Plastic surgeon’s 6-week suspension for professional misconduct ‘slap on the wrist’: former patient – CBC

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba gave Manfred Ziesmann suspension after multiple complaints

Jul 01, 2025

A Manitoba woman who was injured by a plastic surgeon more than a decade ago is worried after the doctor was temporarily suspended for medical errors — and she wants the disciplinary system to change to protect others.

For six years, Melanie Drain lived with the end of a drainage tube inside her breast. She says the piece of equipment broke off when her plastic surgeon, Dr. Manfred Ziesmann, yanked the tube days after he performed a breast reduction surgery on her in 2010.

Drain, who lives in Stony Mountain, Man., complained to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. In 2017, Ziesmann was reprimanded and ordered to take a record-keeping course, with the college determining he had failed to include enough information in her medical record, she said.

At the time, she felt the decision didn’t go far enough and feared more patients would be injured.

When Ziesmann, who has been licensed as a plastic surgeon since 1987, was disciplined earlier this year for professional misconduct in connection with three other patients he treated after her, Drain felt her fears were confirmed.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/plastic-surgeon-suspension-doctor-discipline-1.7571375