(blue_j)
When you’re undergoing an operation, it’s preferable to have a surgeon with a medical license. But an unsuspecting San Francisco woman wasn’t so lucky, going under the knife of an impostor who allegedly pretended to be a physician assistant, performed liposuction and ended up flushing the fat down her toilet.
According to the L.A. Times, the suspect charged the woman $3,000 for the surgery. He put her under local anesthesia and had her hold her IV bag as he operated while smoking a cigar. The woman suffered an infection and had to undergo another procedure to recover.
The suspected fake doctor could be locked up for as many as 12 years and faces charges that include practicing medicine without a license, false impersonation and a version of assault.
Patients looking for bargains should check out the doctor’s credentials and read up on any complaints filed against him.
Man impersonated doctor, performed liposuction, officials say [L.A. Times]
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Hi, Dr. Nick!
No, the gas is for meeee! *breathes deeply*
Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing… till I jam this down your throat!
Flammable and inflammable mean the same thing? What a country!
Hey, did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?
Careful, you’re going to give yourself skin failure.
Be creative. Instead of making sandwiches with bread, use Pop-Tarts. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon. And remember, if you’re not sure about something, rub it against a piece of paper. If the paper turns clear, it’s your window to weight gain.
The knee-bone’s connected to the… something. The something’s connected to the… red thing. The red thing’s connected to my wrist watch…
Uh oh.
Seriously, baby, I can prescribe anything I want.
I’ll perform any operation for $129.95! Come in for brain surgery and receive a free Chinese finger trap! You’ve tried the best, now try the rest! Call 1-600-DOCT-ORB. The B is for Bargain!
The coroner? I’m SO sick of that guy!
Well if it isn’t my old friend Mr. McGregg‚Äîwith a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg!
Protip: When looking for a surgeon, remember that credible surgeons don’t perform surgery in their spare bedroom or a Ford Econoline van.
Oopsie. No Ford Econoline Van? Really. Damn it!
Yeah, or ask you to hold your IV bag while he’s performing the surgery with a cigar in hand.
I mean really, there weren’t any red flags here before allowing him to start the procedure?
Today’s selection from the “Mutually Exclusive Terms” department:
Medical
Bargain
That’s what Costa Rica is for.
Dumb question – is $3000 for liposuction really that much of a bargain? All surgeries are expensive, of course. But you don’t need to go under full anesthesia, and the puncture site is only a couple inches wide. As far as surgeries go, you’re not using that much equipment, either.
If you think health care is expensive, wait until it’s free!
FTA: A few days later, the doctor showed up at her home with 6 pounds of her fat…
Worst door-prize ever. Where’s Ed McMahon when you need him?
Dead.
“But an unsuspecting San Francisco woman wasn’t so smart…”
/FTFY
What was the correction? Please don’t say it initially said “San Fran”. That annoyed me even before I moved there.
it said she wasn’t that lucky, but really using a fake dr. has nothing to do with luck.
Proof that medicine needs less regulation- the free market would have taken care of this guy if the patient had taken the time to read yelp reviews.
Good point. More regulation would have definitely prevented this criminal from breaking the law. He probably has a “only break a few dozen laws at once” ethic, so if we added a LOT more regulation he’d be totally reformed and not scamming people.
Because that’s how criminals work.
No, what it means is less regulation would mean there would be more fake doctors since there would be less of a chance of them being caught.
Less oversight means more opportunity for crime. That’s how criminals work
So you think more regulation would have prevented this? If only there were more laws, this would have never happened? I assume that you do since you think less regulation = more criminals, ergo more regulation = less criminals.
Given all of the power in the world, what regulation would you enact that would have prevented this fake doctor from ripping off this woman? What is the new law that this criminal would not dare break?
Ah, the old “If there were no laws there would be no crime” argument. Less regulation does not mean less unethical behavior. More regulation doesn’t mean criminals are less likely to take the risk. Enforcement of regulations could have had some effect on whether this guy got far enough to perform 1 or 2 procedures. We need more enforcers/regulators or the laws we already have.
