Law&Crime Sidebar - Plastic Surgeon Refused to Call 911 as Wife Died on Operating Table: Sheriff

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A Florida plastic surgeon is accused of botching his own wife's cosmetic procedure, then not calling 911 even after she went into cardiac arrest. Now, he's facing charges in connection with her death. We got our hands on documents that lay out what authorities believe happened on that operating table. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime.

Starting point is 00:00:32 I'm Jesse Greta. Hey, everybody. This is another law and crime legal alert. Have you experienced severe gastroporesis or other side effects after taking OZMPIC or another GLP-1 weight loss medication? The OZempic lawsuits allege that the drug can lead to severe intestinal blockage and persist in vomiting and that the manufacturers allegedly failed to provide adequate water. warnings about these risks. Well, true law, one of our legal sponsors is helping those injured

Starting point is 00:01:05 file a claim through an experienced attorney who helps ensure your claim is thoroughly presented. Visit gLP1 case.com slash sidebar to answer less than 10 questions and check your eligibility to file a claim. Forty-one-year-old Dr. Benjamin Brown, a plastic surgeon in Santa Rosa County, Florida is out of jail on a $50,000 bond charged with second-degree felony homicide manslaughter by culpable negligence. Basically, you're showing a reckless or wanton disregard for human life, and it's a serious charge. You can carry up to 15 years in prison. Now, his arrest comes months after the death of his wife and mother of three, 33-year-old Hillary Ellington Brown. According to the Sheriff's Department, deputies responded to restore place.

Starting point is 00:01:53 surgery for a medical emergency on November 21st, 2023. Hillary had gone into cardiac arrest and had to be rushed to a hospital. She was put on life support and she died a week later. Now, a report released by the Florida Department of Health gives us a lot more insight into that procedure that Brown was performing, and that May report requested an emergency restriction be put on Brown's medical license in the state. So first, I think we need to do a little bit of background on Dr. Benjamin Brown. So he owned and operated Restore Plastic Surgery in Pensacola, Florida.

Starting point is 00:02:26 And according to the Health Department report, quote, any office where the doctor performs level two or level three procedures must be registered with the Department of Health and submit to annual inspections. Dr. Brown only performs level one office surgeries at Restore Plastic Surgery and is therefore not registered or inspected by the department. Now, in or around 2021, a medical assistant that worked at Restore Plastic Surgery observed that Dr. Brown's practice began to decline. So the medical assistant observed that Dr. Brown began delegating more and more

Starting point is 00:02:58 to his physician assistant, Sean Kirby, and his unlicensed wife, who the report refers to as HR. Again, this is the deceased in this case. Now, HR was not a licensed health care practitioner, was not qualified to practice medicine, including performing cosmetic procedures, and was not legally permitted to perform cosmetic procedures at Restore Plastic Surgery. Now, I want you to keep that in mind as we talk about what purportedly happened here. But here's something interesting to note. We found that the Surgery Center's

Starting point is 00:03:29 Facebook page still has photos of Hillary wearing scrubs or nursing garb and appearing to help out with procedures, again, despite the fact that she was unlicensed. So this Health Department report actually gets into some other horrific complaints against Brown. And we're going to get to those in a minute, but let's stick with this incident and what happened here with Hillary. So it states, quote, HR was scheduled to undergo a miniature muscle placation slash abdominal scar revision, bilateral arm lip injections, and ear adjustment procedures. And here's where it gets wonky. The report states that the morning of the procedure, Hillary prepared her own IV bags and at 11 a.m. ingested a handful of multicolored pills, which included

Starting point is 00:04:18 valium. After consuming this medication, HR began to exhibit effects of sedation. And despite this, the report states that Hillary then went into another patient's room and removed their stitches. The document then details the steps that Brown took to administer the medication to Hillary for the procedure. But remember, she prepared her own IV bags and had not documented exactly what she took, what she prepared. So Brown seemingly can't be sure quite how much of each sedative if he's giving her. However, what we do know is that Hillary was awake because the report states, quote, HR assisted in her own procedure by suturing the skin back together. During this portion of the procedure, HR became restless and her feet began twitching. Dr. Brown then performed liposuction

