July 11, 2024 • 40 mins
Hillary Ellington, a mother of three, is swept off her feet by Dr. Ben Brown, a renown plastic surgeon.
After just one year dating, the couple marries in June 2022. Their relationship’s described as very “touchy-feely,” but volatile. Ellington has several plastic surgeries performed by her husband. She is set to go under her husband’s knife again for several procedures at the same time.
Dr. Ben Brown prepares for an abdominal scar revision, bilateral arm liposuction, an ear adjustment, and lip injections in his office, while Ellington prepares her own anesthetic. Without supervision, Ellington mixes lidocaine into two IV bags, and takes a ‘handful’ of pills including Valium, Tramadol ], Cefadroxil, Zofran, and Versed.
Before starting the procedures, Brown asks a nurse to give Ellington another dose of Versed, and asks a second nurse to prepare a bowl of undiluted Xylocaine. Brown injects both of Ellington’s self-made IV bags and the Xylocaine into his wife, then gets to work on the abdominal scar revision.
Nurses notice Ellington’s feet twitching. Brown continues on to the liposuction in Ellington’s arms, then injects more Xylocaine into Ellington’s face for the upcoming ear adjustment and lip fillers.
Ellington tells her husband that her vision is blurring, and she ‘sees orange.’ Brown administers more Xylocaine in Ellington’s face, when his wife suddenly starts seizing, and goes into cardiac arrest. Medical assistants ask Brown if they should call 911, and Brown tells them ‘no,’ hopeful to stabilize Ellington on his own. However, there is no oxygen or a defibrillator on hand in the office. Nurses repeatedly ask to call 911, and after 20 minutes of telling staff to wait, Brown finally agrees.
First responders take over CPR and intubate Ellington before she is rushed to Ascension Sacred Heart’s Emergency room in cardiac arrest with suspected lidocaine toxicity. Ellington is stabilized with life support. A week after her admittance, Ellington is removed from life support and her organs are donated.
After Hillary Ellington’s death, several former patients come forward with “horror stories” about their experiences with Dr. Ben Brown. Many report their abdominal wounds opening after stitches were removed, leaving them with gaping holes tunneling down to the muscle wall.
Several patients who received breast implants from Brown were left with huge scars, nerve damage, infections, and many ultimately had the implants removed entirely by new surgeons. Former employees also claim the office used unsanitary cleaning procedures, and unlicensed individuals would often prepare anesthetics.
After a nearly six-month investigation into ‘Restore’ after Hillary Ellington’s death, the Florida Department of Health issues an emergency order restricting Dr. Ben Brown’s medical license. Brown is restricted to only performing surgery under the supervision of a licensed surgeon at a licensed hospital.
A month after the Department of Health’s emergency order, Brown is also criminally charged with second-degree murder by negligence for causing his wife’s death by over medicating her. Brown turns himself in, posts a $50,000 bond, and is released.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Marty Ellington - Hillary’s Father
- Brandi Fitzsimmons - Former Patient of Dr. Ben Brown
- Robert Crispin – Private Investigator, Former Federal Task Force Officer for United States Department of Justice, DEA and Miami Field Division, Former Homicide and Crimes Against Children Investigator, “Crispin Special Investigations” CrispinInvestigations.com, Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations, Inc.
- Dr. Terry J. Dubrow MD, F.A.C.S. – “Botched” and “7 Year Stitch” on E!; Author: “Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig Present The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need to the Best Anti-Aging Treatments,” “The Dubrow Diet: Interval Eating to Lose Weight and
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
An horror. A young mom, Hillary dies as her plastic
surgeon hubby operates on her. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace.
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
The wife of a prominent Florida plastic surgeon dies in
an operating chair during multiple procedures performed by her husband.
(00:30):
What went wrong? What did go wrong? And why is
this young mom dead? Now? Is it appropriate to be
operating on your wife? I've got so many questions. Forget
the impropriety of operating on your wife, if that's even true,
she's dead. Are you supposed to be performing multiple procedures
(00:55):
all at the same time? What happened in this case?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Listen, not a little one police fire abolance, ambulance. We
have an unsabled patient. Okay, are you there with the
patient now? Yeah? Okay, we do have help on the way.
What exactly happened? She was having surgery to the posting
Thurdery outfits and he's unstable here think, Okay, she's she's done, honey,
(01:22):
the rest right now. Okay, we have we have help coming. Okay,
can you tell me what kind of operations she was getting?
A Domino IPO that transfer different. I don't know them
off the top of my head.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Right now, I don't know off the top of my head,
what are you supposed to have all of that done
at once? Joining me an all star panel including Molly
Barrow's investigative reporter Pittsacola News Journal and host podcast Gulf
Coast Confidential, which is awesome. But first I want to
go to special guests doctor Terry du brow uh star
(01:59):
in Botched and seven year stitch on e and the
author of Doctor and Missus Guinea Pig. Okay, I'll address
that later, but doctor J. Brow, I want to get
to your main line of work, and that is plastic surgery.
You are renowned. Are you supposed to perform that many?
(02:22):
First of all, I don't even know what the assistant
was saying, because all I get hurt here is in
the background, cardiac arrest, cardiac arrest. That's what got my attention.
But she was founding off a lot of procedures. Is
the patient's supposed to have all that done at once?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
So it's extremely common to have all those procedures done
at once. You know the list of those procedures probably
only takes about three hours. Here's what happened in this case.
It has to be clarified, Nancy. This is a procedure
done under local anesthesia with the patient awake by the
patient's husband. You know, we have this expression in medicine,
(02:58):
familiarity breeds in competence and negligence. You need to keep
a professional distance between you and your patients. And that's
why it's discouraged. Unless it's a specialized procedure that you
happen to be the best in the world at, you
should not be operating on your relevance. Now in this case,
this is a clear cutcase of lytokane overdose. Lightocane overdose
(03:20):
is when you exceed the amount of local anesesia you
should give the patient and they become toxic. And what
happens is you get cardiac toxic se first you go
into seizures, then full cardiac arrests. The mistake is twofold here.
One this doctor clearly was negligent and gave too much
local anesthesia. And two, when he should have made a
(03:42):
prompt diagnosis and started early treatment, he didn't any delayed
calling nine to one one and for that that's why
his wife is no longer alive.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Guys, you are hearing from our friend and renowned plastic sergeant,
doctor Terry de Brow joining me right now. Now. It's
a very special guest. It's Marty Ellington. This is Hillary's father. Marty.
I am so sorry. I can't imagine. I have a
(04:14):
beautiful daughter just like you, and to me, she's completely perfect.
I don't want her to change anything.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Why.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I mean, when I look at Hillary, she's perfect. Why
did she have to have all this plastic surgery?
Speaker 5 (04:34):
She didn't she was absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What got in her mind that she needed plastic surgery?
Speaker 6 (04:41):
I don't know if she seen other people have it
done and she thought that she could have it done also,
I mean, you know we What fuels me is every
day I learning something new from statements made that he
wanted to make his perfect Megum.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Fox start write there, mister Ellington. Okay, I do not
like interrupting the father of a victim, But did you
just hear did you just say? Did I hear correctly
that the plastic surgeon husband, doctor Ben Brown wanted his
(05:20):
own perfect private Megan Fox, did you just say that?
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Okay, maybe it's me, but I love my husband just
like he is and one of the reasons I married
him is he likes me just like I am. In fact,
he prefers me without all my fate here and makeup.
Can I just say that? Why would? That? Just breaks
(05:47):
my heart? Because Hillary beautiful on the inside and out,
a mother to three children ages four through eight, devoted mom,
and now she's dead, completely avoidable. Like doctor Dubrowt just
(06:08):
told us, what do you mean by that? He wanted
his own private perfect Megan.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
Fox, I know, like I said, we hear these stories
every day and it just builds more and more.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
That's that's probably the fuel that keeps me going.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
As much as we're hurt. Uh, my wife and I have,
our life has forever changed. Oh well, you know we
have to fight for her.
Speaker 6 (06:36):
And we hear, you know, we hear these things about
him and what he's doing, and it's.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Own and on and on.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
That's what fuels us to keep going and fight for her.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I'm looking at her before and after, and I think
whoever told you that was telling the truth because I'm
looking at her and she looks like a natural blonde,
completely natural beautiful out at the beach with their children.
