Doctor gave unwanted BBLs, fatal surgery to woman: officials

An investigation into a Florida plastic surgeon found that he performed unwanted procedures on patients and delayed calling 911 during a surgery that ended in his wife’s death, a report said.

The Florida Department of Health issued an emergency restriction of Dr.’s medical license on May 2. Ben Brown issued just over 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 a medical assistant.

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Brown’s family said in a statement that they could not comment on certain details due to the ongoing investigation.

“However, this public order was issued without Dr. Brown had some opportunity to dispute the allegations against him through a hearing,” the family said in the statement shared with McClatchy News. “These allegations are inaccurate and misleading, and Dr. Brown looks forward to the opportunity to defend himself and present the actual facts through a hearing in the future. Dr. Brown continues to live an endless nightmare without his wife Hillary by his side, and these inaccurate accusations only further exacerbate his immense pain.

The state report includes testimony that Brown gave unwanted Brazilian butt lifts to at least two women, who said they were disfigured and suffered persistent 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 case, a woman said during a consultation in August 2021 that she had 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 follow-up surgery for scar revision, the experience was “pure torture,” according to her account in the report.

She continued to go to Brown for cosmetic procedures, and in February 2023 she went for laser treatment, records show.

But neither Brown nor his physician assistant performed the procedure, officials said.

Brown’s wife, who was not a licensed health care provider, did so, according to Florida licensing records.

Investigators said Hillary Brown took on a series of responsibilities at her husband’s practice, including laser treatments, injections, removing patients’ stitches, suturing and mixing her own anesthetic solution on the day of the surgery that turned fatal.

On Nov. 21, 2023, Ben Brown was scheduled to perform surgery on his wife that would involve 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 injected locally into the surgical areas, researchers said.

She swallowed a handful of pills, was given more medication by a medical assistant and was prepped for surgery, officials said.

Ben Brown began the procedures, injecting the solution until it was gone and asking the staff to bring him lidocaine, which he injected undiluted into his wife, investigators said.

Witnesses said she stitched her own wounds, then her husband began working on her face, again injecting undiluted lidocaine, the report said.

During that time, Hillary Brown said she saw “orange” and her vision became blurry, which is a sign of lidocaine poisoning, health officials said. Then she had a seizure.

Ben Brown is accused of waiting 10 to 20 minutes before calling 911 and telling staff to wait to call while they looked for the equipment he needed. He tried to figure out what medications she was taking before finally telling his staff to call 911 while he began CPR, witnesses said.

Hillary Brown was taken to a hospital “in cardiac arrest with elevated lactic acid levels and suspected lidocaine toxicity,” health officials noted.

She died a week later.

Brown is now accused of malpractice and “extreme failure to respond to a medical emergency.”

The report cites several issues, from unwanted procedures to poor sanitation, but “most egregious was that Dr. Brown’s treatment of (his wife) was careless and haphazard,” officials said.

Under his new licensing restriction, Brown can only perform surgeries in a certain hospital setting, which does not include his clinic, and under the supervision of a physician.

Restore Plastic Surgery appears to be permanently closed, according to an online search.

Gulf Breeze is a suburb of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.