Blackledge Face Center Lawsuit: Board Probe, Outcome, and Status

No malpractice lawsuits against Dr. Fred Adair Blackledge or the Blackledge Face Center have been identified in Mississippi state or federal court records, according to a search by Mississippi Today. Instead, the case against the Jackson facial plastic surgeon moved through the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure, which opened an investigation in March 2025 and accepted Blackledge’s voluntary license surrender effective December 31, 2025. As of early 2026, he had not been criminally charged.¹²

What the Board Was Investigating

The Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure approved an investigative subpoena in March 2025 and opened a formal inquiry into allegations of “professional incompetency, unprofessional conduct and dishonorable or unethical behavior likely to deceive, defraud or harm the public.”²

The investigation drew on patient complaints that had been accumulating for years. A private Facebook group started in 2023 collected accounts from what Mississippi Today described as “scores” of former patients who shared photos and stories of their outcomes.¹

What Patients Said Happened

The complications former patients described to Mississippi Today ranged from cosmetic to medically serious. Marisa Hankins, who had a rhinoplasty in 2021, reported a ruptured internal stitch that left a cavity in her nose. Anna Ford, who underwent a rhinoplasty and a later revision, developed a chronic infection and a persistent indentation at her nasal tip. Summer Price said her 2023 facelift and brow lift left visible scarring and that her appearance returned to its pre-surgery state within four months. Vicky Pitts of Laurel, Mississippi, told the newsroom she spent more than two years cycling through revisions after a 2020 neck lift, with stitches that repeatedly popped out and wounds she had to have re-sutured at an urgent care.¹

Other former patients described nasal indentations and infections, prominent scarring, cheek implants that broke through the skin, and wounds that reopened after surgery.¹

Practice Concerns That Drew Scrutiny

Patient records reviewed by Mississippi Today showed facelifts completed in roughly 40 to 80 minutes. Dr. Alan Matarasso of the Plastic Surgery Foundation and Dr. Ben McIntyre of the University of Mississippi Medical Center told the outlet that a typical facelift takes four to five hours.¹

Rather than using general anesthesia, Blackledge sedated patients with a combination of Ambien and Valium. Other physicians told the newsroom the combination could impair a patient’s ability to breathe during surgery. Mississippi’s Level II office-surgery rules do not specifically prohibit the combination but require patients to maintain adequate cardiorespiratory function and the ability to respond to verbal commands.¹³

Blackledge also instructed some patients to remove their own surgical staples at home and conducted post-operative follow-up visits in hotel rooms for patients who had traveled to Jackson for their procedures.²

Mississippi law requires surgeons who sedate patients in office-based settings to keep a written transfer agreement with a licensed hospital so a patient in trouble can be admitted quickly. When Mississippi Today asked Blackledge for his, he initially said he could not find it. After a third inquiry over three months, he produced a signed agreement with St. Dominic Hospital. But hospital spokesperson Meredith Bailess had already confirmed on August 20, 2025, that St. Dominic had no transfer agreement with Blackledge Face Center and could not locate an older one.¹

Blackledge was not board-certified in any medical specialty. He told Mississippi Today he passed the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery exam in 2003, but the credential requires prior certification in otolaryngology or plastic surgery, and he held neither. His practice website from roughly 2003 to 2009 nonetheless described him as a “board-certified facial plastic surgeon.” He said he was unaware of that description and had no role in developing the site. He later advertised himself as a “fellowship-trained facial plastic surgeon.” Board certification is not legally required to practice plastic surgery in Mississippi.¹

How the Case Ended Without Findings

Before the board investigation reached a conclusion, Blackledge sent the board a letter surrendering his license. The board published an order accepting the surrender effective December 31, 2025, under document reference “blackledge-fred-16006-sol-12-2025.” Because the surrender was voluntary, the investigation ended without formal findings or disciplinary action.²⁴

The surrender will be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, the federal repository that tracks adverse actions against healthcare providers. Under board policy, a physician who surrenders a license may reapply later but would have to start from scratch, as if never previously licensed. Dr. Randy Easterling, a Vicksburg physician and former 12-year board member, told Mississippi Today that surrenders of this kind are rare.²⁵

What Blackledge Has Said

Blackledge denied any wrongdoing throughout the reporting and the board investigation. In his letter to the board, he said he was retiring from the practice of medicine while acknowledging that “charges could be brought against him at a later time.”⁶ He called the patient complaints a “social media barrage” sparked by an influencer and said his complication rate was “far below the national average.” He reported performing 719 surgeries in 2024 alone and roughly 12,000 facelifts and rhinoplasties over his 22-year career, and said he had never been sued for malpractice. Mississippi Today‘s search of state and federal court records did not turn up any patient-care lawsuits against him.¹

Current Status of the Practice

By January 11, 2026, the signage for Blackledge Face Center had been removed from its Jackson building. The center’s website and social media did not announce a closure, but plastic surgery services were no longer listed. There is no public indication that Blackledge has obtained a medical license or resumed practice in another state, and the National Practitioner Data Bank reporting tied to the surrender would make doing so difficult.⁵

Former patients considering a civil claim should be aware that no lawsuit against Blackledge or Blackledge Face Center appears in Mississippi state or federal court records as of the reporting reviewed here. The license surrender is a regulatory outcome, not a court judgment, and does not itself create a claim or a settlement fund for injured patients.

1
Mississippi Today. Quick Surgeries, Scars and Facelifts That Fade: Complaints Pile Up About a Jackson Plastic Surgeon
2
News From The States. Jackson Plastic Surgeon Dr. Adair Blackledge Surrenders Medical License
3
Cornell Law Institute. 30 Miss. Code. R. 2635-2.5 – Level II Office Surgery
4
Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. Board Actions
5
Mississippi Today. Plastic Surgeon Surrenders License
6
WLBT. Jackson Plastic Surgeon Surrenders Medical License Amid Patient Allegations