Starting point is 00:05:07 of HR's arms and her twitching worsened. Dr. Brown documented that he injected a more concentrated solution of lydocaine into HR's face and lips. But witnesses observed Dr. Brown inject undiluted xylokane into HR's face. The report states multiple times that Brown did not properly document the medicines and dosages he was giving to his wife. HR stated that her vision started to blur and she told Dr. Brown that she saw orange. And by the way, restlessness, muscle twitches, blurred vision. they're all apparent early signs of lydocaine toxicity. Dr. Brown, though, continued to inject lytocaine into HR's face. That's the allegation.

Starting point is 00:05:49 During the procedure, HR became unresponsive and began to have a seizure. A medical assistant asked Dr. Brown if they should call 911 and Dr. Brown said no. Over the next 10 to 20 minutes, a medical assistant asked Dr. Brown if they should call 911 and Dr. Brown said no or wait. It then goes on to state how the medical assistant was scared and she was a new employer. so she did, as Dr. Brown instructed. Then, assistants reportedly ran around the office, frantically looking for items as basic as oxygen tanks or even a stethoscope, but said they didn't know where to find them. Brown apparently started CPR, but finally the medical assistant, not Brown, called 911.

Starting point is 00:06:28 Hillary was rushed to the hospital. She never regained consciousness, and she died on November 28th. Now, the health department report concludes by saying, quote, an independent medical expert has determined that, Dr. Brown's treatment of HR was a violation of the standard of care. Dr. Brown's continued unrestricted practice as a medical doctor presents an immediate serious danger to the health, welfare, and safety of the public. The department considered restricting Dr. Brown's license to require him to practice under the immediate supervision of a physician license under Chapter 458 or 459 Florida statutes. However, due to Dr. Brown's status as the owner of restore

Starting point is 00:07:09 plastic surgery, there is no feasible supervision restriction that would prevent Dr. Brown from continuing to perform surgical procedures at restore plastic surgery. The department ordered that Dr. Brown's medical license be immediately restricted in Florida. So that was back at the beginning of May. On May 15th, the Santa Rosa County Medical Examiner ruled that Hillary's official cause of death was complications following lytocaine toxicity. And then in June, Brown was arrested. An arraignment is scheduled for July 11th. His attorney Barry Barrissette told NBC News, quote,

Starting point is 00:07:44 Dr. Brown intends to plead not guilty and vigorously fight the allegations against him in court. Hillary's father, Marty Ellington, spoke to the Pensacola News Journal following Brown's arrest, saying, my family lives in a sea of tears for eternity due to the actions of one careless individual. His ego and arrogance overshadowed the need for help, prolonging oxygen deprivation to her brain and ultimately causing her death. Ben Brown took the mother from my grandchildren, my only daughter, and our brightest star.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Hillary gave the ultimate sacrifice so Ben Brown cannot hurt anyone else. Maybe in prison he will get the attention he deserves. Now, we mentioned that these were not the first allegations of medical malpractice made against Dr. Brown. No, the Health Department report detailed two other alleged incidents. Let's talk about it.

Starting point is 00:08:33 So the first involves a patient referred to as BF, a 40-year-old woman. According to the report, she met with Dr. Brown to discuss undergoing a breast implant replacement, tummy tuck, liposuction, and fat injection into her hips. During the consultation, Dr. Brown recommended patient BF also receive gluteal fat injections, also known as a Brazilian butt lift, or BBL. Patient BF did not want a BBL and specifically stated she did not authorize Dr. Brown to inject fat into her buttocks.

