Mala McAlpin Celebrity cosmetic surgeon and founder of the Face Plus Medispa chain, Dr William Mooney, has now officially had his medical licence suspended.
Dr Mooney, an ENT and Oncology surgeon, advertises as a premiere rhinoplasty surgeon in Sydney and ‘Australia’s leading ENT specialising in facial cosmetic surgery’ and is also a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS).
The NSW Medical Council, under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act, can suspend or impose restrictions on a doctor’s registration while an investigation is being carried out by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC).
This comes after a string of incidents beginning earlier this year, including reports of two of Dr Mooney’s patients that had died shortly after receiving procedures, their cases being referred to the coroner, and Mooney, as a result, having conditions placed on his medical practitioner’s licence that subjected him to undergo random drug testing at any given time.
Mooney was also restricted from performing the following procedures to the nose and eye regions:
· external fronto-nasal ethmoidectomy
· radical fronto-ethmoidectomy
· intranasal operation on the frontal sinus or ethmoidal sinuses
· catheterisation of frontal sinus
· trephine of frontal sinus
· radical obliteration of frontal sinus
· external operation on the ethmoidal sinuses
· transorbital ligation of the ethmoidal artery or arteries
· removal of nasal polyp or polypi
In addition, he was also ordered to cease the possession, supply and administration of a prescribed list of drugs.
A Health Care Complaints Commission spokesperson confirmed during that time that it had received ‘a number of complaints’ regarding the cosmetic surgeon.
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Two other cases receiving a lot of media attention this year were that of Mooney’s Medicare investigations in March, in which his billing practices were under examination, and of stripper Melissa Demaj, who sued Mooney in April for a nose job that “ruined her life” after he consulted with her at her place of work.
Mooney had since been suspended from Strathfield Private Hospital, where he regularly performed ear nose and throat-related operations, following the death of Mr Pouladian; who died after receiving a routine sleep apnoea operation. He suffered a massive brain bleed two days after the procedure and was placed on life support before his family decided to switch it off on March 3 this year.
This occurred at the same time that reports were released regarding the death of Alex Taouil, who underwent sinus surgery by Dr Mooney in December 2017. The feared bikie associate was rushed to the Prince of Wales hospital early December and spent 13 days on life support before suffering the same fate.
Mooney said of the cases “each was a tragedy … neither was caused by a complication in my procedure.”
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (APHRA) lists Mooney’s suspension on their website, but has not disclosed the reason behind it, nor does the organisation comment on individual practitioners.
