It's common practice for plastic surgeons to post nude before-and-after photos of their patients on their websites. Attaching the patients' names to the images? That's a huge no-no. It's also why a group of 7 former patients has filed a lawsuit against Michele Koo, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon from St. Louis, Mo.

The women say these photos, which have since been taken down, were posted without their consent or knowledge. The inclusion of the names was an accident, says Dr. Koo.

The photos appeared in Google Images upon searching the women's names, or if Dr. Koo's name was searched, according to Neil Bruntrager, the attorney representing all of the women in the case. If a viewer hovered the cursor over an image, the woman's name would appear below the photo, says Mr. Bruntrager.

The first patient who came to Mr. Bruntrager discovered the photos while traveling on business. The woman works for a large national company, and she claims to have noticed an IT person "acting strangely toward her" during a business visit, according to Mr. Bruntrager.

She was eventually asked if she had recently run her "very unusual" name in Google Images, says Mr. Bruntrager. When she subsequently searched her name, she found photos of her breast augmentation online, with her name included with the images. According to Mr. Bruntrager, she had agreed that her photo could be used for Dr. Koo's website, but only on the condition that her name would not be used.

The lawsuit charges Dr. Koo with invasion of privacy, including counts of unreasonable publicity, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful commercial appropriation and exploitation of the plaintiffs' images and medical information.

"All of the actions of defendant, Dr. Koo, were careless and reckless and performed in complete disregard of the law and the rights of the plaintiff," wrote Mr. Bruntrager in the suit.

According to Dr. Koo, the patients gave permission for unidentifiable before and after photos to be posted on her website, and that the inclusion of the patients' names was unintentional, and happened as a result of a technical issue.

"I am very sorry that this internet problem occurred," Dr. Koo wrote in a statement. "I have apologized personally to the patients involved. I sincerely regret that the protective mechanisms supposedly set up by the web host failed and allowed this problem to occur."

According to Mr. Bruntrager, as many as 30 of Dr. Koo's female patients' names could also be found along with similar photos, but only 7 have taken legal action.

Mark McGraw

Photo courtesy of azfamily.com.