And then when I look at the after she does,
she is starting to look like Megan Fox. I mean,
(07:06):
I don't understand this, guys, I'm hearing in my ear.
We are just being joined by Brandy Fitzsimmons, a former
patient of the husband in question, doctor Ben Brown. Brandy,
thank you for being with us. I thank you, thank
you when you. I don't know if you can see
(07:30):
the before and after, but I gotta tell you, I
think she's beautiful before and that after she's dounning. She
doesn't look real like I'm not gonna name a name,
but when I was a prosecutor, a famous movie star
came to shadow me during It's a pleain Arrayment calendar
(07:54):
and it lasted several days. And I've seen her on
the screen many times, but when I saw her in person,
it looked like a grown lady, beautiful, but it looked
like somebody had taken the nose off of a seven
or eight year old little girl and put it in
the middle of her face. Of course, I never said anything,
(08:15):
but it didn't look right. I'm just a trial lawyer.
I don't really know how to describe this. Maybe doctor
du Brow can help me. But Brandy, what was your
experience with the doctor. And I want to point out
we invited Brown on never heard a word back. Gee,
I wonder why, Jackie, wonder why I didn't want to
(08:37):
come on answer my questions. But go ahead, Brandy, what happened?
Speaker 7 (08:41):
I mean, from the get go my first consultation, I
didn't really have any red flags. I did only go
to him. I attempted to make an appointment at another facility.
Long story, I ended up just bailing on that one.
So I continued with doctor Brown. He was very straightforward.
Showed him a couple of pictures of what I looked
(09:02):
like prior to kind of gaining my little stomach pooch,
and he kind of gave me this idea that I
was going to walk away with this athletic build, look,
abs and everything. It wasn't really funny, but I wasn't
looking for a comedian. I was looking for a surgeon
who seemed like they knew what they were talking about.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
It.
Speaker 7 (09:23):
I didn't realize what I was going to get myself into.
The first procedure I had went into it was a hospital,
Baptist hospital in Pennscola. It was an extended tummy tuck
with muscle repair and plan in exchange, he was to
do some MICO on my back and my arms and
take some of that fat injection and fill in the
(09:45):
sea points they call him hit dips. That's all I
consented to, That's all I wanted. I have it in
writing three separate times, whether it was in text or
an email, that I did not want a full I
made it very very clear to him that was the
one procedure I did not want. I was happy with
(10:06):
my backside, and it wasn't until after all this happened
with Hillary and I reached out to my attorney and
when they pulled metal Core records, that's where they found
out he did, in fact give me the full BBL,
and every follow up appointment, every time I addressed concerns,
it was, oh, you're just swollen. You didn't get that done.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
It'll go down.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
It's only because the life though I did on your back,
it makes it look like your butt's a little bigger.
But yeah, he lied over and over and over and
then gave me the one procedure I did not want.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You're saying a BBL, I assume you're talking about a
Brazilian butt lift.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Okay, hold on to a moment too. Doctor Terry De Brow,
star of Botched and seven Year Stitch and author. Have
you ever seen the movie with goldiehorn And and Meryl
Streep It's called Death Becomes Her. Yes, they're also married
to a doctor and he performs all this plastic surgery
(11:09):
on them. Long story short, it's just that scared me
away from plastic surgery and it's not even real. But
did you hear what Brandy Fitzimmons just said? I mean
to go into a plastic surgery with the lady Brandy
and her come out with a Brazilian butt lift that
she did not want?
Speaker 8 (11:29):
What?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Okay? What is a Brazilian butt lift?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
So a bb And by the way, I just want
to make it very clear that my opinions are based
on what I've heard in the media, Okay, So I
don't have first hand information about exactly what this doctor did.
So I just want to state that qualification, okay, because
I don't want to think that I'm saying anything particular
about the case based on knowledge I have. All Right,
(11:52):
A Brazilian button lift is where you take that one
part of the body you transfer into the buttock. It's
a very specific procedure happens to be the most dangerous
proceduring plastic surgery, with the greatest rate of fatality. In fact,
one in three thousand patients die from a Brazilian buttock lift,
and there's been a momiratorium on doing them to do it.
If it's true if a Brazilian was done on a
(12:16):
patient without their consent, well, that's battery, Okay, that's obviously
a violation of the standard of care, that's medical negligence.
But in this case, if I may not to disagree
with anyone, I'm not sure this case is really necessarily
about an indictment of plastic surgery in general. But the
fact that potentially in this case, the usual best practices
(12:41):
and the standard of care was not followed. And in
my opinion, this is a really big part of why
you shouldn't operate on your relatives, you shouldn't take care
of your family members, because you lose professional perspective and
you're not objective. In this case, I promise you had
(13:02):
these procedures been done by a doctor, a different doctor
who didn't necessarily know the patient, ninety nine times out
of one hundred, ninety nine nine times out of one hundred.
This would proceeded safely, you'd have it a live patient.
These are very very common procedures, whether you like them
(13:22):
or not, I completely understand. Look, I'm a star of
a TV show where we fix bad plastic surgery, so
I'm the unique plastic surgeon, and then I agree with
limiting the amount of plastic surgery people.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It's not so much that I don't like them, doctor
doctor DeBras, not that I don't like them. I mean,
if it makes you feel better about yourself, do it fine.
I'd be mad if you didn't. Well, I don't. I'm
more fearful of them because my friend, my friend who
loved my children, John Rivers, went in. I just had
(13:59):
had the children and we talked about them all the
time because she's such a loving mother, was such a
loving mother to her daughter Melissa. And the next thing
you know, she's dead, dead, John Rivers dead. Why she
died after some minor minor, a minor fix. It was
(14:22):
going to be nothing, and she was not guarded appropriately.
They did not call nine one one quickly enough, just
like this, And you're saying that this victim, Hillary, who
is the daughter of Marty joining us today nine one
one was not called in time. Is that the standard
(14:43):
of care to which you are referring as being breached.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
It's a massive violation. If it occurred, I read the
details exactly, I just read the news articles. But if
it occurred, it's a massive, gross, extreme violations standard of care.
It led for sure to the demise of this patient.
Joan Rivers, unfortunately, is also a victim of this kind
of familiarity breeds in negligence because the doctors were the
(15:11):
best doctors in the state, but because it was Joan Rivers,
they weren't following best practices. They didn't remain objective. This
is another reason why celebrities often have problems, because the
doctors lose perspective or they just aren't as objective as
they should be. So you have to be very careful.
If plastic surgery is as dangerous as any other kind
(15:34):
of surgery, and in some cases, like with a BBL
Brazilian butt lift, way more dangerous. So if you can
avoid plastic surgery avoided at all costs, I encourage you,
if you're going to do it, go to board certified
physicians with a lot of gray hair or no hair,
and think very carefully and read that consent form, because
(15:55):
on the last word on that consent form is the
word death. And it does have happen, and not as
infrequently as doctors might like to admit.
Speaker 9 (16:04):
Hillary Ellington Brown is in trouble in an operating room
for nearly half an hour before plastic surgeon Hubby doctor
Ben Brown contacts nine to one one and begins to
perform CPR.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Why why, that's what I want to know. Let's see
what we can learn from the nine one one call.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
All on stop, I need one person to talk to me.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
How old is the patient?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Thret too?
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Okay?
Speaker 8 (16:28):
Is he breathing?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Now're recording PPR right now?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Was he having a procedure or anything?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yes, she went coming a cockboatic, carothed. Okay, straight back
out to Marty Ellington. This is Hillary's dad. What goes
through your mind when you're hearing that nine one one call?
And I believe that's her husband. He's screaming in the background.
(16:57):
That Juck supposed against the fact that, according to witnesses,
there was a long delay that shouldn't have happened before
they call online one one.
Speaker 10 (17:06):
Yeah, not know that, I mean, we know for for
a fact Uh, kind of like the uh the doctor
Uh I mentioned you know there's no crash card in
the room.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
Uh, there's a defibrillator.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
Uh, there's no life saving you know, they don't have oxygen.
