How much did it cost a Coral Gables doctor to ghost a woman with post-liposuction issues?
Not responding to a liposuction patient having post-surgery problems will cost a Coral Gables doctor $9,454 after Monday’s final order from the state Board of Medicine.
For Dr. Algird Mameniskis, that’s $5,000 for acting “below the professional standard of care” with the patient and $4,454 to reimburse the Florida Department of Health’s costs in investigating the case. The settlement agreement approved by the board also requires Mameniskis take a three-hour continuing medical education courses in follow-up care and medical record keeping and a five-hour course in risk management.
Mameniskis’ online department license profile says this is the first discipline case against the license he’s held since August 2018.
Officially, Mameniskis neither admits nor denies what’s stated in the Florida Department of Health’s administrative complaint, which says the American Board of Plastic Surgery certified doctor was working out of Avana Plastic Surgery, 8700 W. Flagler, on Feb. 26, 2021. A patient came in for liposuction with a fat transfer. Mameniskis did the procedure, then saw her in a follow-up appointment the next day.
But, the complaint says, when she returned to Avana for post-op massage treatments on March 2 and 4, 2021, neither Mameniskis nor the nurse practitioner were available to answer her questions about the swelling and fatigue she experienced. She returned to her California home on March 5.
“From March 5 to April 1, 2021, [the patient] made numerous attempts to contact [Mameniskis] to discuss her post-operative swelling and fatigue,” the complaint said.
But the Feb. 27 day-after follow-up was his last direct contact with her. To meet the “prevailing standard of care,” the complaint said, required Mameniskis to “assess the patient’s post-operative concerns and discuss them with the patient.”
