A doctor in Orlando has had his medical license revoked after he allegedly botched a "Brazilian butt lift" operation that ended with a patient's death.
Christopher A R Walker, practicing at Beja Body Med Spa in Florida, operated on a 38-year-old woman in January 2021, according to a complaint against the doctor.
The operation required the doctor to perform liposuction on the patient's back and abdomen, after which the fat was re-inserted to her buttocks.
The complaint alleges that Walker "repeatedly crossed" through the patient's abdominal muscles during the procedure, and in doing so punctured several of her organs and arteries, News 6 Orlando reports.
Around 3pm on the day of the surgery, the patient reportedly went into cardiac arrest, after which Walker and his team attempted CPR and administered epinephrine as they tried to save her. She was later transferred to a hospital for emergency treatment.
The hospital workers found the woman's pancreas, colon, and liver had been damaged during the BBL procedure, and that she was bleeding from wounds to her abdomen.
Due to the punctures, the patient suffered severe internal bleeding and died later later that evening, according to the complaint.
“[Walker] knew or had reason to know that he was not competent to perform liposuction due to his lack of education, training, and/or experience,” it says.
According to state records, Walker was licensed as a doctor but was not a board-certified plastic surgeon. However, a doctor does not need to be a board-certified plastic surgeon to carry out the operation in Florida.
After the woman's death, the Florida Board of Medicine requested the case be reviewed by a certified plastic surgeon. The surgeon found that Walker had made fatal mistakes during the procedure and noted that "liposuction falls beyond the scope of Dr Walker's specialty as a urogynecologist."
On December 5, Walker appeared before the Florida Board of Medicine, where the panel agreed with a state judge's recommendation to pull his license to practice medicine.
During the hearing, Walker mentioned a criminal case from 2020 in which he instructed a witness not to turn over documents to the government pertaining to his plan to take a cut of a patient’s settlement money. He narrowly avoided a lengthy prison sentence in that situation - but had to pay over $800,000 - and he said the stress from the criminal investigation contributed to the mistake that killed his patient.
“In my eagerness to help my patients suffering from tremendous pain from the faulty vaginal mesh implants, I unfortunately unintentionally failed to comply with the laws governing patient travel that resulted in me being criminally charged by a New York prosecutor. During this turmoil, when I was being criminally charged, my freedom and livelihood were threatened. I tragically lost a patient under my care,” he said. “This indescribable tragedy has left me with profound grief.”
Walker said that he was “completely broken” and that in his 25 years as a surgeon the woman was the only patient he operated on who had ever died.
"I understand that mistake, though unintended, has caused immense pain and suffering, and I’m filled with profound sorrow for the family affected by this loss, and I extend my deepest apologies to them," Walker said during the hearing. "Their pain is a burden that I live with daily.”
Walker pressed the board not to revoke his license and asked for "redemptive justice" instead, but the board was not moved by his plea.