Speaker 7 (17:24):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
The doctor don't even have a stethoscope, for God's sake,
you know, and so you know, no oximeter that they
can't check her oxygen level. It's nothing but but like
having surgery in my office for example. And you know,
you know if he had any of those things, you know,
he's he's screaming for uh, for his stethoscope. He's screaming for,
(17:46):
you know, find me oxygen. The medical assistant had only
been on staff for four days. She knows nothing about
where the oxygen is.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, you're telling me something I didn't know, mister Allington.
Guys with me as hillary'sday, Marty Ellington, I knew that
according to witnesses and is our expert joining us today.
I'm anow plastic surgeon. Doctor Terry Debrew said, we're going
based on what we've been told, and this isn't what
the neighbors said to the neighbor over the fence. And
(18:16):
then they talked about it at the PTA meeting. That's
what witnesses on the scene said that he waited. He
waited to call nine to one one, but I'm hearing
from you that he didn't even have a stethoscope. I
knew he didn't have a defibrillator, which you've got to have,
but it didn't have oxygen lined up.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
No oxygen and you could even hear in then now
one call, he's screaming, somebody find my stethoscope.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Okay, joining us and I started to go to her earlier,
and I want to go right now to Molly Barrow's
investigative reporter Pittscacola News Journal and host of The Gulf
Coast Confidential, Molly, thank you for being with us. What
do you know happened?
Speaker 11 (18:55):
Well?
Speaker 12 (18:55):
According to numerous reports, including the Santoris Sheriff's Office, the
Reference to Medical Staminer's Office report, as well as the
Florida Department of Health, we're talking about multiple agencies that
have been looking into this man for seven months since
Hillary died in November. So what we do know fort
In Center, as the Sheriff's office, is that, just like
what you've been hearing, he.
Speaker 11 (19:15):
Failed to call on one line. He didn't have live
of saving.
Speaker 12 (19:18):
Equipment on hand, and as a result of that and
not following basic standard of care, like the doctor interview said,
that's exactly what the Florida Department of Help is saying.
He didn't follow basic standard of care and as a result,
Hillary Brown coded and died. She had a cardiac arrest
right there that kept her life support for a bound
a week due to light of can toxicity, and she
(19:39):
was showing signs of light of King toxicity during the
procedure of Nancy. She was complaining she couldn't see. She
was complaining she had saw orange. She was starting to twitch.
She didn't got up and suture her. She was futured herself.
Speaker 11 (19:52):
At one point she got up and walked.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Around crime Stories with Nancy.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Grace Molly berra is joining me from Pitts Colony's journal.
She sutured herself.
Speaker 11 (20:13):
Yes, ma'am, She's sutured herself.
Speaker 12 (20:15):
That's according to the Florida Department of Health's investigation.
Speaker 11 (20:19):
Which by the way, came out after her death. So
they started investigating when.
Speaker 12 (20:24):
Numerous other former patients had ben Brown, like Brandy herself,
came forward and were willing to share their stories.
Speaker 11 (20:29):
They had been complaining for a long time.
Speaker 12 (20:32):
There's currently litigation against Ben Brown for basically box surgeries
and doing what he wants what he wants. She's not
even the only one, Brandy who received an unconsented BBL.
I talked to another woman, Jane Hawkins. She had the
same thing. There's improper wound care. There are so many
consistencies fancy in this story between the victims. So when
we came forward, I have a Excel sheet with almost
(20:53):
three dozen people who have come forward showing me pictures.
My inbox looks like it's full of war wound. So
Hillary's death did bring to light and give a voice
to a lot of people who just simply hadn't been
heard before.
Speaker 11 (21:05):
So going back to her walking around.
Speaker 12 (21:07):
Yeah, that's basically what the Department help was saying as
well as it came out in the Center and the
Shiff's Office report.
Speaker 11 (21:12):
So they did things in you know.
Speaker 12 (21:14):
According to these reports, sort of fast and loose with
these medical rules and laws. She took her own tumisive solution,
which is essentially anstiegious.
Speaker 11 (21:22):
She mixed it herself. They had two IV fags, I
believe anyway, she ran out, he ran out of one.
Speaker 12 (21:28):
But after the tummy touch procedure, the fat removal of
she's still forgeous. I don't even know where they found
fat on her body, but anyway, it came out of
her stommach. She got up, walked around at some point,
and then went back.
Speaker 11 (21:41):
Down and then suture herself. And I'm unclear she sutured that.
Speaker 12 (21:45):
Cut on her tummy or she's suture of her arms,
but she also procedures enter her arms. She had procedures
under her face, and it was during those procedures that
at one point she started to twitch, she started to
see orange. These are all signs of lat case toxicity
of boarding to the health department report.
Speaker 11 (22:00):
And he didn't stop. Instead, he asked for more basically
ant seesion.
Speaker 12 (22:04):
Medicine when he ran out of that IV bag.
Speaker 11 (22:06):
So there's a lot to a Nancy.
Speaker 12 (22:08):
I don't need to run on and on and on,
but it is just such a bizarre and sad case for.
Speaker 11 (22:12):
So many people.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Molly Barrows, you are not running on and on, although
I will state that what you told me makes me
feel sick. To Marty Ellington, this is Hillary's father. Your
girl is dead and her three children between four and
(22:38):
eight years old. They're going to grow up without her
and for what And Molly Barrows isn't just again stating
what the neighbor told the neighbor over the fence and
then they burned it out at the PTA meeting. This
is according to the Sheriff's Department and other filings people
that are now coming forward, and it all ends up
(23:03):
with Hillary dead.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
There has been for what we understand, there has been
numerous complaints to the Department of Health.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
I don't know where these records go. People just own
an own say it's just a dead end.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
You know.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
We've got people that's supposed to supervise these doctors and
they feel like their voice is not being heard. You know,
to jump ahead a bit, you know, we found a
little bit of relief when they arrest the guy and
he gets a fifty thousand dollars bill. I mean, he
didn't steal a snicker bar from seven to eleven. We're
(23:39):
talking about murder. Fifty thousand dollars and the judge's response
was because of his status in the community. We see
what kind of status of the community this guy is.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
You know, we feel one hundred percent violated.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
If the Department of Health would have paid attention to
all these dozens and dozens of complaints.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
They had investigated this.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
Guy far before. There's no crash car or Will's lapsay equipment.
Speaker 9 (24:07):
Plastic surgeon doctor Ben Brown arrested in the Bunched cosmetic
surgery death of his wife. As the investigation continues, patients
take to social media to voice complaints of infections, disfiguration, bunched, bbl's.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Speaking of Botched, joining me, Doctor Terry de Brow and
Robert Crispin, don't go away, because I need to talk
to you about how to build this case. Doctor de
Brow is a star of Botched and of Seven Year Stitch.
He's also an author and a renowned plastic surgeon. Did
you hear what Molly Barrows just reported? Did you hear that?
(24:48):
I didn't want to throw her off by interrupting her
and asking questions. But doctor de Brow, I'm just a
trial lawyer, Okay. I know how to try a murder case.
But a lot of the things she was saying takes
a doctor to explain what in that? Hey, I've never
heard of a patient suturing or sewing up herself. And
(25:09):
she was mixing her own drugs and administered her own drugs.
Before then, he administered drugs including Lyda kain. What have
you ever heard anything like it?
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Unfortunately, Nancy, I have. I'm a certified expert for the
California Medical Board, so I see and review all of
these types of cases, and this, unfortunately is more common
than you may be awhere, particularly when the patient is
married to a plastic surgeon or works in a plastic
surgeon's office. When you look at the vibe that you
(25:41):
get in the narrative from the video you're showing the pictures,
there was sort of a generalized lack of seriousness in
that practice you see on her white codin. I'm not
victim shamed. I feel very sorry for the patient. I
feel sorry for the doctor. I feel sorry for the father,
of course, but doctor Hillary's ass that's a joke on
(26:03):
ass in assistance. But there's sort of a generalized lack
of seriousness in this practice, and she was having a
very significant medical proceder done not in an operating room,
not even in a local procedure room, but in a
med spaw. It appears where there's zero emergency equipment and
zero ability to resuscitate the patient, making it even more
(26:27):
important that you call for nine to one one help
right away. But at the end of the day, this
is more common than people realize. I currently have about
three or four cases right now I'm reviewing for the
Medical Board where a doctor had a patient who was
doing very poorly and one or two of them waited
over three hours before calling rescue before calling nine to
(26:52):
one one. And those doctors, one here in California, one
in Arizona, have also been indicted and arrested for murder
for the same reason, for such wanton disregard for normal
medical practices, because that's what it's all about. You're not
going to show malicious intent. I'm not a lawyer, but
I do a lot of medical legal work. But this
is so reckless and so beyond the pale, that it's
(27:16):
like an involuntary manslaughter.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
You know, doctor G.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Brow.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
And I'm going to go to Robert Crispin on this,
following up on what Debrow said. Robert Crispin, famous private investigator,
former federal Task Force for the US Department of Justice
and work extensively there in Florida with a DEA Miami
Field Division now owns Crispin Special Investigations. Robert we heard
(27:45):
earlier that well, the dad told us he didn't even
have a stethoscope. Then a reporter says that her vision
was blurring, that she was seeing orange, that her legs
were twitching, There was no defibrillator, no oxygen on hand.
