A series of once-viral videos about a patient’s poor nose job experience have been abruptly deleted.
They claimed a Beverly Hills board-certified plastic surgeon deletes reviews and sues patients.
The videos, posted to TikTok in late February by New York City socialite “EvaFourEvah,” concerned a rhinoplasty surgery she says was done by Dr. Donald B Yoo.
The former patient said she did her research prior to surgery, but was dissatisfied with aspects of her results and the way that some of her postoperative concerns were addressed.
Additional research after her surgery led her to believe the surgeon deletes reviews, she shared, adding at least once that he “sues patients.”
It’s unknown whether the deletion of the videos supports the patient’s initial claims, or if it highlights the need for patients to be more cautious in how they go about publicly airing their experiences with—and allegations about—elective medical providers.
Lawyers representing the doctor quickly responded to a request for comment from Surgical Times when the videos were posted in February but did not respond to a phone call and four emails inquiring about their recent removal, sent one week ago.
Asked about the deletion of the videos, the former patient told Surgical Times she “can’t comment.”
Elsewhere, she said lawyers were involved.
Shortly after posting the videos, the former patient told Surgical Times that Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, and Page Six had all reached out about the incident.
Her lawyers advised her then not to be interviewed, as they were planning legal action.
From late February through early March, some viewers expressed similar concerns about, or poor experiences of their own allegedly with, the same doctor, according to comments quoted by Evie Magazine.
Now, three months later, the patient’s videos and an estimated few hundred comments on them have been purged from the social media platforms they appeared on in February.
Google search results suggest they were likely deleted as recently as a few days ago.
At least one of the video’s thumbnails still appeared online, Monday, but it linked to a notice that the video was no longer available.
The former patient’s comments on another creator’s video survived the scrub.
“Listen Susan… he deletes reviews and sues patients. I did my research and trust me these other girls are 3 years out from him and have the same nose,” @EvaFourEvah commented, February 15th, on an ill-received duet by Naturium founder and “beauty and lifestyle expert” Susan Yara.
@susanyara #stitch with @evahfourevah Nosejob and plastic surgery lessons part 1! Shoutout to @dhirplasticsurgery who did my #rhinoplasty ♬ original sound – Susan Yara
Dr. Donald Yoo is a well-known public personality and board-certified plastic surgeon with a combined 329,000 followers across multiple social media accounts.
Known for the “Yoonose,” the surgeon’s practice is rated an overall average of 4.5 stars on RealSelf.com, 3.5 stars on Google, and 4.5 stars on Yelp according to existing reviews.
These averages may have been adversely affected in the aftermath of the now-removed videos.
At the height of the videos’ reach, viewers posted reviews on Yelp in a manner that caused the platform to lock the doctor’s profile on suspicion of unusual activity.
This algorithmic activity isn’t typically a sign of interference by the concerned business, but occurs when providers garner rapid widespread attention, prompting people to share events that might not be current or personal experiences.
Yelp briefly locked the profiles of two plastic surgeons last year, after a viral video and podcast prompted a flood of one-star ratings within a few hours.
“I feel bad for her since she’s not happy, but asking people to give him 1 star reviews isn’t cool either,” Dr. Prem Tripathi, a plastic surgeon, wrote in response to Yara’s video.
“Yeah… There were lots of comments from people saying they love their results from him too,” Yara replied.