Authorities said that a plastic surgeon in the Florida Panhandle was charged with his wife’s death after she went into cardiac arrest and passed just a few days after he operated on her after hours in his clinic the previous year.
A second-degree felony accusation of homicide by culpable negligence led to Benjamin Brown’s arrest on Monday. After leaving the Santa Rosa County Jail with a $50,000 bond, he was allowed to leave.
Benjamin Brown planned to enter a not guilty plea, according to his defense lawyer on Tuesday. The following month was set aside for an arraignment.
Barry Beroset, the defense attorney, stated over the phone that “Dr. Brown intends to plead not guilty and vigorously fight the allegations against him in court.”
According to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Hillary Brown, the wife of Brown, suffered a cardiac arrest in November when her husband was operating on her at his clinic in the Pensacola region. According to the sheriff’s office, she passed away a week after being admitted to the hospital.
The Florida Department of Health requested penalties against Brown, up to and including the suspension or revocation of his license, in an administrative complaint that was submitted to the state Board of Medicine last month. The complaint covered a number of cases, including his wife’s.
According to the Department of Health complaint, Hillary Brown prepared her own local anesthetic and filled intravenous bags for treatments including arm liposuction, lip injections, and an ear adjustment without the supervision of her husband or any other medical professional.
Before going into a sleepy condition, she also took a number of drugs, including an antibiotic, pain reliever, and sedative; however, the complaint stated that the pills’ ingestion was not recorded.
The complaint stated that doctors should not allow patients to make drugs for use in their own operation because this is against the minimum common quality of care.
Hillary Brown’s feet twitched during the treatments, and she reported to her husband that she was seeing “orange” and that her vision was beginning to blur. Benjamin Brown gave her another dose of the anesthetic lidocaine. She experienced a seizure and went unconscious, according to the Department of Health.
Benjamin Brown reportedly responded “no” when a medical assistant inquired if they ought to dial 911. The medical assistant asked again over the course of the next ten or twenty minutes regarding whether they should call for paramedics, and he responded, “no” or “wait,” according to the lawsuit.
But a medical assistant, not Benjamin Brown, informed a sheriff’s office investigator that it was she who decided to contact 911. According to a sheriff’s office report, emergency department physicians at the hospital to which Hillary Brown was taken later informed the investigator that they had treated her for lidocaine toxicity.
Benjamin Brown’s license was restricted by an emergency order issued by the Department of Health last month, limiting him to performing treatments at hospitals under the supervision of another physician. Despite not having a valid medical license, his wife administered injections and used laser therapy on patients, according to the order.
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