(28:05):
Now we find out about more questionable procedures. A lot
of times, when you get to a crime scene, you
can find the front door wide open, the windows open,
the back door open, everybody's gone. Nobody wants to testify
to what happened. Right. How many times have you had
to sneak around to a back door like me as
(28:27):
a prosecutor and go trying to bay people to tell
me what they saw. How do you put humpty dumpty
back together again? Do you really think these assistants and
nurses are going to testify against the doctor?
Speaker 7 (28:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Absolutely, I do.
Speaker 8 (28:46):
As a matter of fact, that nine to one one
call shows the complete chaos that was going on inside
that office at that time. Bad decision after bad decision
after bad decision, all coming together to be gross negligence.
Each of these interviews, if I was the investigator on
this particular case, each one of my interviews geared towards
(29:06):
every single.
Speaker 11 (29:07):
Employee in there.
Speaker 8 (29:09):
I want to know how this happened before. Why doesn't
he have this? Each one of these things are going
to build up my negligence case against the doctor. Like
the doctor says that spoke a couple of minutes ago.
You don't work on your family. You just don't work
on relatives. And I tell you that because on a
flight coming back at thirty eight thousand feet, I had
(29:31):
a relative had an incident in flight and I completely
vapor locked. And I deal with emergency situations all the time,
and I for a minute lost it, and I brought
it back together. We did what we need to do.
We got the plane down and my relative lived. So
you know, to put this case together, it's putting itself together.
(29:53):
That Department of Health report is going to be a
big deal in the prosecution. Those people in that room
are going to be key witnesses to what happened. Listen,
you can either be part of the problem or you
can be part of the solution. And I guarantee you
each one of those assistants have lawyered up and they've
gotten to the port where the lawyer has come forward
(30:13):
and go, Mike.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Client will talk to you. What do you want to talk,
the assistant will talk to you.
Speaker 8 (30:18):
What do you want to know in lure? Are charging
my assistant because don't forget, he didn't do this all
on himself. These nurses, these certified nurses, these licensed nurses,
they have.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
A duty to react as well.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
They have a duty to report as well.
Speaker 8 (30:35):
So this case is going to systematically go through court
and conviction is easily taken in this particular case, easily.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Back to Brandy Fitzsimmons, a former patient of doctor Brown,
and let me assure you we invited him on. He
did not want to answer your questions, Brandy or mine
when you confronted him about performing a Brazilian butt lift
on you, which he specifically did not want. What did
he say that.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
We didn't I didn't have one. It was over and over.
My husband was at i think every apployment except one,
and every time we would question it, assure me that
I did not have one, that it was just swelling swelling,
and that I've gained weight.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Did you or did you not? How have you confirmed
that you actually had a Brazilian butt lift?
Speaker 7 (31:38):
It's in my medical records. When they pulled the medical
records and it shows the eleven hundred milli leaders. I
think that's the right into.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Each Okay, hold on, just a moment to doctor Terry
de Brow, what is she saying? Explain it to me.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
So what she's saying is that this doctor took fat
from one part of the body, was supposed to put
it in it sounds like the hip tips on the sides,
and ended up putting it right into the butticck instead,
in a very large volume in the buttock. If what
you say is true, eleven hundred ccs, so that is
a Brazilian butt lift. If it was not consented for,
(32:16):
it was unauthorized, it is medical battery. It's one of
the worst things you can do. It's called a never
event in plastic surgery. I think it's important to understand
obviously the practices of this doctor were not where you'd
want them to be. There was sort of a lack
of seriousness.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Doctor du Brown. Of course, I'm just a JD. You're
the MD. But you keep saying his practices were not
what you want them to be. She's dead and my world,
that's murder. Now. Earlier you said something about no malicious intent.
(32:56):
You don't have to have malicious intent and other words,
I'll walk into the studio where you are right now,
and I go, I'm going to kill this guy. I've
had it with him, and I take a gun out
and I say, I'm shooting you dead. That is explicit
evidence that I have nefarious intent known under the law
as mensrea, the intent to perform the act and I
(33:19):
pull the trigger. You don't need that under the law
to perform to prove a murder. Number one, it could
actually be a murder one under extreme abandoned and malignant heart.
For instance, I take my car, my minivan, and I
drive it through an outdoor festival a ninety mph and
(33:41):
I plow down five people and kill them. No, I
didn't say I'm going to kill ABC D and E.
But I did such an abandoned and malignant act with
no care for human life that it equals murder under
the law. Is a depraved heart. Or I could go
(34:03):
with felony murder. He's commanding a felony and somebody dies
during that felony, whether he intended it or not. There's
just so many ways to go with a criminal charge here.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
No, I don't disagree and I'm certainly not going to
argue the law with someone who's an expert like you.
But at the end of the day, when it's done,
when there is sort of a death in the practice
of medicine, okay, typically the doctor is trying to do
something positive rather than something negative. But in this case,
when you add up all of the wanton disregard for
(34:39):
normal medical practices, the level of recklessness, I agree with you,
could rise to a very high level of sort of
a murder charge. But this case, in many ways, the
sum total of the factors involved in this case rise
to the level of severe incompetence. He knew or should
(35:00):
known that these things added together would have led potentially
to a mortality like it did. So it's a very
high level of involuntary matslaughter.
Speaker 9 (35:11):
I would think the wife of a prominent Florida plastic
surgeon dies in an operating chair during multiple procedures performed
by her husband, what went wrong?
Speaker 2 (35:23):
While the doctor would not come on to speak with us,
a crisis management public relations team did issue a statement
saying Brown denies all accusations of wrong doing. Okay, stethoscope,
no oxygen, no defibrillator. You know what to Marty Ellington,
(35:44):
diss is Hillary's dad. The other day, my children went
on a college tour with their school, and I went
there over their objections. Of course, when they left on
the bus, I went right up to the bus driver
as started a conversation and went I had to smell
his breath to make sure he hadn't been drinking before
(36:05):
my children getting that bus and drive away. He smelled fine.
That said, this guy was no more prepared to do surgery.
If it's true, he didn't have his stethoscope, oxygen or defibrillator.
And if it's true they delayed calling nine one one,
it makes me wonder, mister Ellington, did they not want
(36:28):
authorities to find out about any wrongdoings such as her
administering her own drugs and suturing stitching up her own self.
That's not right. Why delay?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Why the delay?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Her life could have been saved. When you are hearing
all of this, Marty, what is going through your mind?
How are her children without their mommy?
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Well, we try to shelter from a lot of it.
We had to break the news to them. It's kind
of hard.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
We told him that mommy was sick and it didn't
look good. And this was just before she passed away.
Because we knew that uh indelibly what was going to
happen uh from the media. Uh, you know, we we
kind of keep it away. And I'm sure that that
as as smart as they are, our friend Google is
gonna uh They're going to search one day and the
(37:22):
truth is going to come out that we have an
emergency meeting, I guess. But for a for an eight
year old, more than anything to have to compartmentalize, you know,
the loss of her mother, and she's not getting information.
