Complaint Review: Pierre Dupont (Ottawa Foot Practice)

Pierre Dupont, a disgraced dentist from the province of Québec, lost his dental license for life after being charged with and found guilty of 33 offences of professional misconduct, including a case in which a patient went into cardiac/respritory arrest in his dental chair, and later died. Some of Pierre Dupont's offences included endangering the health and safety of his patients, not following standard of care, failing to obtain informed consent, falsifying patient records and impropperly prescribing medication. The Professional Tribunal in the province of Québec deemed him incompetent to practice and revoked his license permanently following many complaints, some of which resulted in serious injuries. Now, Pierre Dupont is a foot doctor in the province of Ontario.

After the implosion of his catastrophic dental career, Pierre Dupont decided to recycle himself as a podiatrist and enrolled at the University of Québec at Trois Rivières in their Podiatry program and following controversy over his past and what he did or did not disclose in his enrolment application, he ended up wining his podiatry license on appeal after the governing body of podiatry in Québec initially refused to issue him a license. While Dupont was fighting for the right to have a license to practice podiatry in the province of Québec, he decided the license wasn't that important anyway so he was practicing podiatry without a license and was caught. So to go along with his newly minted podiatry license, Dupont also had 2 new charges for professional misconduct filed against him by the governing body of podiatry in Québec. Ever resourceful, Dupont offered to relinquish his license for podiatry in Quebec and never practice again in that province if the governing body would agree to drop the charges. They did, and Dupont moved to Ottawa Ontario and registered as a chiropodist (a limited form of podiatry) in that province, opening the now infamous "Ottawa Foot Practice". Somewhere between 2011 and 2015 Pierre Dupont decided to make his biggest cash cow at his new clinic even more lucrative by having counterfeit copies of a surgical foot implant to correct flat feet made at a machine shop that specializes in airplane parts for less than $50 a pop, instead of using the Health Canada approved Hyprocure implant on his patients that would have cost him $1000 each wholesale. He lied to his patients telling them they were getting the real deal and even had them sign consent forms indicating that he would be inscerting an authentic Hyprocure implant into their ankle joint, when that was not the case.

I was one of the unfortunate patients that was mislead by Dupont into thinking I was getting a tested and proven safe, factory sterilized, Health Canada approved device when I got one of his knock-offs instead. Of course, he still charged me and many others the regular price of CAD$3750! He did offer a discount though, if you paid for both feet upfront. After 3 weeks of not being able to walk on my foot without extreme pain, my suspicions rose when he seemingly did not have any effective treatments to help and did not suggest that I see another medical professional to try and find a solution. I decided to do a more in depth search online for Mr. Dupont in French and I found buried under dozens of WordPress and blog documents written by him, the many media reports on the horrifically tragic story of others who had been victimized by Dupont when he was a dentist, and I realized I had an obscenely similar experience to his dental victims.

After a panicked visit to the Emergency Room, I went to Dupont's clinic for the free laser treatments he told me I needed, that so far were not helping in any substantial way, desperate to regain use of my foot. When I told Dupont that I saw an orthopedic surgeon for a second opinion he suddenly decided that that foot implant needed to come out; I found that to be an odd reversal since he had said that he would not consider removing it until it had been about 2-3 months without any improvement. Desperate for a solution, I allowed him to remove the implant, still unaware that I had a fake. The day after the removal, the pain intensified to intolerable levels and after going to Dupont's clinic begging for help, he told me without so much as examining my foot, that there was nothing he could do and that I should call my family doctor and ask her to give me a prescription for pain. At 5:30pm. I ended up back at the hospital. Traumatized by my experience and fearing for the safety of my community, when Dupont threatened to sue me in small claims court for posting negative reviews online that outed his dubious past, I went to the media for help.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio-Canada aired  stories on national television about Dupont and his dubious past. Myself, Radio-Canada and the CBC were contacted by DOZENS of people looking for help who had the same surgical procedure by him (including children), and had very similar experiences mine. Subsequent media reports uncovered the counterfeit implant scam, other victims and even an email written by Dupont to the inventor of the authentic Hyprocure implants admitting to defrauding his patients. Dupont has since been referred to a disciplinary hearing with the College of Chiropodists of Ontario which alleges many instances of professional misconduct and incompetence. There is also a 15 million dollar class action lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court against him and his business on behalf of patients who have suffered because of his lack of scruples.

The minor knee pain I initially went there for help with is now exponentially worse than before I was treated by Dupont because now, I limp on my left foot which was healthy and pain free before his fake stent. I have difficulty doing the simplest of tasks and I am on a waiting list for major bone and tendon surgery just for a chance to get back my active lifestyle. I am far from the only one in need of follow up surgery to remove the knock-off stent and attempt to repair any damage. The process for disciplinary hearings is a lengthy one and so far Pierre Dupont still has his license to practice and continues to do so. All of the recent media reports, the Professional Tribunal decisions from Québec, the notice of hearing from the College of Chiropodists of Ontario and the statement of claim for the class action lawsuit are available for public viewing online. Unfortunately, due to the fact that most patient review sites either allow negative reviews to be removed for a fee, or hidden for no charge, or use algorithms to judge whether a review is recommended, Dupont for the most part has been successful in removing most of the negative reviews from other patient review forums. I shudder when I think of the innocent 8 year old boy Pierre Dupont savaged to remove the fake implant he put in his foot so he could dispose of the evidence. I hope people will at least find this one before they risk their health at the hands of Pierre Dupont.