If you’re on TikTok like most people are nowadays, you may have stumbled onto Dr. Roxy’s videos before. She exists on the medical side of TikTok, and if you haven’t already guessed, she’s a doctor — or was a doctor. Her license to practice medicine was revoked back in November last year, and although she appealed the decision, the Ohio Medical Board has now decided to uphold the decision.
Dr. Roxy, real name Katherine Roxanne Grawe, gained popularity on TikTok due to her videos focusing on her job as a doctor. Some videos were aimed at educating viewers about health, and others showed a lighter side with some examples showing her dancing in her scrubs. However, the dopamine TikTok can provide for content creators can lead to people doing foolish things.
She had built up a following of nearly 850,000 followers and over 14 million likes on her account, and patients would frequently come to her after seeing her TikToks. On top of this, she also frequently live-streamed her surgeries on patients, which may be one of the main reasons the medical board came for her.
But what caused this?
Well, as you can guess, there’s a limit to how much doctors can legally show publicly. For example, filming a patient, even with consent, is a pretty gray area. Grawe claimed that she did always ask for permission when making these videos and livestreams when her license was initially revoked last year. However, the board insisted that it was unprofessional according to The Columbus Dispatch. The attorney for the state’s case argued that the doctor was not taking her role seriously.
“This case isn’t about some antiquated view of social media … These patients trusted Dr. Roxy because of what they saw on social media. She made major surgeries with potentially life-altering complications seem like one big party.”
While Grawe agreed that the videos seemed unprofessional (she’s since taken all the videos on her account down), she argued that the punishment was too severe considering the offense. She also claimed that her husband had left her, and her children had been bullied due to the controversy surrounding her. However, she did receive two warnings a couple of months prior to having her license taken away, which she elected to ignore.
On top of this, her unprofessional conduct may have actually resulted in numerous botched surgeries. Three patients were cited by the board who had reported complications after surgery conducted by Grawe. One patient was found to have a perforated bowel after visiting the TikTok doctor for a liposuction procedure. Part of this surgery was livestreamed by the doctor. Another patient experienced an infection in her abdomen, which will likely cause complications for the rest of her life.
It seems Grawe’s videos are indicative of her tendency to prioritize her online persona over her patient’s safety. When it came time to consider her appeal this month, the medical board did not hold back as they decided to uphold the decision to revoke her license — as well as fine her $4,500.