Posted on 06/18/2024 6:43:27 AM PDT by Red Badger
A plastic surgeon in the Florida panhandle faces a manslaughter charge regarding his wife’s post-surgery death, authorities announced Monday.
Officers of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office (SRCSO) arrested and charged Dr. Benjamin Brown, 41, with “manslaughter by Culpable Negligence” Monday, the SRCSO said. The arrest followed “an extensive investigation in conjunction with the District One Medical Examiner’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office” into the Nov. 28, 2023 death of Hillary Ellington Brown, according to the statement.
Hillary Brown went into cardiac arrest at Brown’s hospital, Restore Plastic Surgery, Nov. 21, 2023, according to the statement. Reportedly moved to a local hospital with the help of SRCSO deputies who responded to the medical emergency, Hillary Brown was eventually placed on life support and then passed on.
Brown remains in custody until his “first appearance where a bond will be determined by a judge and State Attorney’s Office,” the SRCSO said.
The investigation into the cause and manner of death—warranted “when the death was unexpected or the death occurs under unusual circumstances”—began after Hillary Brown’s death, is ongoing, and usually takes several months, according to the SRCSO.
Brown was operating on Hillary Brown just before she experienced seizures and then suffered a cardiac arrest, the Pensacola News Journal (PNJ) reported. The 9-1-1 call note indicated Hillary Brown was “overmedicated”, according to the outlet.
Brown reportedly announced via social media Nov. 24, 2023: “We need prayers for a miracle. Hillary had a cardiac arrest on Tuesday afternoon. We called 911 and started CPR. Her heart came back but her brain is not doing well. She has been in a coma since she went unconscious on Tuesday. Hillary Ellington Brown you are my soulmate, my world, my everything. Please come back. Please!”
“We want answers,” an aggrieved Marty Ellington—the deceased’s father—said, according to the New York Post. “We haven’t been given answers. If it’s a mistake, it was a mistake, but it doesn’t bring my daughter back.”
“I don’t want his money. I don’t want anything. All I want is an answer because I think that we owe that to my daughter,” he reportedly added.
Brown reportedly told Marty and his wife Dixie Ellington that he had run out of the medication he usually used and thus had put Hillary on a different one. Marty Ellington reportedly queried why Brown did not have more staff and emergency equipment to handle the situation.
Marty and Dixie Ellington also alleged that Brown also had Hillary Brown perform procedures on other patients that she was not qualified to perform, PNJ reported.
Former patient Wendy Carden alleged in a still-open lawsuit that Brown unilaterally used “foreign materials” in a post-mastectomy reconstructive breast surgery on her, occasioning infection and sepsis, according to PNJ.
Some other patients also made troubling allegations, with one saying in part, “[T]hat man has to be stopped,” according to a separate PNJ report.
Republican Pensacola Rep. Michelle Salzman reportedly considered the complaints from former patients and employees of Brown and pushed for an investigation by the Florida Department of Health.
Google lists Restore Plastic Surgery, based in Gulf Breeze, as “Permanently closed”.
I’ve had several operations, and the surgeons are not the ones who administer the anesthesia- anesthesiologists who are trained are the ones who do. They usually state that they Wil. Be using one kind or another, a dask if the patient has had any experience or bad reactions before they go into surgery.
Not sure how the surgeon can be held responsible?
[[Marty and Dixie Ellington also alleged that Brown also had Hillary Brown perform procedures on other patients that she was not qualified to perform, PNJ reported]]
Ok I’m confused- the surgeon, Ben brown, did the operation, but the sent3nce seems to indicate that hil.ary brown, the victim, “performed procedures she was not qualified to do”?
Is my tired brain missing something?
The more I learn about people, the more I love my cat. Sheesh.
Presumably, his wife helped him in the operating room when she wasn’t qualified to be there. It shows the guy was running a shady business.
That would also set the stage for why some people think this woman was murdered.
There is a lot missing in this story. Marriage issues? Did he think she would talk? Did she or he have an affair?
As much as I might like to get some “lifting” done...the anethesia requirement stops me.
His wife’s name was Dixie though?
That’s how it works in a legit hospital, but it doesn’t sound like that’s how it worked in this man’s little clinic.
The article also says he was short-staffed, so I think the implication is he was using his unqualified wife as a nurse/assistant.
She was also his assistant.................
He was also the anesthesiologist.............
I’ve only had 2 bad experiences with anesthesia itself- one where I was really struggling to breathe when recovering- lasted about 20 minutes- and another time where I was freaked out for 32 hours straight- all the other times I was fine. I never worry about it before going in, as I don’t really care if i wake up or not, but it is how I awaken that gets me. Dying under anesthesia seems to me, personally, to be an easy way to go.
Yeah it looks like a lot went wrong- and he was a shady doc. I’ve only ever been to major hospitals so chances of that happening are slim to none- looks like his was a small outfit-
Wow- that is something I’d never agree to- I want the surgeons and nurses concentrating on the surgery, and an anesthesiologist concentrating on his job.
It also looks like they didn’t have enough emergency equipment on hand either- looks like a really shoddy doc
Jack Cassidy playing the doctor/husband.
It’s a Southern name.
Basically a one-man shop................
Basically a one-man shop................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.