Speaker 5 (37:38):
Uh she's not asking. You know that breaks your heart.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
You know when you.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
When you talk about.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
His his care and we talked about nurses. Uh, none
of the people on his staff were nurses. Nobody was
was registered care. The most skilled person in the house
other than the doctor was a medical assistant.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
On her fourth day.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Uh, there was no no one there that could minister
medical care. I mean, you know in Nancy, this this
this goes on and on. Uh Uh from from the
care and negligent they you know, they had a volt relationship.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
Uh. So you know quickly when I called Molly, it
was an eye.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
Opener that the second day we were in the hospital,
and he tells, he says to me that he's going
to close his practice. He's going to file bankruptcy. He's
going to file for long term disability and sell everything
he's got and buy a new vehicle before.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
His credit tanks.
Speaker 6 (38:46):
You know, how do you have the wherewithal when you
know we're we're faithful people.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
We're praying every day that she's going to pull through.
And he's already laid out.
Speaker 6 (38:56):
A sequence of events that that he's going to scape
free from this.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
You know.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Uh so this y'ad.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
I didn't want to go down a rabbit hole, but
quickly I called Molly and I said, you know, there
could be more.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
To this thing than just oops, I messed up.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Guys, if you agree with me that there was a huge,
huge dereliction of duty by the Department of Health, you
know who you can call. Okay, you got to get
them away from a microphone for five minutes. But the
governor of Florida, DeSantis eight five zero seven one seven
(39:35):
nine three three seven, let's see what he'll do. Eight
five zero seven one seven nine three three seven. The
age there Ashley Moody eight six six nine six six
seven two two six let your voice be heard. Stand
(39:56):
up for Hillary. She can't speak for herself. Her children
are babies, they cannot speak for her. We wait as
justice unfolds. And let me remind everyone that, as of
right now, doctor Ben Brown has not been accused of
(40:17):
any crime such as homicide. He's not a POI person
of interest in a homicide. Thank you for being with us,
b Is E. Grace signing off, Goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
An horror. A young mom, Hillary dies as her plastic
surgeon hubby operates on her. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace.
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
The wife of a prominent Florida plastic surgeon dies in
an operating chair during multiple procedures performed by her husband.
(00:30):
What went wrong? What did go wrong? And why is
this young mom dead? Now? Is it appropriate to be
operating on your wife? I've got so many questions. Forget
the impropriety of operating on your wife, if that's even true,
she's dead. Are you supposed to be performing multiple procedures
(00:55):
all at the same time? What happened in this case?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Listen, not a little one police fire abolance, ambulance. We
have an unsabled patient. Okay, are you there with the
patient now? Yeah? Okay, we do have help on the way.
What exactly happened? She was having surgery to the posting
Thurdery outfits and he's unstable here think, Okay, she's she's done, honey,
(01:22):
the rest right now. Okay, we have we have help coming. Okay,
can you tell me what kind of operations she was getting?
A Domino IPO that transfer different. I don't know them
off the top of my head.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Right now, I don't know off the top of my head,
what are you supposed to have all of that done
at once? Joining me an all star panel including Molly
Barrow's investigative reporter Pittsacola News Journal and host podcast Gulf
Coast Confidential, which is awesome. But first I want to
go to special guests doctor Terry du brow uh star
(01:59):
in Botched and seven year stitch on e and the
author of Doctor and Missus Guinea Pig. Okay, I'll address
that later, but doctor J. Brow, I want to get
to your main line of work, and that is plastic surgery.
You are renowned. Are you supposed to perform that many?
(02:22):
First of all, I don't even know what the assistant
was saying, because all I get hurt here is in
the background, cardiac arrest, cardiac arrest. That's what got my attention.
But she was founding off a lot of procedures. Is
the patient's supposed to have all that done at once?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
So it's extremely common to have all those procedures done
at once. You know the list of those procedures probably
only takes about three hours. Here's what happened in this case.
It has to be clarified, Nancy. This is a procedure
done under local anesthesia with the patient awake by the
patient's husband. You know, we have this expression in medicine,
(02:58):
familiarity breeds in competence and negligence. You need to keep
a professional distance between you and your patients. And that's
why it's discouraged. Unless it's a specialized procedure that you
happen to be the best in the world at, you
should not be operating on your relevance. Now in this case,
this is a clear cutcase of lytokane overdose. Lightocane overdose
(03:20):
is when you exceed the amount of local anesesia you
should give the patient and they become toxic. And what
happens is you get cardiac toxic se first you go
into seizures, then full cardiac arrests. The mistake is twofold here.
One this doctor clearly was negligent and gave too much
local anesthesia. And two, when he should have made a
(03:42):
prompt diagnosis and started early treatment, he didn't any delayed
calling nine to one one and for that that's why
his wife is no longer alive.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Guys, you are hearing from our friend and renowned plastic sergeant,
doctor Terry de Brow joining me right now. Now. It's
a very special guest. It's Marty Ellington. This is Hillary's father. Marty.
I am so sorry. I can't imagine. I have a
(04:14):
beautiful daughter just like you, and to me, she's completely perfect.
I don't want her to change anything.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Why.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I mean, when I look at Hillary, she's perfect. Why
did she have to have all this plastic surgery?
Speaker 5 (04:34):
She didn't she was absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What got in her mind that she needed plastic surgery?
Speaker 6 (04:41):
I don't know if she seen other people have it
done and she thought that she could have it done also,
I mean, you know we What fuels me is every
day I learning something new from statements made that he
wanted to make his perfect Megum.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Fox start write there, mister Ellington. Okay, I do not
like interrupting the father of a victim, But did you
just hear did you just say? Did I hear correctly
that the plastic surgeon husband, doctor Ben Brown wanted his
(05:20):
own perfect private Megan Fox, did you just say that?
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Okay, maybe it's me, but I love my husband just
like he is and one of the reasons I married
him is he likes me just like I am. In fact,
he prefers me without all my fate here and makeup.
Can I just say that? Why would? That? Just breaks
(05:47):
my heart? Because Hillary beautiful on the inside and out,
a mother to three children ages four through eight, devoted mom,
and now she's dead, completely avoidable. Like doctor Dubrowt just
(06:08):
told us, what do you mean by that? He wanted
his own private perfect Megan.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
Fox, I know, like I said, we hear these stories
every day and it just builds more and more.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
That's that's probably the fuel that keeps me going.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
As much as we're hurt. Uh, my wife and I have,
our life has forever changed. Oh well, you know we
have to fight for her.
Speaker 6 (06:36):
And we hear, you know, we hear these things about
him and what he's doing, and it's.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Own and on and on.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
That's what fuels us to keep going and fight for her.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I'm looking at her before and after, and I think
whoever told you that was telling the truth because I'm
looking at her and she looks like a natural blonde,
completely natural beautiful out at the beach with their children.
And then when I look at the after she does,
she is starting to look like Megan Fox. I mean,
(07:06):
I don't understand this, guys, I'm hearing in my ear.
We are just being joined by Brandy Fitzsimmons, a former
patient of the husband in question, doctor Ben Brown. Brandy,
thank you for being with us. I thank you, thank
you when you. I don't know if you can see
(07:30):
the before and after, but I gotta tell you, I
think she's beautiful before and that after she's dounning. She
doesn't look real like I'm not gonna name a name,
but when I was a prosecutor, a famous movie star
came to shadow me during It's a pleain Arrayment calendar
(07:54):
and it lasted several days. And I've seen her on
the screen many times, but when I saw her in person,
it looked like a grown lady, beautiful, but it looked
like somebody had taken the nose off of a seven
or eight year old little girl and put it in
the middle of her face. Of course, I never said anything,
(08:15):
but it didn't look right. I'm just a trial lawyer.
I don't really know how to describe this. Maybe doctor
du Brow can help me. But Brandy, what was your
experience with the doctor. And I want to point out
we invited Brown on never heard a word back. Gee,
I wonder why, Jackie, wonder why I didn't want to
(08:37):
come on answer my questions. But go ahead, Brandy, what happened?
Speaker 7 (08:41):
I mean, from the get go my first consultation, I
didn't really have any red flags. I did only go
to him. I attempted to make an appointment at another facility.
Long story, I ended up just bailing on that one.
So I continued with doctor Brown. He was very straightforward.
Showed him a couple of pictures of what I looked
(09:02):
like prior to kind of gaining my little stomach pooch,
and he kind of gave me this idea that I
was going to walk away with this athletic build, look,
abs and everything. It wasn't really funny, but I wasn't
looking for a comedian. I was looking for a surgeon
who seemed like they knew what they were talking about.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
It.
