Surgeon suspended after patients said he turned noses into 'potatoes'

A top plastic surgeon dubbed 'the nose maestro' in France was suspended after patients complained that he had turned their noses into 'potatoes', it was revealed on Friday. 

Olivier Gerbault, 58, who claims to have invented the 'ultrasonic' rhinoplasty technique, was adored by his patients and peers and was also respected on the international stage by other fellow surgeons. 

But in 2023, Gerbault was banned for two years from practicing after patients said they received cosmetic surgery that left them 'mutilated', according to an investigation by French outlet Le Parisien. 

It comes after a female patient, who received a nose job from Gerbault in August 2020 at his clinic in Paris, claimed she woke up from the procedure with a 'long, crooked, thick' nose that 'looked like a potato'. 

The patient also alleged she couldn't get any air through in her left nostril and was unable to blow her nose. 

The woman filed a complaint against Gerbault alongside another patient with the medical ethics committee, which resulted in the doctor receiving a two-year ban.

In the meantime, a string of other patients have filed legal complaints against the cosmetic surgeon. 

Another female patient said she 'lost all taste for life' after she was allegedly left with 'a big potato' in place of her nose, which became infected and resulted in her nostrils collapsing. 

Following a second operation by Gerbault, the woman ended up with 'a piece of cartilage sticking out', after her face was 'massacred' by the doctor, which resulted in her having to seek reconstructive surgery in Italy. 

Gerbault has appealed the ban, and has claimed he is the victim of a smear campaign by a rival plastic surgeon. 

According to the website Cosmetic Surgery Paris' biography for Gerbault, he is currently a 'professor of the International Society of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery and trains surgeons in current rhinoplasty techniques in Paris every month'. 

But Le Parisien has reported that Gerbault is alleged to have continued to operate illegally at a Paris clinic, with the French General Medical Council filing a complaint against the surgeon for having flouted the ban. 

The charge carries a maximum two-year prison term and the equivalent of a £24,000 fine. 

When quizzed by the French paper, Gerbault said he is being smeared, stating that 'these patients are all connected and the complaints are strictly the same. It's obvious that they are being helped by a colleague, which is particularly serious and unprofessional'. 

It comes after the surgeon was involved in a PR battle with rival surgeon Nicolas Lari. 

In March 2023, the Marseille criminal court found Gerbault guilty of 'attempted blackmail' against 43-year-old Lari. 

Gerbault was sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a 5,000 euro fine. 

His son Nicolas also received a one-year suspended sentence and a 8,000 euro fine after he and a co-director of a cosmetic surgery PR firm were found guilty of seeking to smear Lari with negative fictitious Google reviews. 

MailOnline has reached out to Gerbault for comment.