Plastic surgeon charged in death of wife who went into cardiac arrest while he worked on her

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A plastic surgeon in the Florida Panhandle was charged with his wife's death after she suffered a cardiac arrest and died days after he performed after-hours procedures on her in his clinic last year, authorities said.

Benjamin Brown was arrested Monday on a charge of manslaughter by culpable negligence, which is a second-degree felony, He was released from the Santa Rosa County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond.

There was no online court docket for Brown as of Tuesday morning so it was unknown if he had an attorney. No one answered the phone at his clinic.

Brown's wife, Hillary Brown, went into cardiac arrest in November while her husband was performing procedures on her at his clinic in Pensacola, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. She was taken to a hospital and died a week later, the sheriff's office said.

Last month, the Florida Department of Health filed an administrative complaint before the state Board of Medicine, seeking penalties against Brown up to the revocation or suspension of his license. The complaint involved his wife's case and other cases.

Unsupervised by her husband or any other health care practitioner, Hillary Brown prepared her own local anesthesia and filled intravenous bags for the procedures which included arm liposuction, lip injections and an ear adjustment, according to the Department of Health complaint.

She also ingested several pills, including a sedative, pain killer and antibiotic, before falling into a sedated state, though the consumption of those pills wasn't documented, the complaint said.

“The minimum prevailing professional standard of care requires that physicians not permit a patient to prepare medication for use in their own surgery,” the complaint said.

During the procedures,...