A Los Angeles plastic surgeon who dubbed himself ‘Mr Laguna’ has been hit with a series of scathing accusations by patients who claim his work left them with scars and life-threatening infections – while some believe they were filmed naked while unconscious.
Dr. Arian Mowlavi promised hourglass figures and perfect ‘pop’ butts at his Laguna Beach plastic surgery clinic. He even described himself as ‘one of the top body sculptors around the world,’ in his book, High Definition Liposuction.
The UC Berkeley graduate, who has over 80,000 followers on Instagram, is facing a slew of accusations – from negligence to botched jobs – from dozens of patients, backed up by former staff who reported his concerning behavior in the practice.
Dozens of his former patients now allege, in a total of five malpractice lawsuits, that he was conducting botched surgeries, leaving them with unexpected scars and infections, and also recorded them while unconscious without their consent.
Mowlavi would allegedly make women strip completely nude for examinations, before touching their bodies without permission.
Dr. Arian Mowlavi promised hourglass figures and perfect ‘pop’ butts at his Laguna Beach plastic surgery clinic. Dozens of his former patients now allege, in a total of five malpractice lawsuits, that he was conducting botched surgeries, leaving them with unexpected scars and infections, and also recorded them while unconscious without their consent
In December 2021, more than 30 patients filed a class action lawsuit against Mowlavi – claiming that some were left with life-threatening infections and permanent altercations, some made without their consent.
One patient claims in a lawsuit that Mowlavi failed to remove her leaking breast plant capsules, leading her doctors to find silicone granulomas in her lymph node and lungs. The ordeal has left the woman with serious health problems.
Another patient alleged that Mowlavi came to her, moments before her ‘mommy makeover’ surgery, and told her that she needed a more extensive procedure.
The lawsuit claims that she was left ‘little to no time to consider her options or to question the change.’
A third woman found out that Mowlavi had removed more of her breast tissue, without discussing the procedure with her, when she ended up in the emergency room feeling sick one day after seeing Mowlavi, the suit claims.
One woman, identified in the class action lawsuit as B.C, claims she went to Mowlavi for a breast lift and a mini tummy tuck – but the doctor started talking about her labia, saying: ‘Doesn’t that bother you? We are just going to cut the lips and stitch it up.’
One 60-year-old woman, who had an appointment with the doctor in November 2020, told the Daily Beast that he pressured her to get more procedures done when all she wanted was lipo under her bra line.
She was left in excruciating pain after the procedure – and she collapsed days later. The woman was experiencing multi-system organ failure in her kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart.
Plastered all over his Instagram stories are his patients’ bodies – who are still lying on operation beds, with procedure scars, heads covered, and arms sprawled out while under anesthesia and unconscious
One woman claims she went to Mowlavi for a breast lift and a mini tummy tuck – but the doctor started talking about her labia, saying: ‘Doesn’t that bother you? We are just going to cut the lips and stitch it up’
Some victims, who make up the numerous lawsuits filed against the doctor, claim that they did not give consent to be filmed and posted
Another victim, who is identified in legal filings as C.S.J., suffered a collapsed lung and required hospitalization after her surgery with Mowlavi. One 16-year-old girl was left with severe burns – while three other women developed MRSA, the suit said.
Chalene Johnson, a social media influencer with more than 780,000 followers on Instagram, went to Mowlavi for surgery – and soon after, she started chronicling her ‘plastic surgery nightmare’ online. She is also part of the class action lawsuit.
She claimed that Mowlavi had made her to ‘get naked’ for examination and ‘aggressively’ grabbed her body without permission in 2021. She said she was left with a hip-to-hip scar.
As a result of her speaking out, Mowlavi sued Johnson for defamation, seeking $1million. He accused her of having a ‘goal of destroying Dr. Mowlavi’s career.’
The lawsuit said: ‘Johnson has become ‘obsessed’ with Dr. Mowlavi’s practice of medicine and with utilizing a false, sensationalized version of events—which she exaggerates and progressively changes with contradiction, apparently to keep creating new social content for her public platform and podcast.’
California Medical Board has accused the doctor, who charges tens of thousands of dollars for procedures, of not even performing some of them himself. They claim Mowlavi had unlicensed technicians do some liposuctions for him.
Court documents claim that two unlicensed technicians performed liposuction on a patient, Irlanda Swarthout, in 2018. She passed out five hours after the procedure, and was later found unresponsive at her Orange County home.
She was rushed to the emergency room, and died two days later. According to the board, her cause of death was internal bleeding that caused her heart to stop, cutting off oxygen to her brain.
Swarthout’s family sued in 2019, saying that he ‘negligently, carelessly, recklessly’ performed the liposuction on her. Two years later, the board also sued.
Irlanda Swarthout was identified and named in court records but not in the medical board’s documents, LA Times reports.
Mowlavi responded by claiming that the woman died because she didn’t ‘exercise due care’ after the surgery. He settled with the family, paying them $1million.
California Medical Board has accused the doctor, who charges tens of thousands of dollars for procedures, of not even performing some of them himself. They claim Mowlavi had unlicensed technicians do some liposuctions for him
In December 2021, more than 30 patients filed another class action lawsuit against Mowlavi – claiming that some were left with life-threatening infections and permanent altercations made without their consent
In the class action suit, one woman identified as K.M said that neither Mowlavi nor his staff ever told her about being photographed or filmed. But she found her before and after-surgery body plastered over his social media afterward.
