'Dancing doctor' objects to emergency license suspension

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Dr. Windell Davis-Boutte, the "Dancing Doctor" whose medical license was suspended this month, filed an objection to the emergency suspension in court on Thursday, seeking restoration of her ability to practice medicine.

In two filings in Fulton County Superior Court, Davis-Boutte seeks a court review and temporary restraining order that would allow her to return to practice. The doctor argues that the Georgia Composite Medical Board did not have an adequate basis to take the emergency action and it did so without providing her the opportunity to defend herself in a hearing.

The board took the “emergency” action, the filing says, even though it had been aware of malpractice cases against her for as long as two years. “There was no urgency” as required by the law in taking an emergency action, the doctor asserted.

The doctor claims the board’s action has “irrevocably and improperly harmed” her medical license and livelihood.

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Her attorney didn’t immediately respond to an AJC request for comment.

Davis-Boutte's in-office cosmetic surgery practice was the subject of news reports in May by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News. The reports found that the doctor had faced numerous malpractice actions, including the case of Icilma Cornelius, who went to Davis-Boutte for a cosmetic surgery just weeks before her wedding but ended up with devastating, permanent brain damage as a result of the procedure. Unlike some other states, Georgia allows doctors to perform in-office surgeries with few requirements and little oversight, the AJC found.

In its emergency suspension order issued on June 7, the medical board cited the case of a patient who ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung and acute blood loss the day after after undergoing liposuction, breast augmentation and a Brazilian Butt Lift by Davis-Boutte on May 30. The board also cited the doctor’s care of six other patients, going back as far as 2014, where it said her treatment failed to meet minimal medical standards.

Davis-Boutte’s medical board profile lists four malpractice settlements in 2017 and 2018, including three settlements of between $900,000 and $1 million. The AJC and Channel 2 Action News also revealed videos the doctor had made and posted online showing her dancing to music while making incisions or preparing to operate with patients’ nude backsides exposed. Her case has attracted national attention and led to her being dubbed the “Dancing Doctor.”

Attorney Susan Witt, who filed the malpractice case over Davis-Boutte’s treatment of the patient who ended up with brain damage, said she has received more than 100 calls from other patients who said they’d suffered problems as a result of cosmetic surgeries from Davis-Boutte.

Cox Media Group