Speaker 7 (09:23):
I didn't realize what I was going to get myself into.
The first procedure I had went into it was a hospital,
Baptist hospital in Pennscola. It was an extended tummy tuck
with muscle repair and plan in exchange, he was to
do some MICO on my back and my arms and
take some of that fat injection and fill in the
(09:45):
sea points they call him hit dips. That's all I
consented to, That's all I wanted. I have it in
writing three separate times, whether it was in text or
an email, that I did not want a full I
made it very very clear to him that was the
one procedure I did not want. I was happy with
(10:06):
my backside, and it wasn't until after all this happened
with Hillary and I reached out to my attorney and
when they pulled metal Core records, that's where they found
out he did, in fact give me the full BBL,
and every follow up appointment, every time I addressed concerns,
it was, oh, you're just swollen. You didn't get that done.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
It'll go down.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
It's only because the life though I did on your back,
it makes it look like your butt's a little bigger.
But yeah, he lied over and over and over and
then gave me the one procedure I did not want.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You're saying a BBL, I assume you're talking about a
Brazilian butt lift.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Okay, hold on to a moment too. Doctor Terry De Brow,
star of Botched and seven Year Stitch and author. Have
you ever seen the movie with goldiehorn And and Meryl
Streep It's called Death Becomes Her. Yes, they're also married
to a doctor and he performs all this plastic surgery
(11:09):
on them. Long story short, it's just that scared me
away from plastic surgery and it's not even real. But
did you hear what Brandy Fitzimmons just said? I mean
to go into a plastic surgery with the lady Brandy
and her come out with a Brazilian butt lift that
she did not want?
Speaker 8 (11:29):
What?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Okay? What is a Brazilian butt lift?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
So a bb And by the way, I just want
to make it very clear that my opinions are based
on what I've heard in the media, Okay, So I
don't have first hand information about exactly what this doctor did.
So I just want to state that qualification, okay, because
I don't want to think that I'm saying anything particular
about the case based on knowledge I have. All Right,
(11:52):
A Brazilian button lift is where you take that one
part of the body you transfer into the buttock. It's
a very specific procedure happens to be the most dangerous
proceduring plastic surgery, with the greatest rate of fatality. In fact,
one in three thousand patients die from a Brazilian buttock lift,
and there's been a momiratorium on doing them to do it.
If it's true if a Brazilian was done on a
(12:16):
patient without their consent, well, that's battery, Okay, that's obviously
a violation of the standard of care, that's medical negligence.
But in this case, if I may not to disagree
with anyone, I'm not sure this case is really necessarily
about an indictment of plastic surgery in general. But the
fact that potentially in this case, the usual best practices
(12:41):
and the standard of care was not followed. And in
my opinion, this is a really big part of why
you shouldn't operate on your relatives, you shouldn't take care
of your family members, because you lose professional perspective and
you're not objective. In this case, I promise you had
(13:02):
these procedures been done by a doctor, a different doctor
who didn't necessarily know the patient, ninety nine times out
of one hundred, ninety nine nine times out of one hundred.
This would proceeded safely, you'd have it a live patient.
These are very very common procedures, whether you like them
(13:22):
or not, I completely understand. Look, I'm a star of
a TV show where we fix bad plastic surgery, so
I'm the unique plastic surgeon, and then I agree with
limiting the amount of plastic surgery people.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It's not so much that I don't like them, doctor
doctor DeBras, not that I don't like them. I mean,
if it makes you feel better about yourself, do it fine.
I'd be mad if you didn't. Well, I don't. I'm
more fearful of them because my friend, my friend who
loved my children, John Rivers, went in. I just had
(13:59):
had the children and we talked about them all the
time because she's such a loving mother, was such a
loving mother to her daughter Melissa. And the next thing
you know, she's dead, dead, John Rivers dead. Why she
died after some minor minor, a minor fix. It was
(14:22):
going to be nothing, and she was not guarded appropriately.
They did not call nine one one quickly enough, just
like this, And you're saying that this victim, Hillary, who
is the daughter of Marty joining us today nine one
one was not called in time. Is that the standard
(14:43):
of care to which you are referring as being breached.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
It's a massive violation. If it occurred, I read the
details exactly, I just read the news articles. But if
it occurred, it's a massive, gross, extreme violations standard of care.
It led for sure to the demise of this patient.
Joan Rivers, unfortunately, is also a victim of this kind
of familiarity breeds in negligence because the doctors were the
(15:11):
best doctors in the state, but because it was Joan Rivers,
they weren't following best practices. They didn't remain objective. This
is another reason why celebrities often have problems, because the
doctors lose perspective or they just aren't as objective as
they should be. So you have to be very careful.
If plastic surgery is as dangerous as any other kind
(15:34):
of surgery, and in some cases, like with a BBL
Brazilian butt lift, way more dangerous. So if you can
avoid plastic surgery avoided at all costs, I encourage you,
if you're going to do it, go to board certified
physicians with a lot of gray hair or no hair,
and think very carefully and read that consent form, because
(15:55):
on the last word on that consent form is the
word death. And it does have happen, and not as
infrequently as doctors might like to admit.
Speaker 9 (16:04):
Hillary Ellington Brown is in trouble in an operating room
for nearly half an hour before plastic surgeon Hubby doctor
Ben Brown contacts nine to one one and begins to
perform CPR.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Why why, that's what I want to know. Let's see
what we can learn from the nine one one call.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
All on stop, I need one person to talk to me.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
How old is the patient?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Thret too?
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Okay?
Speaker 8 (16:28):
Is he breathing?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Now're recording PPR right now?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Was he having a procedure or anything?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yes, she went coming a cockboatic, carothed. Okay, straight back
out to Marty Ellington. This is Hillary's dad. What goes
through your mind when you're hearing that nine one one call?
And I believe that's her husband. He's screaming in the background.
(16:57):
That Juck supposed against the fact that, according to witnesses,
there was a long delay that shouldn't have happened before
they call online one one.
Speaker 10 (17:06):
Yeah, not know that, I mean, we know for for
a fact Uh, kind of like the uh the doctor
Uh I mentioned you know there's no crash card in
the room.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
Uh, there's a defibrillator.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
Uh, there's no life saving you know, they don't have oxygen.
Speaker 7 (17:24):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
The doctor don't even have a stethoscope, for God's sake,
you know, and so you know, no oximeter that they
can't check her oxygen level. It's nothing but but like
having surgery in my office for example. And you know,
you know if he had any of those things, you know,
he's he's screaming for uh, for his stethoscope. He's screaming for,
(17:46):
you know, find me oxygen. The medical assistant had only
been on staff for four days. She knows nothing about
where the oxygen is.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, you're telling me something I didn't know, mister Allington.
Guys with me as hillary'sday, Marty Ellington, I knew that
according to witnesses and is our expert joining us today.
I'm anow plastic surgeon. Doctor Terry Debrew said, we're going
based on what we've been told, and this isn't what
the neighbors said to the neighbor over the fence. And
(18:16):
then they talked about it at the PTA meeting. That's
what witnesses on the scene said that he waited. He
waited to call nine to one one, but I'm hearing
from you that he didn't even have a stethoscope. I
knew he didn't have a defibrillator, which you've got to have,
but it didn't have oxygen lined up.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
No oxygen and you could even hear in then now
one call, he's screaming, somebody find my stethoscope.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Okay, joining us and I started to go to her earlier,
and I want to go right now to Molly Barrow's
investigative reporter Pittscacola News Journal and host of The Gulf
Coast Confidential, Molly, thank you for being with us. What
do you know happened?
Speaker 11 (18:55):
Well?
Speaker 12 (18:55):
According to numerous reports, including the Santoris Sheriff's Office, the
Reference to Medical Staminer's Office report, as well as the
Florida Department of Health, we're talking about multiple agencies that
have been looking into this man for seven months since
Hillary died in November. So what we do know fort
In Center, as the Sheriff's office, is that, just like
what you've been hearing, he.
Speaker 11 (19:15):
Failed to call on one line. He didn't have live
of saving.
