Dr. Arian Mowlavi calls himself Dr. Laguna after Laguna Beach, the ritzy seaside town where his office is located.
A California surgeon who calls himself Dr. Laguna in videos he posts about himself on YouTube, but these former patients are among those who say he botched their surgeries.
The women are now suing the doctor, claiming that among other things he let unlicensed members of his staff perform procedures.
Dr. Arian Mowlavi calls himself Dr. Laguna after Laguna Beach, the ritzy seaside town where his office is located.
He has become a bit of a local celebrity, and after being recommended to her by friends, fitness guru Charlene Johnson tells Inside Edition that she chose Dr.Laguna to perform her plastic surgery, which involved a breast reduction surgery and the removal of her C-section scar.
Lisa Guerrero interviewed Johnson about the lawsuit and her overall experience with Dr. Laguna.
"I would describe it as a nightmare," Johnson says.
Initially she told others and posted on social media she was happy with the results, but she says her opinion changed as soon as her bandages came off.
"I see this hip-to-hip scar that you know, I have to deal with for the rest of my life," Johnson says.
When she shared her story on social media, she says that other women began opening up about their own experiences with Dr. Laguna.
"I start getting flooded by other women who are like, 'I know who you're talking about. This happened to me, this exact same scenario,'" Johnson says.
Now she and 29 other women have filed a lawsuit against Dr. Laguna.
In that suit, they accuse him of botching their surgeries and, in some cases, claim he performed unnecessary surgery that the patients did not request.
"He did, he performed surgeries on me that I didn't approve of. I think he did that for most of us," Dr. Mcayla Sarno tells Inside Edition.
She is also part of the lawsuit, along with nurse Brenda Clark and Joella Hopkins.
Hopkins says she woke up to a scar that "goes from one corner of my hip to the other."
All three of those women accuse Dr. Laguna of performing additional procedures during their surgeries without their permission.
"He completely removed and made my butt flat," Hopkins says.
Without admitting wrongdoing, Dr. Laguna agreed to have his medical license suspended for three months and was placed on ten years probation after the California Medical Board alleged that he committed “gross negligence.”
Johnson also claims that a video shows Dr. Laguna allowing an unlicensed member of his staff to perform a surgical procedure on an unsuspecting patient, a claim that Dr. Laguna's lawyer says if false.
"This will fade," Johnson says of her scar. "What won't fade is the emotional experience, the nightmare."
Dr. Laguna denies all the allegations in the lawsuit brought by the women. He has filed his own defamation suit against Johnson, accusing her of making false statements about him for her own financial gain, claims she denies.
All lawsuits are currently on hold as Dr. Laguna recently filed for bankruptcy.
