This is an amazing story: one licensed doctor had physician’s assistants working for him, and allowed them to do the surgery. These physician’s assistants were supposedly licensed as actual doctors in Colombia, but not here in Florida.
One board certified plastic surgeon saw so many disasters coming from the one clinic that he alerted authorities.
A neighbor interviewed said that people are always looking to do things cheaply and that’s why he thinks this happened. I know awesome plastic surgeons who are not expensive. And I know unqualified doctors performing plastic surgery who are expensive. Cost isn’t the answer.
The answer is simple: be sure that your plastic surgeon is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. It is the ONLY board recognized to credential plastic surgeons.
Perhaps the easiest way to check is to go to the website of ASAPS. To be a member, board certification, continuing medical education, and medical license must be current. They also had to demonstrate a significant part of their practice as being devoted to aesthetic surgery.
One thing that struck me about this was how beautiful the office looked in the video: I could have been fooled!
And their website is so nice it could easily fool anyone: http://hbcosmetic.com/
But the website misses one important thing: no doctor is listed. It just says, “our doctors.” If you ever see that you don’t want to go there for your surgery. Even the big chain surgery shops still put up the names of their doctors.
Just be sure that the surgeon is certified by the ABPS.
