A Florida plastic surgeon is under investigation after his wife died while he was giving her “several” procedures — allegedly while she was overmedicated with a drug only being used because he had run out of his usual one.
Mom of three Hillary Brown, 33, seized and went into cardiac arrest as her husband, Dr. Ben Brown, 40, was operating on her Nov. 21 at his Restore Plastic Surgery in Gulf Breeze, USA Today reported.
She spent a week in a coma before her family decided to take her off life support because she had suffered extensive brain damage due to lack of oxygen, according to the outlet. Her organs were donated.
A 911 call indicated a female patient was in cardiac arrest after possibly being “overmedicated,” the Pensacola News Journal reported, citing the call notes.
“Hillary Brown was in the process of several surgical procedures when she experienced several seizures and then went into cardiac arrest,” the statement added, without elaborating on exactly what surgeries she was getting at the time.
Brown told his wife’s parents, Marty and Dixie Ellington, that he had run out of the medication he usually used, so had put his wife under on a different one, they told USA Today.
“We want answers,” Marty Ellington said, while also questioning why their son-in-law did not have more staff and emergency equipment at hand.
The death of a Florida plastic surgeon’s wife is under investigation after she went into cardiac arrest as he was operating on her.
“We haven’t been given answers. If it’s a mistake, it was a mistake, but it doesn’t bring my daughter back,” the grieving father said.
“I don’t want his money. I don’t want anything. All I want is an answer because I think that we owe that to my daughter.”
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office’s Major Crimes Unit is investigating the death, the reports said.
Hillary Brown, 33, died after surgery by her husband, Dr. Ben Brown, at his clinic.
The office “frequently (conducts) death investigations when the death was unexpected or the death occurs under unusual circumstances,” spokesperson Jillian Durkin said in a statement to USA Today.
“The cause and manner of death is pending the receipt of the autopsy protocol from the District One medical examiner’s office,” she said.
Hillary and her husband had been married for about two years.
“The autopsy protocol typically takes several months as it is usually dependent on extensive laboratory and toxicology tests as well as the information gathered by our Major Crimes detectives,” Durkin added.
Hillary and her three children from a previous marriage.
Brown wrote about his wife on Nov. 24, when she was in a coma.
“We need prayers for a miracle. Hillary had a cardiac arrest on Tuesday afternoon,” he wrote in a social media post cited by the outlet.
“We called 911 and started CPR. Her heart came back but her brain is not doing well,” he added. “Hillary Ellington Brown you are my soulmate, my world, my everything. Please come back. Please!”
His wife, who had three young children from a previous marriage and also worked at the clinic, had been married to Brown — who has two sons — for about two years, the Journal reported.
Hillary Brown reportedly had a sometimes “volatile” relationship with her husband.
Their relationship was sometimes “volatile,” Marty told the outlet, adding that she mostly enjoyed their life together and having him perform cosmetic work on her.
“She was gorgeous. We kept telling her, ‘Why are you doing this?’” he told the outlet about their conversations.
On April 7, Hillary wrote on Instagram: “I have been guilty of loving someone so much, I started fixing them and failed to notice they were breaking me.”
She did not refer to a specific relationship in the post.
Restore Plastic Surgery has two malpractice lawsuits open against it, though only one lists Brown as a defendant, according to USA Today.
In that case, Wendy and William Carden allege that he used “foreign materials” in a post-mastectomy breast surgery without her consent in 2018, causing infection and sepsis, the outlet reported.
Brown was accused of “negligently failing to periodically monitor the position of the upper extremities,” leading to Wendy’s suffering alleged nerve damage and other permanent injury.
The Post has reached out to Restore Plastic Surgery for comment.
