On June 17, 2024, Plastic Surgeon Dr Benjamin Brown was arrested in connection to the death of his wife Hillary. We did a podcast episode on this case in December 2023 and these new updates are crazy. Listen to our original episode here.
What we knew happened at the time is that Ben was conducting surgery on Hillary in his clinic in Florida.
Ben turned himself in on June 17. He was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail and charged with second-degree felony homicide, which is manslaughter by culpable negligence. He was given a bond of $50,000 during his first court appearance Monday afternoon.
A 30 page report has been released and we have learned more about Hillary’s death and Ben’s other shady practices.
Ben was the owner and operator of Restore Plastic Surgery in Pensacola, Florida. Any office where a doctor performs Level 2 or 3 procedures must be registered with the Department of Health and must have annual inspections undertaken. Ben was only registered to perform Level 1 surgeries at Restore and was therefore not registered or ever inspected by the Department.
A medical assistant at Restore has said that in 2021, the practice began to decline. Ben started delegating more and more to his Physician Assistant Sean Kirby, and to Hillary. Hillary was not a licensed health care practitioner, she was not licensed to practice medicine, including cosmetic procedures and she was not legally able to work conducting procedures at Restore.
The medical assistant has said that the practice was dirty and poorly maintained.
Ben allegedly stored medication, including controlled substances in an unlocked cabinet. Witnesses have said that staff would take ‘Versed’ from the inventory “to take the edge off.”
Staff have also said that administration of Restore was ‘tumultuous and poorly managed’ and that Ben could be vindictive.
The documents go into detail about a former patient of Ben’s In August 2021, the patient known as BF, met with Ben. She wanted to discuss undergoing a breast implant replacement, tummy tuck, liposuction and fat injections into her hips.
During her consultation, Ben recommended that the patient also get gluteal fat injections aka a Brazilian Butt Lift. The patient has said that she did not want to undergo this procedure and specifically stated that she did not authorise Ben to inject fat into her buttocks.
Despite this, Ben inaccurately documented in the patient’s records that she wanted the BBL.
The surgery was scheduled for October 25, 2021. The patient presented to Baptist Hospital for the first round of procedures which included the tummy tuck, breast implant replacement and liposuction. Along with those procedures, Ben also carried out the BBL. He injected 1,100ml of fat into each of her buttocks.
The patient has said that after the procedure, she experienced severe pain, blurred vision and swelling. Her incision also opened and began to leak.
The patient went to Restore a month later, on October 25, 2021. She was due to undergo a scar revision surgery, which Ben delegated to Sean Kirby. The patient described the procedure as ‘pure torture’ and said she was crying in excruciating pain.
Sean cut out a large portion of skin and fat which created a large open wound across the patient’s abdomen.
There were many issues with sterility during the surgery. None of the people involved wore surgical face masks despite the large open wound. Seam and the assistants wore jewelery and watches under their gloves, which is not sterile procedure.
They also repeatedly placed gauze on the patient’s exposed stomach and used gauze to stop the bleeding.
On December 2, 20213, the patient removed the bandage from the wound and found a deep hole in her stomach. She went back to Restore on December 7, 2021 for wound debridement. During this appointment, Ben failed to document any details about the wound.
The patient went back to Restore on April 4, 2022 to undergo stomach liposuction and abdominal scar revision. Sean and Ben worked together on this. Sean again did not wear a surgical mask while suturing the patient.
The patient went back to Restore again on February 7, 2023 for laser treatment on her abdomen, navel and breast. This is classed as a medicinal practice and is not to be performed by unlicensed individuals. Despite this, Hillary performed the laser treatment.
The patient went back to Restore again on March 9, 2023 for scar revision. Again, Hillary (unlicensed) performed the procedure.
This patient was spoken to by the Department of Health in February 2024. She told them that her body is now disfigured after the treatment she received.
Another patient, JH, first went to Restore in September 2022 for a consultation. She wanted to discuss cosmetic surgery, including the removal of her breast implants. This patient also said she specifically stated she did not want a BBL. Despite this, Ben documented that the patient DID want to undergo the BBL.
The patient’s surgery was booked in for November 18, 2022. Ben performed liposuction on her back, flanks and abdomen, a tummy tuck, breast implant removal and fat grafting to both her breasts and buttocks. Not long after her surgery, her abdominal incision opened and began leaking fluid.
The patient went to Restore to discuss the leakage. She also confronted Ben at this time about her buttocks. Ben told the patient he had performed the BBL and thought she would ‘love it.”
Ben told the patient he was concerned about her abdominal bloating and put her in a compression garment.
The patient went back to Restore again on December 5, 2022 for a check up. Ben did not create or maintain any records about these appointments. On December 7, the patient went to Restore again. A medical assistant removed the compression garment and noticed the skin on the abdomen had necrotised.
The patient presented again on December 20, 2022 to undergo a procedure. Again, none of this was documented by Ben. Ben examined the necrotic skin and told the patient it would need to be removed. He cut a hole in the abdomen that was seven inches long, four inches wide and half an inch deep. Ben attempted to suture the area but the stitches split. He packed the open wound with acetic acid and gauze and sent her home.
Unsurprisingly, the open wound did not heal. The patient went back twice at the end of December and early January. Ben trimmed excess fat from the wound and changed the dressing. Again, no records were kept.
On January 4, 2023, the patient went back again for attempted wound closure. Ben tried to stitch the edges but the patient said he made the wound worse. He then told the patient that his office did not handle wound care and offered to pay for someone else to fix the issues. Ben broke down to the patient and told her that ‘everything was a mess.’
A friend of the patient’s ended up taking her to the ER. The consulting surgeon observed the wound and said it was ‘horrific’ and that she had never seen anything like it. To this day, the patient still has constant pain.
On November 21, 2023, Hillary was scheduled to undergo procedures with Ben at Restore. She was due to undergo a miniature muscle plication, abdominal scar revision, bilateral arm liposuction, lip injections and ear adjustment procedures.
Hillary prepared her own solution of lidocaine, epinephrine and sodium bicarb. At around 11am, she ingested a ‘handful’ of pills, including Valium. It was said that she was experiencing the effects of sedation after this.
Despite being sedated, Hillary removed the stitches from a Restore patient after she took all the medication.
At around 1pm, the office closed to the public. A medical assistant prepped the procedure room for Hillary’s procedures.
Hillary was given another dose of Versed.
The report documents what happened next:
Everyone started to panic. The assistants were trying to find other supplies and were unable to. They did not even know if the office had a crash cart or AED. Ben asked for someone to bring a stethoscope but nobody could find one. Ben began shouting at the staff, asking them ‘what medication did she take? What did she take?’
After about 10-20 mins, Hillary’s breathing was shallow. Ben asked the assistants to call 911 and began performing CPR. An assistant called 911 at 4.13pm and asked for an ambulance. First responders arrived not long after and Hillary was taken to hospital with an elevated lactic acid level and suspected lidocaine toxicity. She never regained consciousness and would end up dying on November 28, 2023.
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