A hearing that could go a long way toward determining whether Gulf Breeze plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Brown will ever be allowed to practice medicine again got underway Sept. 16 at an administrative law office in downtown Pensacola.
The Florida Department of Health, which has already placed emergency restrictions on Brown, has petitioned the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings to recommend he face further sanctions that could include the permanent revocation or a suspension of his license.
Brown could also face further restrictions on his practice, administrative fines, or probation.
The Department of Health claims that an investigation of Brown’s practice had concluded he had violated several state statutes and exhibited behavior that falls below the minimum standard of medical care. FDOH calls for discipline for Brown for his failure to keep complete and accurate medical records, the performing of unauthorized procedures, and allowing an unlicensed person to practice medicine.
Brown’s attorney, Bruce Lamb, defended his client as a physician and argued that the state will not be able to make its case that Brown did not keep appropriate records or its claims that unlicensed people were performing medical procedures.
Following this week’s hearing, which is expected to last through Friday, Yolonda Green, the administrative law judge presiding over the hearing, will present her recommendation for action in Brown’s case to the Florida Board of Medicine. The Department of Health will also present a recommendation of its own.
The first witness called Tuesday was a woman identified as J.H. The news media were ordered to leave the room while her testimony was heard. She had shared her story with the Pensacola News Journal last year and filed a complaint with the FDOH in the summer of 2023.
The woman told a reporter in January about of enduring emergency surgery to repair a gaping, 9-inch-by-4-inch wound on her stomach that resulted from infection and a tummy-tuck gone wrong after Brown operated on her in November of 2022 at his business Restore Plastic Surgery. The basics of the charge are backed up in documents found within the Department of Health petition for sanctions against Brown.
J.H. was followed to the witness stand by three women who had worked with Brown and were present on Nov. 23, 2023 when Brown’s wife, Hillary Ellington Brown, went into cardiac arrest as the Ben Brown was conducting several medical procedures on her. She never regained consciousness and died a week later.
Each of the three testified that Hillary Brown had been excited and even looking forward to surgery to five areas of her body and had sailed through the first couple of procedures with no issues.
One woman who was in the room during the surgery said the first sign Hillary Brown might have been in trouble was when she complained of seeing orange.
All three of the witnesses testified to seeing Hillary Brown’s body convulsing and her arms and legs flailing. Each said the woman’s health seemed to be deteriorating even as they urged Ben Brown to call 911 and he told them no.
“She opened her eyes and looked like she wanted to verbalize, then went back to not communicating,” one of the witnesses testified under questioning of DOH attorney Kathryn Ball.
Isabella Ludergnani who had worked in the office run by Ben and Hillary Brown for four days when Hillary Brown went into cardiac arrest, said she had left the room where the procedure was being conducted on Nov. 23 when “we heard something like a scream.”
“We went back in and (she) seemed to be having a seizure. Her arms and legs were reaching out. It was very obvious she was seizing. Her mouth was wide open.,” Ludergnani told Ball. “It was in and out, she would seize, stop, then seize again.”
She said she asked to call 911 and was told no. One member of the office staff testified to calling for emergency help before Brown gave his permission. Two others called, they said, after Brown finally relented and allowed them to do so as his efforts at CPR were failing.
In a 911 call played in court Brown can be heard yelling for someone to bring him “a (expletive) stethoscope.”
Lamb attempted to discredit Ludergnani by introducing to the court Facebook conversations she had in which she discussed the case. Included were posts such as “it might not have been murder, but it was manslaughter” and “taking him down has to be my focus.”
Ludergnani defended the posts. She said she spoke to friends on Facebook rather than “publicly talking about this.”
She also testified to bearing witness to another occurrence in the office of Ben Brown on her third day on the job. She said she witnessed a woman screaming and crying, having suffered an open would to her abdomen.
“It was something similar, which I believed was not right,” she said when Lamb questioned her observation and her comparing it to the Hillary Brown incident.
Brown faces a charge of manslaughter by culpable negligence in Santa Rosa County as a result of the death of his wife. He is also being sued for medical malpractice in Escambia County.
The day in court began Sept. 16 with the hearing of a motion filed by Lamb to prevent the news media from attending the event. The Department of Health team of attorneys opposed the motion and Green rejected it. She did warn reporters in attendance against publicizing names of patients listed by initials in court documents and taking photos of patient witnesses.
Testimony continues Wednesday when an expert witness for the Health Department takes the stand.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Future of Ben Brown’s medical license at stake as administrative law hearings get underway
Reporting by Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
