"So, are they closed? I'm still needing those new neck bolts!"
Posted on 01/29/2003 5:57:15 AM PST by Living Free in NH
A Cambodian couple turned their Lowell apartment into a makeshift clinic, performing backroom breast enhancements and other illicit surgeries until investigators probing the claims of infected victims stumbled upon the bloody "operating room," officials said.
"It was like walking into Dr. Frankenstein's workshop, "Lowell building inspector David St. Hillaire said of the disturbing scene at 121 Andrews St. "There was definitely something wrong going on there."
Authorities believe Sipha Ouk and his wife, Dary Hour, were offering black market surgeries out of the two-family home. Neither are licensed doctors - here or in their homeland.
"They have no medical licenses," Lowell police Lt. Mark Buckley said.
The gruesome case broke when a Chelmsford doctor called Lowell health inspectors to report a woman with a severe infection, allegedly from a surgery performed at the house. St. Hillaire said others have had similar complications, some from makeshift breast enhancements done there. The woman who went to the Chelmsford dermatologist apparently had problems from facial cosmetic procedures and injections.
"Some of the victims got infected pretty badly," St. Hillaire said. "It's certainly not your typical home business."
Ouk, 43, and Hour, 32, were arrested Friday after health inspectors, police and building officials searched the home.
The horrific scene included a wooden "operating table" that was covered in bloody sheets and a "shiny substance" that officials believe to be silicone. A bookcase was filled with medical supplies, including Novacaine, syringes, and prescription medication. Officials also found cash in a drawer and a blood-covered scalpel.
Outside the house, officials found several garbage bags containing medical waste, including bloody gauze and rubber gloves.
"We don't even know what some of this stuff was," St. Hillaire said.
Buckley said investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration have been brought in to test materials found in the house.
"A lot of the materials apparently came from out of the country," Buckley said.
Police also found several books containing records that were written in Cambodian.
Ouk and Hour face charges of illegal possession of hypodermic needles, but more charges could be filed, Buckley said. The pair were released after their arraignment Monday in Lowell District Court.
A woman who answered the phone at the couple's house yesterday said she had "no idea" what was going on.
The probe is continuing, although none of the alleged victims have cooperated.
"There were no victims who wanted to come forward and press charges," Buckley said. The other agencies were brought in to help shut down the illegal business and "to make sure that no one else is subjected to a medical procedure," he added.
In addition to the criminal charges, the couple have been cited for zoning violations for running an unlicensed business and slapped with a host of building code infractions, including improper trash disposal and failing to have working smoke alarms.
Officials were also investigating reports that the home may have been an overcrowded illegal rooming house. Those charges were unfounded, St. Hillaire said.
Health inspector Bernie Clancy said it's clear that the couple was "doing unlicensed cosmetic surgery, including breast implant operations."
"You have to have a licensed facility," Clancy said. "This isn't something you can just do out of a back room. Going to get cosmetic surgery at someone's house certainly is not a good idea."
The incident is similar to one in New York in which a Manhattan couple was charged with posing as plastic surgeons and performing illegal operations in their apartment. Eliezar and Iris Fernandez falsely treated nine patients, eight of whom later required hospitalization. Two of the victims were injected with Hyacell, an illegal wrinkle remover similar to Botox that caused life-threatening infections and disfigurement.
Understatement of the day!
(Do you suppose the trial lawyers will come to the rescue? I guess, it depends on how much cash can be milked from the system.)
This is the scariest part of the whole story. I had to re-read this again, at first I though this occured in some third world country.
Lowell, Mass. --- It did!
Probably getting their pharmaceuticals from Canada because the Republicans are misogynists....etc, etc.
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