional Medical Center.
Court records, however, show another side of the 63-year-old plastic surgeon. From 2004 through 2018, Ciresi has been arrested for driving drunk five times in various California cities, ranging from communities in the Bay Area to Orange County.
In all of those cases, police found his blood alcohol concentration to be more than double the legal limit to drive of .08, according to records from the Medical Board of California.
Patient suits
Ciresi has been named in at least nine lawsuits from former patients. One malpractice lawsuit was filed by the family of a Selma woman who stopped breathing during a face and neck lift in October 2016.
Once the patient’s heart stopped, Ciresi tried for seven minutes to revive her but was unsuccessful. Paramedics were called and she was stabilized and transported to a local hospital, the lawsuit states.
The woman underwent intensive medical care and rehabilitation for a brain injury because of the loss of oxygen to her brain. The case was settled two years later with the victim and her family receiving $3.9 million, court records show.
One of the more recent cases against Ciresi was filed on Aug. 6 by Shelby Lowery of Modesto.
Lowery, who had her first child at 17 and breast fed for several years, wanted a breast augmentation. She told The Bee her body wasn’t the same as it was before children and she wanted to change it.
But Lowery said her breast augmentation didn’t go as planned. She alleged that Ciresi gave her the wrong sized implants — much bigger than what she wanted. After the surgery her breasts were misshapen and she was in severe pain.
She allegedly complained to Ciresi, who agreed to redo the procedure after six months. But the results were even worse after that procedure, she said. She developed an infection and was left with significant scarring. Her implants also seemed to shift to her sides when she laid on her back.
She filed a complaint with the medical board and a civil lawsuit against Athenix and Ciresi.
Lowery said she will likely have to undergo another surgery to fix the problem. She cried when she talked about what she has gone through. “I just wanted my body to be normal,” she said through tears. “And now I can’t even pick up my kid without feeling pain.”
Record of discipline
In court documents, Ciresi has denied wrongdoing. When reached at his Athenix office in Fresno, he declined to comment on the lawsuits, other than to say, “I will have to call you back.” He never did.
Officials with the Medical Board of California are familiar with Ciresi, having disciplined him several times since 2002 for various violations, including driving drunk, incompetence and disobeying the board’s orders.
In October 2015, the board suspended his physician’s and surgeon’s certificate, but still allowed him to practice under strict conditions. Those conditions included: no taking drugs or drinking alcohol and agreeing to drug and alcohol testing.
Under the conditions there must also be a workplace monitor to ensure his compliance.
Ciresi failed to comply with some of those conditions, according to the board. And in November 2016, the board revoked his physician and surgeon’s certificate. That revocation was put on hold and Ciresi was placed on seven years probation. As part of his punishment, he agreed to: no drugs or alcohol, drug testing, a workplace monitor, attend substance abuse support meetings, enroll in an ethics course, and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
During that same period, Ciresi was sued by a former staff member who was selected to be his workplace monitor. The former staff member alleged Ciresi was acting inappropriately toward her and the female staff members.
“Ciresi made comments to female coworkers that ‘I would pay to see your boobs,’” the lawsuit states. “Ciresi has a pattern and practice of approaching female employees from behind and giving them reverse hugs, in order to make contact with and squeeze their breasts.”
In May 2016, Ciresi approached the former workplace monitor at the nurse’s station and said, “You don’t know how bad I want to pull the top of your dress down right now,” the lawsuit states.
The case was later settled and the plaintiff’s attorney, Larry M. Kazanjian of Sacramento, declined to comment.
Ciresi, meanwhile, tested positive for alcohol during a routine drug test on Jan. 30, 2019. And by Feb. 19, 2019 the medical board issued a cease practice order forbidding Ciresi from practicing medicine until he completed a clinical diagnostic evaluation and provide 30 days worth of drug and alcohol free biological fluid tests.
He met those requirements on March 20, 2019 and was allowed to continue practicing medicine with restrictions.
But Ciresi violated the conditions once more and was placed back on probation for seven more years, starting on July 25 2019. He will remain on probation until June 2026.
Medical Board spokesman Carlos Villatoro said the board had the choice of revoking Ciresi’s medical certificate but chose to place him on probation with conditions and restrictions.
“Every decision is tailored around the facts of the case while also providing adequate consumer protections,” he said.
Other suits
Kelly Coulter of Visalia, who is also suing Athenix Body Sculpting Institute and a doctor from Southern California, says she didn’t want Ciresi to be her doctor after looking him up on the Medical Board of California’s website and seeing the disciplinary action taken against him.
She went to Athenix in July 2018 for a “micro conturing” procedure for a flatter stomach. Since she didn’t want Ciresi, the center sent up a doctor from Newport to do the surgery.
Ciresi is not a defendant in Coulter’s lawsuit.
Almost immediately after the surgery, she could see severe external burns on her abdomen area and left hip area. The areas became blackened and had open and oozing wounds, according to her lawsuit.
She had to have a drain put into her abdomen because of the fluid buildup.
Although Coulter didn’t want Ciresi performing the procedure, he did handle her followup care.
“About a week later I went in to see Dr. Ciresi and he didn’t seem concerned at all,” Coulter said. “He just kept saying it would heal eventually.”
Coulter said she has a scar on her abdomen the size of an iPhone and she still has numbness in her stomach area. She also has about a 12-inch scar inside her body from her rib cage to her hip that limits her range of movement.
“I feel like this was the worst choice of my life,” she said. “I put a lot of trust in the doctors and they let me down. Of course, I totally felt it was my fault this happened, but then I realized that this was not an accident, this was negligence. And there should be consequences.”
Coulter’s lawyer Monrae English said it’s not unusual for clients of plastic surgeons to feel some guilt about filing a complaint against their doctor.
“At first they are nervous and excited with the promise of looking a little better, more youthful,” English said “And when the procedure does not go well, they blame themselves. But Kelly is a sweet person and what happened to her was not right.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 8:07 AM.
