What does it take for a doctor to lose his license to practice permanently? A patient dead from "therapeutic misadventure?" A formal finding of unprofessional conduct? Advanced age? Maybe not.
The new filing by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency against Dr. Scott Bickman for his role in a California painkiller mill reveals a very sad truth. Maria Garcia’s death could almost certainly have been avoided.
On Nov 19, MSNBC reported that a woman pretended to be a plastic surgeon and talked two or more other women into allowing her to examine their breasts in bars in the Boise, Idaho area. She told them her name was Berlyn Aussieahshowna, which believe it or not, “was bogus” or so the account reads. She gave them the phone number of a real plastic surgeon whose office staff became increasingly concerned after receiving “a number” of calls looking to make appointments for liposuction and breast augmentation with Berlyn Aussieahshowna, whose real name is Kristina Ross.
That was her one big vice, according to her brother and her estranged husband.
This otherwise healthy 39-year-old visited the doctors at Hills Surgical Center in Anaheim because she didn’t like the way she looked. To remedy that, the surgeons scheduled a series of procedures, all to happen in one day.
On March 13, 2008, Garcia died on the operating room table after a vaginal rejuvenation surgery and liposuction, another victim of the bad decisions made by the doctors at 145 S. Chaparral Court.
Some physicians cater to the immigrant community out of public service or cultural affinity. Others, like Dr. Harrell Robinson, end up there because they ruined their own reputations with English-speaking patients.
The Southern California cosmetic surgeon shared an Anaheim office with Dr. Andrew Rutland, the doctor who is now accused in the death of Chinese immigrant Ying Chen.