Speaker 12 (19:18):
Equipment on hand, and as a result of that and
not following basic standard of care, like the doctor interview said,
that's exactly what the Florida Department of Help is saying.
He didn't follow basic standard of care and as a result,
Hillary Brown coded and died. She had a cardiac arrest
right there that kept her life support for a bound
a week due to light of can toxicity, and she
(19:39):
was showing signs of light of King toxicity during the
procedure of Nancy. She was complaining she couldn't see. She
was complaining she had saw orange. She was starting to twitch.
She didn't got up and suture her. She was futured herself.
Speaker 11 (19:52):
At one point she got up and walked.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Around crime Stories with Nancy.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Grace Molly berra is joining me from Pitts Colony's journal.
She sutured herself.
Speaker 11 (20:13):
Yes, ma'am, She's sutured herself.
Speaker 12 (20:15):
That's according to the Florida Department of Health's investigation.
Speaker 11 (20:19):
Which by the way, came out after her death. So
they started investigating when.
Speaker 12 (20:24):
Numerous other former patients had ben Brown, like Brandy herself,
came forward and were willing to share their stories.
Speaker 11 (20:29):
They had been complaining for a long time.
Speaker 12 (20:32):
There's currently litigation against Ben Brown for basically box surgeries
and doing what he wants what he wants. She's not
even the only one, Brandy who received an unconsented BBL.
I talked to another woman, Jane Hawkins. She had the
same thing. There's improper wound care. There are so many
consistencies fancy in this story between the victims. So when
we came forward, I have a Excel sheet with almost
(20:53):
three dozen people who have come forward showing me pictures.
My inbox looks like it's full of war wound. So
Hillary's death did bring to light and give a voice
to a lot of people who just simply hadn't been
heard before.
Speaker 11 (21:05):
So going back to her walking around.
Speaker 12 (21:07):
Yeah, that's basically what the Department help was saying as
well as it came out in the Center and the
Shiff's Office report.
Speaker 11 (21:12):
So they did things in you know.
Speaker 12 (21:14):
According to these reports, sort of fast and loose with
these medical rules and laws. She took her own tumisive solution,
which is essentially anstiegious.
Speaker 11 (21:22):
She mixed it herself. They had two IV fags, I
believe anyway, she ran out, he ran out of one.
Speaker 12 (21:28):
But after the tummy touch procedure, the fat removal of
she's still forgeous. I don't even know where they found
fat on her body, but anyway, it came out of
her stommach. She got up, walked around at some point,
and then went back.
Speaker 11 (21:41):
Down and then suture herself. And I'm unclear she sutured that.
Speaker 12 (21:45):
Cut on her tummy or she's suture of her arms,
but she also procedures enter her arms. She had procedures
under her face, and it was during those procedures that
at one point she started to twitch, she started to
see orange. These are all signs of lat case toxicity
of boarding to the health department report.
Speaker 11 (22:00):
And he didn't stop. Instead, he asked for more basically
ant seesion.
Speaker 12 (22:04):
Medicine when he ran out of that IV bag.
Speaker 11 (22:06):
So there's a lot to a Nancy.
Speaker 12 (22:08):
I don't need to run on and on and on,
but it is just such a bizarre and sad case for.
Speaker 11 (22:12):
So many people.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Molly Barrows, you are not running on and on, although
I will state that what you told me makes me
feel sick. To Marty Ellington, this is Hillary's father. Your
girl is dead and her three children between four and
(22:38):
eight years old. They're going to grow up without her
and for what And Molly Barrows isn't just again stating
what the neighbor told the neighbor over the fence and
then they burned it out at the PTA meeting. This
is according to the Sheriff's Department and other filings people
that are now coming forward, and it all ends up
(23:03):
with Hillary dead.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
There has been for what we understand, there has been
numerous complaints to the Department of Health.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
I don't know where these records go. People just own
an own say it's just a dead end.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
You know.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
We've got people that's supposed to supervise these doctors and
they feel like their voice is not being heard. You know,
to jump ahead a bit, you know, we found a
little bit of relief when they arrest the guy and
he gets a fifty thousand dollars bill. I mean, he
didn't steal a snicker bar from seven to eleven. We're
(23:39):
talking about murder. Fifty thousand dollars and the judge's response
was because of his status in the community. We see
what kind of status of the community this guy is.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
You know, we feel one hundred percent violated.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
If the Department of Health would have paid attention to
all these dozens and dozens of complaints.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
They had investigated this.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
Guy far before. There's no crash car or Will's lapsay equipment.
Speaker 9 (24:07):
Plastic surgeon doctor Ben Brown arrested in the Bunched cosmetic
surgery death of his wife. As the investigation continues, patients
take to social media to voice complaints of infections, disfiguration, bunched, bbl's.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Speaking of Botched, joining me, Doctor Terry de Brow and
Robert Crispin, don't go away, because I need to talk
to you about how to build this case. Doctor de
Brow is a star of Botched and of Seven Year Stitch.
He's also an author and a renowned plastic surgeon. Did
you hear what Molly Barrows just reported? Did you hear that?
(24:48):
I didn't want to throw her off by interrupting her
and asking questions. But doctor de Brow, I'm just a
trial lawyer, Okay. I know how to try a murder case.
But a lot of the things she was saying takes
a doctor to explain what in that? Hey, I've never
heard of a patient suturing or sewing up herself. And
(25:09):
she was mixing her own drugs and administered her own drugs.
Before then, he administered drugs including Lyda kain. What have
you ever heard anything like it?
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Unfortunately, Nancy, I have. I'm a certified expert for the
California Medical Board, so I see and review all of
these types of cases, and this, unfortunately is more common
than you may be awhere, particularly when the patient is
married to a plastic surgeon or works in a plastic
surgeon's office. When you look at the vibe that you
(25:41):
get in the narrative from the video you're showing the pictures,
there was sort of a generalized lack of seriousness in
that practice you see on her white codin. I'm not
victim shamed. I feel very sorry for the patient. I
feel sorry for the doctor. I feel sorry for the father,
of course, but doctor Hillary's ass that's a joke on
(26:03):
ass in assistance. But there's sort of a generalized lack
of seriousness in this practice, and she was having a
very significant medical proceder done not in an operating room,
not even in a local procedure room, but in a
med spaw. It appears where there's zero emergency equipment and
zero ability to resuscitate the patient, making it even more
(26:27):
important that you call for nine to one one help
right away. But at the end of the day, this
is more common than people realize. I currently have about
three or four cases right now I'm reviewing for the
Medical Board where a doctor had a patient who was
doing very poorly and one or two of them waited
over three hours before calling rescue before calling nine to
(26:52):
one one. And those doctors, one here in California, one
in Arizona, have also been indicted and arrested for murder
for the same reason, for such wanton disregard for normal
medical practices, because that's what it's all about. You're not
going to show malicious intent. I'm not a lawyer, but
I do a lot of medical legal work. But this
is so reckless and so beyond the pale, that it's
(27:16):
like an involuntary manslaughter.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
You know, doctor G.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Brow.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
And I'm going to go to Robert Crispin on this,
following up on what Debrow said. Robert Crispin, famous private investigator,
former federal Task Force for the US Department of Justice
and work extensively there in Florida with a DEA Miami
Field Division now owns Crispin Special Investigations. Robert we heard
(27:45):
earlier that well, the dad told us he didn't even
have a stethoscope. Then a reporter says that her vision
was blurring, that she was seeing orange, that her legs
were twitching, There was no defibrillator, no oxygen on hand.
(28:05):
Now we find out about more questionable procedures. A lot
of times, when you get to a crime scene, you
can find the front door wide open, the windows open,
the back door open, everybody's gone. Nobody wants to testify
to what happened. Right. How many times have you had
to sneak around to a back door like me as
(28:27):
a prosecutor and go trying to bay people to tell
me what they saw. How do you put humpty dumpty
back together again? Do you really think these assistants and
nurses are going to testify against the doctor?
Speaker 7 (28:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Absolutely, I do.
Speaker 8 (28:46):
As a matter of fact, that nine to one one
call shows the complete chaos that was going on inside
that office at that time. Bad decision after bad decision
after bad decision, all coming together to be gross negligence.
