Plastic surgeon’s latest suspension leaves Manitoba woman angry, frustrated

A Manitoba woman who faced her own plastic surgery nightmare is speaking out after the plastic surgeon, who had already faced numerous disciplinary actions during his career, was again suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.

“Everyone makes mistakes and we learn from them, but he doesn't learn from them,” Melanie Drain said. “He just keeps going back to what he was doing before.

“He just keeps doing it and getting away with it, and how many people can you hurt before something worse happens?”

Winnipeg plastic surgeon Dr. Manfred Ziesmann was suspended Oct. 15, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba assistant registrar of complaints and investigations, Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, confirmed in an email Monday.

“The decision was made in the interest of protecting the public pending ongoing litigation,” Poliquin said.

This is not the first time Zismann, a licensed plastic surgeon since 1987, has faced disciplinary action during his career.

During a disciplinary hearing at the March College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, he pleaded guilty to professional misconduct in the care of three patients who had post-operative complications between 2012 and 2023, and was suspended from practicing medicine for six weeks and ordered to pay more than $34,000 in legal fees.

Before the latest suspension, Zismann was already training under several conditions, but Poliquin said the suspension supersedes them.

Drain, who lives in Stony Mountain, north of Winnipeg, filed a lawsuit against Zysmann and a complaint to the college in 2016 after a 2010 incident in which the end of a drainage tube remained inside her breast for more than six years.

She says the equipment broke when Ziesmann pulled on the tube a few days after he performed breast reduction surgery on her.

“He yanked it really hard and it made a popping sound and the end broke,” Drain said.

When she asked Zisman if the tube in her chest had broken, she replied, “Well, maybe.”

“He just brushed it off,” Drain said.

She says the tube was finally discovered when she had a CT scan in 2016 after she started noticing a painful lump on her breast.

In 2017, the college reprimanded Ziesmann for the incident and ordered her to take a record-keeping course, with the college determining that he did not include enough information in her medical record.

Drain said she found the decision insulting at the time after what she had been through.

That same year, she also filed a lawsuit against Zisman, which she ultimately won in 2023, after a judge concluded that he had violated the standards of care expected of a bona fide physician and “attempted to downplay the possibility that the drain had broken and did not himself offer further action to confirm whether the drain had broken, although he likely believed it had.”

Drain said she is angry that Zysmann is still allowed to practice after years of complaints and suspensions, and she is asking the college to take complaints against him more seriously.

“It's very disappointing to see him back in the news doing the same thing and not learning anything from the suspensions,” she said. “He's been doing it since the '80s. How can you go to work and not do your job properly?”

In pleading guilty at a March hearing, Ziesmann admitted that on all three occasions he demonstrated “a lack of knowledge, skill and judgment in the practice of medicine.” written decision dated May 25.

He was then allowed to resume training, but under “prolonged conditions” to maintain professional standards and public safety, the decision said. These conditions included that he could not perform any surgery without the presence of a qualified second surgeon who had approved his surgical plan.

The panel's March decision also said it was informed of six previous complaints in which he was “criticized and/or provided advice or reminders regarding obtaining informed consent from patients, his vigilance in subsequent treatment, and the accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation.”

Poliquin said the suspension announced this week was made under the Regulated Health Professions Act, which states that the chair of the inquiry committee “may direct the registrar to suspend or impose conditions on the registration or certificate of practice of a member under investigation, pending the outcome of the proceedings, if they consider this necessary to protect the public from a serious risk.”

He added that the suspension was not the result of a decision of the inquiry committee and therefore there was no clearance order or public document explaining the reasons for the suspension and the suspension was not listed on the college's website.

Poliquin said he could not comment further on the suspension.

CBC reached out to Zysmann for comment but did not receive a response.