The story of Dr. Benjamin Brown just keeps getting more horrifying…
In case you aren’t caught up on this case, the popular Gulf Breeze, Florida surgeon was arrested on Monday and charged with second degree felony homicide: manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of his wife, according to Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. He got these charges, which could possibly land him in prison for life, after Hillary Ellington Brown died on his operating table following a series of seemingly preventable blunders and alleged medical negligence. So awful.
Dr. Brown is accused of overusing medication on his wife and crucially not calling for help when she was suffering. These allegations may be shocking to those on the outside, but the didn’t seem to come as a surprise to some. Horrifically, a former patient of his has spoken to DailyMail.com about how they were “terrified” when they went under the 40-year-old’s knife. Sylvie Hazen told the outlet:
“I have never experienced something more medically traumatic than that procedure. He’s like a Frankenstein.”
WOW.
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Hazen recalled having a breast implant surgery last year at the Restore Plastic Surgery clinic, where she claims she even saw Hillary posing as a nurse — despite having no medical training or license. That’s especially interesting when you remember the medical board’s report about Hillary’s procedure mentioned her administering some of her own drugs. Hmm…
According to the one-time patient, Dr. Brown has “maniac energy” and completely “messed up” her operation. She also recalls the untrained Hillary even performed a minor operation on her:
“She seemed like the office manager. I trusted that she had medical qualifications… I mean, you would if someone is in scrubs.”
Sylvie says her initial surgery with Dr. Brown left her with several complications, including open wounds and a big scar wrapping from her armpit to under her rib cage. Chillingly, she also claims she was given the same “bizarre” concoction as Hillary — a sedative which left her feeling “very loopy”:
“[The clinic] was like something out of a third world country.”
While speaking to Pensacola News Journal, Hillary’s dad Marty Ellington said the clinic began using that “bizarre” mix as an anesthetic because they “ran out” of the real stuff. If true, that’s just wild and unsafe!
Hazen claims to have racked up a $25,000 bill from the failed surgeries with Dr. Brown, as well as correctional procedures at different facilities. Not to mention, she described the Restore clinic as unsanitary! And a former nurse is backing up her claims…
Debra Brown Guy, who only worked for the clinic for three weeks before high-tailing it out of there due to safety concerns, has her own scary details.
She says there was no “crash cart” in the operating room with life saving equipment, like oxygen or defibrillators. The nurse had over 14 years of experience in the medical field at her time of hiring. But she left the gig quickly because of all the concerning things she claims Dr. Brown got up to — like having full on operations in his office suite rather than the operating room:
“There was no monitoring of patients, no blood pressure, no oxygen, basically no medical equipment to monitor or carefully control any kind of drug-induced patient.”
Debra also said she saw the whole clinic as a “horrific situation” with “unlicensed employees mixing medications that he was then injecting them into patients”. After she quit, she wrote a “letter of concern” alleging biohazards, inadequate staffing, not enough equipment, and improper monitoring of patients to Dr. Brown because she “could not stand to witness it anymore”.
The clinic itself wasn’t the only problem, though, according to Debra. She alleges Hillary and her husband had an odd working relationship, claiming the wife got addicted to plastic surgery soon after the pair married. She described their relationship in the office as “very touchy-feely” and claimed Hillary acted as the manager of the clinic, often getting jealous when Dr. Brown would go see patients alone:
“She would kind of see herself as the savior, to come in and save the darker Ben Brown. As soon as things kind of started to fall apart or maybe his mental state started to go awry, she could get him back up. He did a lot of surgical procedures on her… patients would come in and they would say they needed this or that, and Hillary would decide she needed it too.”
Yeesh!
Dr. Brown’s former patient, seeing the news of Hillary’s passing, started to think about her own experience, too:
“It’s terrifying to think that this could have happened to anybody… disgusted to think that this man was the number one surgeon [in the area], had all these good reviews.”
But as far as the plastic surgeon’s response goes? He fully denies all of the accusations:
“Ben continues to mourn the death of his loving wife Hillary, and this arrest, which is completely without merit, only deepens his pain and grief. All safety and medical protocols were strictly followed on the day of Hillary’s passing. Ben is a conscientious, dedicated, and incredibly talented surgeon, and he is looking forward to presenting the actual facts in a court of law and clearing his name of this horrible accusation.”
A lot to take in… What do U think, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office/Hillary Ellington Brown/Facebook]
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