Plastic surgeon's 6-week suspension for professional misconduct 'slap on the wrist': former patient

A Manitoba woman who was injured by a plastic surgeon more than a decade ago is worried after the doctor was temporarily suspended for medical errors — and she wants the disciplinary system to change to protect others.

For six years, Melanie Drain lived with the end of a drainage tube inside her breast. She says the piece of equipment broke off when her plastic surgeon, Dr. Manfred Ziesmann, yanked the tube days after he performed a breast reduction surgery on her in 2010.

Drain, who lives in Stony Mountain, Man., complained to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. In 2017, Ziesmann was reprimanded and ordered to take a record-keeping course, with the college determining he had failed to include enough information in her medical record, she said. 

At the time, she felt the decision didn't go far enough and feared more patients would be injured.

When Ziesmann, who has been licensed as a plastic surgeon since 1987, was disciplined earlier this year for professional misconduct in connection with three other patients he treated after her, Drain felt her fears were confirmed. 

"If the College of Physicians and Surgeons had done something more in 2017, this might have saved other people from going through any type of physical harm [like] I had from him," she told CBC News. 

During a March disciplinary hearing, Ziesmann admitted to displaying "a lack of knowledge, skill and judgment in the practice of medicine" in all three cases, involving surgical procedures for three patients from 2012 to 2023.

Under a joint recommendation with the college, he was given a six-week suspension, which began on March 24. He was also ordered to pay the college more than $34,000 in costs.

That suspension is a "slap on the wrist" considering the number of complaints involving Ziesmann, which go back decades, said Drain. 

Drain appealed the college's decision in her case in 2019, but the regulatory body dismissed it. In a letter shared with CBC, the college said there were no errors in the investigation. 

The appeal panel also found the doctor didn't show unethical behaviour or professional misconduct in her case, and the breakage of the tube is a known surgical complication. Ziesmann's participation in the record-keeping course offered reassurance to the panel, the letter said.

However, the college's latest decision says he admitted to not adhering to the standard of documentation set out by the college.

One of Ziesmann's patients signed a consent indicating a larger breast implant would be inserted in her right breast, and a  smaller implant in the left — even though the right breast, which already had an implant, was larger than the left.

However, the decision said there was no discussion about implant size in his chart notes for meetings with the patient in 2021 and 2022. During the surgery, Ziesmann inserted the larger implant into the left breast and the smaller implant into the right breast, "contrary to the consent form," according to the decision.