Each of these interviews, if I was the investigator on
this particular case, each one of my interviews geared towards
(29:06):
every single.
Speaker 11 (29:07):
Employee in there.
Speaker 8 (29:09):
I want to know how this happened before. Why doesn't
he have this? Each one of these things are going
to build up my negligence case against the doctor. Like
the doctor says that spoke a couple of minutes ago.
You don't work on your family. You just don't work
on relatives. And I tell you that because on a
flight coming back at thirty eight thousand feet, I had
(29:31):
a relative had an incident in flight and I completely
vapor locked. And I deal with emergency situations all the time,
and I for a minute lost it, and I brought
it back together. We did what we need to do.
We got the plane down and my relative lived. So
you know, to put this case together, it's putting itself together.
(29:53):
That Department of Health report is going to be a
big deal in the prosecution. Those people in that room
are going to be key witnesses to what happened. Listen,
you can either be part of the problem or you
can be part of the solution. And I guarantee you
each one of those assistants have lawyered up and they've
gotten to the port where the lawyer has come forward
(30:13):
and go, Mike.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Client will talk to you. What do you want to talk,
the assistant will talk to you.
Speaker 8 (30:18):
What do you want to know in lure? Are charging
my assistant because don't forget, he didn't do this all
on himself. These nurses, these certified nurses, these licensed nurses,
they have.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
A duty to react as well.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
They have a duty to report as well.
Speaker 8 (30:35):
So this case is going to systematically go through court
and conviction is easily taken in this particular case, easily.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Back to Brandy Fitzsimmons, a former patient of doctor Brown,
and let me assure you we invited him on. He
did not want to answer your questions, Brandy or mine
when you confronted him about performing a Brazilian butt lift
on you, which he specifically did not want. What did
he say that.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
We didn't I didn't have one. It was over and over.
My husband was at i think every apployment except one,
and every time we would question it, assure me that
I did not have one, that it was just swelling swelling,
and that I've gained weight.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Did you or did you not? How have you confirmed
that you actually had a Brazilian butt lift?
Speaker 7 (31:38):
It's in my medical records. When they pulled the medical
records and it shows the eleven hundred milli leaders. I
think that's the right into.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Each Okay, hold on, just a moment to doctor Terry
de Brow, what is she saying? Explain it to me.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
So what she's saying is that this doctor took fat
from one part of the body, was supposed to put
it in it sounds like the hip tips on the sides,
and ended up putting it right into the butticck instead,
in a very large volume in the buttock. If what
you say is true, eleven hundred ccs, so that is
a Brazilian butt lift. If it was not consented for,
(32:16):
it was unauthorized, it is medical battery. It's one of
the worst things you can do. It's called a never
event in plastic surgery. I think it's important to understand
obviously the practices of this doctor were not where you'd
want them to be. There was sort of a lack
of seriousness.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Doctor du Brown. Of course, I'm just a JD. You're
the MD. But you keep saying his practices were not
what you want them to be. She's dead and my world,
that's murder. Now. Earlier you said something about no malicious intent.
(32:56):
You don't have to have malicious intent and other words,
I'll walk into the studio where you are right now,
and I go, I'm going to kill this guy. I've
had it with him, and I take a gun out
and I say, I'm shooting you dead. That is explicit
evidence that I have nefarious intent known under the law
as mensrea, the intent to perform the act and I
(33:19):
pull the trigger. You don't need that under the law
to perform to prove a murder. Number one, it could
actually be a murder one under extreme abandoned and malignant heart.
For instance, I take my car, my minivan, and I
drive it through an outdoor festival a ninety mph and
(33:41):
I plow down five people and kill them. No, I
didn't say I'm going to kill ABC D and E.
But I did such an abandoned and malignant act with
no care for human life that it equals murder under
the law. Is a depraved heart. Or I could go
(34:03):
with felony murder. He's commanding a felony and somebody dies
during that felony, whether he intended it or not. There's
just so many ways to go with a criminal charge here.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
No, I don't disagree and I'm certainly not going to
argue the law with someone who's an expert like you.
But at the end of the day, when it's done,
when there is sort of a death in the practice
of medicine, okay, typically the doctor is trying to do
something positive rather than something negative. But in this case,
when you add up all of the wanton disregard for
(34:39):
normal medical practices, the level of recklessness, I agree with you,
could rise to a very high level of sort of
a murder charge. But this case, in many ways, the
sum total of the factors involved in this case rise
to the level of severe incompetence. He knew or should
(35:00):
known that these things added together would have led potentially
to a mortality like it did. So it's a very
high level of involuntary matslaughter.
Speaker 9 (35:11):
I would think the wife of a prominent Florida plastic
surgeon dies in an operating chair during multiple procedures performed
by her husband, what went wrong?
Speaker 2 (35:23):
While the doctor would not come on to speak with us,
a crisis management public relations team did issue a statement
saying Brown denies all accusations of wrong doing. Okay, stethoscope,
no oxygen, no defibrillator. You know what to Marty Ellington,
(35:44):
diss is Hillary's dad. The other day, my children went
on a college tour with their school, and I went
there over their objections. Of course, when they left on
the bus, I went right up to the bus driver
as started a conversation and went I had to smell
his breath to make sure he hadn't been drinking before
(36:05):
my children getting that bus and drive away. He smelled fine.
That said, this guy was no more prepared to do surgery.
If it's true, he didn't have his stethoscope, oxygen or defibrillator.
And if it's true they delayed calling nine one one,
it makes me wonder, mister Ellington, did they not want
(36:28):
authorities to find out about any wrongdoings such as her
administering her own drugs and suturing stitching up her own self.
That's not right. Why delay?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Why the delay?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Her life could have been saved. When you are hearing
all of this, Marty, what is going through your mind?
How are her children without their mommy?
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Well, we try to shelter from a lot of it.
We had to break the news to them. It's kind
of hard.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
We told him that mommy was sick and it didn't
look good. And this was just before she passed away.
Because we knew that uh indelibly what was going to
happen uh from the media. Uh, you know, we we
kind of keep it away. And I'm sure that that
as as smart as they are, our friend Google is
gonna uh They're going to search one day and the
(37:22):
truth is going to come out that we have an
emergency meeting, I guess. But for a for an eight
year old, more than anything to have to compartmentalize, you know,
the loss of her mother, and she's not getting information.
Speaker 5 (37:38):
Uh she's not asking. You know that breaks your heart.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
You know when you.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
When you talk about.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
His his care and we talked about nurses. Uh, none
of the people on his staff were nurses. Nobody was
was registered care. The most skilled person in the house
other than the doctor was a medical assistant.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
On her fourth day.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Uh, there was no no one there that could minister
medical care. I mean, you know in Nancy, this this
this goes on and on. Uh Uh from from the
care and negligent they you know, they had a volt relationship.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
Uh. So you know quickly when I called Molly, it
was an eye.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
Opener that the second day we were in the hospital,
and he tells, he says to me that he's going
to close his practice. He's going to file bankruptcy. He's
going to file for long term disability and sell everything
he's got and buy a new vehicle before.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
His credit tanks.
Speaker 6 (38:46):
You know, how do you have the wherewithal when you
know we're we're faithful people.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
We're praying every day that she's going to pull through.
And he's already laid out.
Speaker 6 (38:56):
A sequence of events that that he's going to scape
free from this.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
You know.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Uh so this y'ad.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
I didn't want to go down a rabbit hole, but
quickly I called Molly and I said, you know, there
could be more.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
To this thing than just oops, I messed up.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Guys, if you agree with me that there was a huge,
huge dereliction of duty by the Department of Health, you
know who you can call. Okay, you got to get
them away from a microphone for five minutes. But the
governor of Florida, DeSantis eight five zero seven one seven
(39:35):
nine three three seven, let's see what he'll do. Eight
five zero seven one seven nine three three seven. The
age there Ashley Moody eight six six nine six six
seven two two six let your voice be heard. Stand
(39:56):
up for Hillary. She can't speak for herself. Her children
are babies, they cannot speak for her. We wait as
justice unfolds. And let me remind everyone that, as of
right now, doctor Ben Brown has not been accused of
(40:17):
any crime such as homicide. He's not a POI person
of interest in a homicide. Thank you for being with us,
b Is E. Grace signing off, Goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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