Miami doctor wins $1 million malpractice judgment
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A Miami doctor whose botched liposuction of a North Miami man led to a $1 million malpractice judgment in Miami-Dade court has agreed to stop performing the surgical procedure under the terms of a disciplinary order handed down by the Florida Board of Medicine in April.
The doctor, Amaryllis Pascual, is prohibited from performing liposuction until she passes a state evaluation and appears before the state medical board’s probation committee, according to the terms of the order. Pascual, 49, also will pay a $10,000 fine.
The board’s order stems from a January 2013 liposuction surgery that Pascual performed at an office clinic in Aventura that has since closed. During liposuction, doctors use a metal rod called a cannula to remove fat through a surgical incision, plunging the instrument in and out of the patient’s body.
Pascual tore (the patient’s) abdominal wall and punctured his small intestine and colon during the liposuction, according to the state’s legal complaint, and he had to be hospitalized a week later with sepsis and undergo emergency surgeries to repair his damaged organs.During the hearing in April, members of the state’s medical board asked Pascual why she performed liposuction on (the patient) when his medical history — including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma and HIV infection — indicated that he was not a good candidate for the surgery.
Pascual’s attorney told the board that (the patient’s) medical conditions had been well controlled for years and that the patient appeared to be fit and muscular at the time.
At the hearing, (the patient) accused Pascual of ignoring his pleas for help as he became increasingly ill with vomiting and intense abdominal pain in the days following the liposuction. He ultimately went to the emergency room at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for 21 days — and then left to pay the bills for his medical care after his health plan denied coverage because liposuction is an elective procedure.
Pascual filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, claiming more than $1 million in liabilities and naming (the patient) as one of dozens of creditors — even though his lawsuit had yet to be closed.
In February, however, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull awarded (the patient) a $1 million judgment against Pascual’s business, Body Oasis Beauty and Wellness Center Inc. Pascual’s debt was discharged in bankruptcy
Pascual does not carry medical malpractice insurance. And though the medical board noted in April that Pascual has no prior discipline during the 11 years she has been licensed to practice medicine in Florida, at least two other patients filed lawsuits against Pascual in 2013 and 2015.
One patient was awarded a $5,000 judgment in Broward County Court after she demanded a refund from Pascual because the patient was unhappy with the results of her tummy tuck surgery. The second patient, who sued in 2013, claims that Pascual was negligent after performing a liposuction and fat transfer to the buttocks, a procedure commonly referred to as a Brazilian butt lift, that resulted in an infection.
According to the second patient’s lawsuit, Pascual treated the infection for about six months, but she failed to diagnose the correct infection and it spread, causing a deformity to the woman’s right buttock. The case is pending trial, but Pascual listed the patient as a creditor in her bankruptcy filing.
(The patient) has filed a second complaint against Pascual with the Florida Department of Health because she has yet to fulfill the $1 million judgment as required under state law.
The health department does not disclose patient complaints against doctors, however, unless a state medical board panel finds that there is probable cause to prosecute the physician for malpractice.
Thanks to Daniel Chang and The Miami Herald.