.jpg "The Florida Department of Health has issued an emergency license restriction for a plastic surgeon accused of failing to call 911 right away when his wife had a seizure during an operation.")
The Florida Department of Health has issued an emergency license restriction for a plastic surgeon accused of failing to call 911 right away when his wife had a seizure during an operation.
An investigation into a plastic surgeon in Florida revealed he performed unwanted procedures on patients and delayed calling 911 during an operation that ended in his wife’s death, a report said.
The Florida Department of Health issued an emergency restriction of Dr. Ben Brown’s medical license on May 2, a little more than five months after his wife, Hillary Brown, died.
The 30-page report available through the Department of Health details how Ben Brown’s Gulf Breeze-based practice called Restore Plastic Surgery became “dirty and poorly maintained,” according to one medical assistant.
Brown’s family said in a statement they couldn’t comment on certain details because of the ongoing investigation.
“However, this public order was issued without Dr. Brown having any opportunity to dispute the allegations against him through any hearing process,” the family said in the statement shared with McClatchy News. “These accusations are inaccurate and misleading, and Dr. Brown looks forward to the opportunity to defend himself and present the actual facts through a hearing process in the future. Dr. Brown continues to live an endless nightmare without his wife Hillary by his side, and these inaccurate allegations only further deepen his immense pain.
The state report includes testimony that Brown gave unwanted Brazilian butt lifts to at least two women, who said they were left disfigured and in continued pain.
When one of the patients confronted him about the unauthorized procedure, he told her he gave her a BBL because he thought she would “love it,” officials said.
In another instance, during an August 2021 consultation, a woman said she declined a BBL after the doctor suggested it. Then he gave her one anyway, officials said.
She experienced complications from the procedures, and when she went back for a follow-up scar revision surgery, the experience was “pure torture,” according to her account in the report.
She continued going to Brown for cosmetic procedures, and in February 2023, she went in for a laser treatment, records show.
But neither Brown nor his physician assistant performed the procedure, officials said.
Brown’s wife, who was not a licensed healthcare provider, did it, according to Florida licensing records.
Investigators said Hillary Brown took on an array of responsibilities at her husband’s practice, including laser treatments, injections, removing patients’ stitches, suturing, and mixing her own anesthetic solution the day of the surgery that turned deadly.
On Nov. 21, 2023, Ben Brown was going to do an operation on his wife involving a scar revision, arm liposuction, lip injections and “ear adjustment procedures,” state officials said.
That morning, Hillary Brown mixed her own tumescent solution, an anesthesia that’s injected locally into the areas of operation, investigators said.
She took a handful of pills, received more medication from a medical assistant and was prepped for surgery, officials said.
Ben Brown began the procedures, injecting the solution until he ran out and asked staff to bring him lidocaine, which he injected into his wife undiluted, investigators said.
Witnesses said she sutured her own wounds, then her husband began work on her face, again injecting undiluted lidocaine, according to the report.
During that time, Hillary Brown said she saw “orange” and her vision was getting blurry, which is a sign of lidocaine toxicity, health officials said. Then she started having a seizure.
Ben Brown is accused of waiting 10 to 20 minutes before calling 911 and telling staff to wait to call as they scrambled looking for the equipment he needed. He tried to figure out what medication she took before he eventually told his staff to call 911 as he began performing CPR, witnesses said.
Hillary Brown was taken to a hospital “in cardiac arrest with an elevated lactic acid level and suspected lidocaine toxicity,” health officials noted.
She died a week later.
Brown is now accused of malpractice and of showing “extreme deficiency in responding to a medical emergency.”
The report cites several issues, from unwanted procedures to poor sanitation practices, but “most egregiously, Dr. Brown’s treatment of (his wife) was careless and haphazard,” officials said.
Under his new license restriction, Brown may only perform surgeries in a particular hospital setting, which does not include his clinic, and under the supervision of a doctor.
Restore Plastic Surgery appears to be permanently closed, according to an online search.
Gulf Breeze is a suburb of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.