Patients out thousands in deposits to Ontario plastic surgeon who they say disappeared
CBC
Pina Vitale waited 15 years to get a tummy tuck — a surgery to tighten up her abdomen. She had been wanting to get the procedure after the birth of her child and spent the last few years preparing for it: getting healthy, quitting smoking and losing weight.
After Vitale spent two months researching plastic surgeons, she settled in July on Dr. Mahmood Kara, who also goes by Mahmud Kara of Dr. Kara Plastic Surgery. His website says he has more than 27 years of experience doing cosmetic surgery, the reviews were positive and his staff made her feel comfortable over the phone.
"It was set and I was very excited," she said. "It's not for everybody else in the world, it's for me. It was to make me feel better."
Vitale paid a 50 per cent deposit of $6,500. In the weeks leading up to her Oct. 4 appointment to meet Kara at his location in the Scarborough Centenary Hospital, however, she couldn't reach anyone at the clinic. Neither could CBC News.
Vitale is one of a dozen patients CBC News has spoken with who say Kara has taken thousands of dollars of their money and disappeared. Many other patients have commented on his company's social media pages with similar stories. Several say they filed complaints with York Regional Police and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
"No one's answering my calls. My emails are being sent back … phones have been disconnected. So I'm like, 'What's going on?'" she old CBC News during an interview at her home in Nobleton, Ont. "It's so disappointing …. [I worked] so hard to get here."
Kara operates four private clinics across Ontario in Toronto, Scarborough, Vaughan and Whitby and has two satellite locations in Guelph and Burlington, according to his company's website.
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