It’s like with immigration. We don’t need more laws, we just need to enforce the ones we have (including punishing business owners that knowingly hire illegal workers).
It’s like with cell-phone/driving laws. We didn’t need them because we already had laws about distracted driving.
Unfortunately, law enforcement continually sees cutbacks because people think we need smaller government.
Regulation #1 — Have a medical license. He didn’t have one. A simple check would have caught this. I’d guess the woman knew he wasn’t legit but didn’t care as he was cheap.
Things go wrong: people make mistakes, people commit fraud. We can deal with the wrongs through the courts, or through regulation. Contract law can typically be settled in a court, with restitution. Or, you hit my car, you caused $22,000 in damages, you pay $22,000 to compensate me. Medical malpractice, not so much. It’s not like a court can order a doctor to reattach a mistakenly-amputated limb, or undo the effects of unsafe radiation exposure from a poorly calibrated CT scanner, or bring a dead child back to life.
Courts, or regulation. If you want less regulation of the medicine, you must be prepared to argue that the courts are a better means of safeguarding our interests.
I love how many people took this guy’s troll bait.
Good god. How damn stupid can you be? I really can’t feel sorry for someone that damn stupid.
The suspected fake doctor…faces charges that include…false impersonation
False impersonation? So he was really a doctor who pretended to be a person pretending to be a doctor?
My friend’s a mortuary scientist, worse stuff goes into the toilet.
There was a serial killer in England that got discovered after he was flushing parts of his victims down the toilet. Apparently the plumber who came in to fix it found pieces of flesh clogged in the pipes and immediately contacted the police.
“He put her under local anesthesia and had her hold her IV bag as he operated while smoking a cigar.”
The woman was an idiot beyond measure and is lucky she’s not dead. I’d be afraid to admit I was as stupid as a rock in public….. but I see she has no shame.
Darwin has failed this woman and society.
ummm if a surgeon comes to your house to do it you should be suspicious lol
In most of these cases people know it’s not a licensed doctor but like the low price and don’t alert authorities unless it goes bad.
This.
I know stupid people are everywhere, but California seems to have a much higher concentration of them.
Jeez. Ever hear of Florida?
Or Arizona. I live here, and continue to be surprised at how stupid some of the folks are in this state.
Montana is worse. Coming from someone who lived in Az and Mt.
Being a Montanan, I’m inclined to be personally offended. However, you’re probably correct.
Florida stupid moves in though. They were all born somewhere else.
You clearly need to spend more time in southern Ohio.
Took the words right out of my mouth. So to speak.
We just have a lot of people in general. Overall, I’ll bet we’re smarter than average. At least we have the sense not to live somewhere with tons of snow.
Or tons of earthqua… wait….
What a waste. He could have made soap out of it.
LOL… I wonder what people think when searching for surgeons.
You mean… Doctor Mario isn’t a licensed practicing doctor? I feel so disillusioned…
Mamma-Mia! Plumbers should stick to what they are qualified to do – gastroenterology!
Is somebody trying to go into the soap business?
The best part is that she knew working out and eating right could also remove her fat. Once she recovers, she will return to her standard eating and workout (non-existent or insufficient) habits and find herself with more fat to get sucked out.
How stupid is this woman???
I’ve encounterd physicians that were so stupid that I was amazed they made past their 18th bday let alone make it through med school……if they actually did.
It really makes me mad when people flush perfectly good bio-diesel down the toilet!
Surgery is not the place to try to bargain shop people! Get References.
I like the part where the doctor comes over to her house to flush the fat down the toilet, and she didn’t think anything of it *until* she started to suffer the ill effects of this surgery. Some people are just too stupid to be alive.
Hey, at least he didn’t leave an upper decker.
The only way to really fix stupid is to hire a fake surgeon to perform a mildly complicated surgury in a place that has no witnesses and indoor plumbing.
What a deal. I shelled out $14k to fix a couple broken teeeth with implants. He probably could have done wonders for $499.95, a dremmel, a few screws and some bondo.
Still preferable to having a friend perform the surgery in your garage with a vacuum cleaner.