Starting point is 00:09:05 Despite patient BF's decision not to receive a BBL, Dr. Brown accurately documented in patient BF's records that she wished to have gluteal fat injections to improve the lateral contour of her buttocks. The report said that in addition to her other procedures, Brown also did the fat transfer and unauthorized procedure. She claims when she returned for a scar revision surgery, Brown delegated the procedure to physician's assistant Sean Kirby, who you mentioned before, and BF referred to. to the procedure as pure torture. During the procedure, there were several issues with sterility. Neither Mr. Kirby nor the other assistants wore surgical face masks despite patient BF's large open abdominal wound. According to BF, she eventually took off her bandage to find she had a deep hole in her stomach.

Starting point is 00:09:55 BF also claimed that Hillary, an unlicensed person acting as a medical professional, performed laser therapy on her at a later visit. On February 14th, 2024, patient BF was interviewed by the department. Patient BF reported that her body is disfigured from the treatment she received from Dr. Brown and his employees between 2021 and 2023. The other complaint listed refers to a woman called J.H, a 55-year-old woman. And once again, the report states that J.H. did not want a BBL. However, he apparently performed one anyway.

Starting point is 00:10:33 The following month, J.H.'s abdominal incision opened and began leaking fluids, so she returned to Dr. Brown's office for a follow-up. The report states patient J.H. confronted Dr. Brown about her enlarged buttocks, and Dr. Brown stated that he performed a BBL and thought that she, quote, would love it. Brown reportedly put J.H. into a compression garment that went around her abdomen, which she was unable to remove on her own. When she returned to the office, a medical assistant removed the garment, and patient J.H. large area of skin necrosis on her abdomen. Necrosis, by the way, is when apparently cells in your body tissues die. You may know it as gangrene. So Dr. Brown, quote, observed patient J.H.'s necrotic skin and advised that it would need to be excised. Dr. Brown cut a hole in her abdomen that was approximately seven inches long, four inches wide, and half an inch deep.

Starting point is 00:11:27 Dr. Brown packed patient J.H.'s open wound with acetic acid and gauze and sent her home. The open wound on patient J.H.'s abdomen did not heal. Dr. Brown broke down and told patient J.H. that everything was a mess. So then, apparently, the patient's friend, who was a nurse, finally took the woman to the emergency room, and the consulting surgeon observed patient J.H.'s wound and stated that it was horrific and that she had never seen anything like it. To this day, patient J.H. still has constant pain in her diaphragm, abdomen, and hips.

Starting point is 00:12:03 Wow. So between 2021 and 2023, you have these allegations where these two women have what should have been relatively straightforward cosmetic procedures and then allegedly end up with surgeries they didn't authorize, incredibly painful, disfiguring wounds. And then November 2023, Brown performs procedures on his own wife. She seizes. And then, and then, never wakes up. Now, whether or not these separate incidents will be used in a potential trial is kind of uncertain. Now, on one hand, you could say that they're arguably related, right? You can show a pattern of negligence, even though he hasn't been criminally charged with respect to that, and he hasn't necessarily been found guilty with respect to that. The other argument is, is that this shouldn't be introduced at a trial because it's unfairly prejudicial, and it's not relevant to what happened here with Hillary. Now, I will say, in the criminal complaint

Starting point is 00:12:55 it states, quote, the minimum prevailing professional standard of care requires that physicians not permit a patient to prepare medication for use in their own surgery. So that's where you get this idea of culpable negligence. Now, in terms of a defense, it's probably a bit too early to know for sure, but I do wonder if it would be saying something, a lack of knowledge that Brown would suggest I didn't know what my wife had done to herself. If I would have known, I would have obviously not objected her. I acted reasonably under the circumstances. This was not foreseeable. But again, he's facing a very serious charge here where he could spend a lot of time in prison if found guilty. But that's all we have for you right now here on this episode of Sidebar. Everybody,

Starting point is 00:13:43 thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Plastic Surgeon Refused to Call 911 as Wife Died on Operating Table: Sheriff

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