Mowlavi recorded her, saying ‘this woman had no magic, no pop, had a square masculine shape,’ before showing her transformation. She said she did not consent to being filmed, ‘much less be insulted,’ the suit claims.
Plastered all over his Instagram stories are his patients’ bodies – who are still lying on operation beds, with procedure scars, heads covered, and arms sprawled out while under anesthesia and unconscious.
The allegations have not just come from patients. A series of sworn declarations submitted to court by his former staff and other medical professionals have painted a picture of ‘Dr Laguna’ as severely inept and negligent.
One sales representative who used to work for the doctor said she saw Mowlavi call a patient ‘so hot,’ and then slap her butt twice while she was under anesthesia.
A registered nurse who worked briefly at Mowlavi’s clinic said in court documents that he saw Mowlavi ‘rip out [a patient’s breathing] tube and throw it across the room’ during surgery because he was frustrated with the patient.
‘I was extremely disturbed by Dr. Mowlavi’s behavior’ and yelled at him.
Court documents claim that two unlicensed technicians performed liposuction on Irlanda Swarthout (pictured) in 2018. She passed out five hours after the procedure, and was later found unresponsive at her Orange County home. She was rushed to the emergency room, and died two days later
Chalene Johnson, a social media influencer with more than 780,000 followers on Instagram, went to Mowlavi for surgery – but soon after, she started chronicling her ‘plastic surgery nightmare’
Jason Vance, a registered nurse, said he saw the doctor rip out a patient’s breathing tube and throw it across the room mid surgery. Vance said: ‘At any other institution, this would be grounds for immediate termination.’
Another former employee claimed they heard Mowlavi make inappropriate comments about patients, including when the doctor said he would ‘do some crazy things to those lips,’ as the patient was lying on the operating table.
Harmony Williams, who worked as a surgical coordinator for Mowlavi in 2018, told the Daily Beast: ‘At first, I thought maybe this was how plastic surgery was. But it didn’t take me very long to figure out, no, this doesn’t feel right. This isn’t right. This is not normal.
‘I actually nicknamed it the chop shop, because I was trying to deal with working there. I can’t stay in this chop shop. I have to go.’
Millie Martini, a patient of Mowlavi who has filed her own lawsuit, told the Daily Beast: ‘I’m disgusted and sad that this monster is still out there and still butchering people.
The allegations have not just come from patients. A series of sworn declarations submitted to court by his former staff and other medical professionals have painted a picture of ‘Dr Laguna’ as severely inept and negligent
‘I’m mad that the state allows him to continue to destroy lives physically, mentally, and financially. Arian Mowlavi, just turn yourself in and face your victims.’
Martini went to the doctor in July 2022, wanting a mommy makeover – which includes a tummy tuck and breast augmentation. As she was lying on the operating bed, she said that Mowlavi demanded heavy metal music be played, the outlet said.
When she was eventually roused from the surgery, she found herself slumped in a wheelchair – rather than in a hosptial bed. She was covered in bandages, but Mowlavi told her there had been complications during the procedure.
She found her nipples were black and oozing. Martini told the outlet: ‘I freaked the hell out about my nipples. They were not even attached, they were half off.’
Martini went back days later for a post-op appointment. Instead, the plastic surgeon whisked her under again, and when she finished the second unplanned procedure, she had no nipples at all, she claims.
She said: ‘I looked down, and there was blood coming out of my ACE bandage on my chest. When I went home, I took off the ACE bandage, and I saw that I had no nipples.’
Dr. Robert Kachenmeister is the chief plastic surgeon at Mission Hospital who has seen several of Mowlavi’s patients after he saw them
Martini then went to hospital, where she was told that she would have died if she hadn’t come sooner. She was suffering with acute sepsis, left leg cellulitis, and acute blood loss anemia, the Daily Beast reports.
In September 2022, the California Medical Board suspended Mowlavi’s license for 90 days and placed him on probation for 10 years following a list of formal accusations made against him, including gross negligence.
With the mounting lawsuits heading his way, in February 2022, Mowlavi filed for bankruptcy.
But his troubles didn’t end there. In June, the Orange County district attorney’s office filed its own suit against Mowlavi – seeking millions in damages.
The DA also alleged that Mowlavi transferred $13 million in assets and property to his wife before filing for bankruptcy. This is on top of accusing him of unlawful and unfair business practices, false advertising and allowing an unlicensed technician to perform surgeries.
Despite all the allegations, Mowlavi is still actively courting new patients. He is not required to disclose his legal challenges to potential new clients.
Dr. Robert Kachenmeister, who is the chief plastic surgeon at Mission Hospital who has seen several of Mowlavi’s patients after he saw them, said in a declaration submitted to court: ‘Dr. Mowlavi is a danger to the community and his plastic surgery patients.
‘The frequency of complications and poor results by Dr. Mowlavi’s procedures are unacceptable and not within the standard of care.
‘My understanding based on my own conversations with the patients is that they were being pressured and persuaded by Dr. Mowlavi to perform these procedures even though they were not in the patient’s best interests.’
Dr. Arian Mowlavi’s office did not respond for comment.