Myrl Jeffcoat wisgroup_leader@yahoo.com
1 mars, 2007 22:09
Plastic Disaster
Reporting http://cbs13.com/consumer/local_story_325195457.html
You trust your lives with them, but should you?
How do you know if you can really trust your doctor? Several patients of one plastic surgeon did, but they didn't know that he had a criminal past, and battled personal addictions.
Our investigation started two months ago after we got an e-mail from a viewer--a patient of this one doctor.
The deeper we moved into the story, the more we discovered patient after patient all with similar stories.
Some went to him with a desire for beauty.
"He really wanted me to look better," said "Bobbie", a patient
Others went to the doctor to their bodies back together.
"The discovery of my cancer was something that was unexpected," said Linda Starr, patient.
None of these plastic surgery patients expected the horror.
"It looked like somebody cut me with a machete," said "Marion", a patient.
They had no idea there doctor was troubled.
"He was leading the life of an alcoholic, he's a self admitted alcoholic," said Mara Faust, state prosecutor.
"I don't want him to touch anyone else again and hurt anyone like he did my wife," said Ken Mikulecky, a patient’s husband.
In 1997 cancer came as a surprise to Linda Starr. The same day her right breast was removed plastic surgeon Dr. Brian West performed the reconstruction. It was an operation, she was told, had a low risk for infection--less than a one percent chance. The recovery time was expected to be three weeks then she'd go in for cancer treatment.
"I was told it was very important I had Chemo and radiation," said Linda.
Weeks after her operation, instead of a healed wound, she was infected. Her incision turned green, purple and black.
Without anesthesia and without warning she says Dr. West took a scalpel to her sewed up incision and cut her open.
"You're coming apart. You're seeing parts of your body, you're not meant to see," said Linda.
She was left to heal but the infection kept growing, tunneling through her body into her new breast, and deep across her stomach.
Then, instead of diagnosing the type of infection she says Dr. West turned hostile.
"He didn't want to deal with it, he would be very harsh when he would pull the sutures out," said Linda.
This went on for 5-months. Linda’s gaping wounds expanded to leave this massive hole in her stomach and breast. She says her decaying flesh and tissue made her house smell like death.
"I could smell it on the bandages. It smelt awful," said Linda.
Depressed, feeling ignored, seeing her body waste away, she carried out a plan at her next doctor's appointment so Dr. West would listen.
"I grabbed his tie and he said, ‘what's the matter?’ I said ‘I'm dying.’ And he said, ‘what do you want me to do?’ And I said ‘put me in the hospital’. I need to go in the hospital.
Linda was admitted, and that's when she found out the scope of the infection. She says it was so bad that she had to be given a blood transfusion.
Linda eventually recovered. But remember that cancer treatment she desperately needed?
"When I had the infection, they couldn't do it. I needed to be healed so I could have the chemo or radiation until the wound healed," said Linda.
Linda would learn the cancer did spread. She says she was given two years to live. So far, she's beat the odds but she knows it's just a matter of time.
"I was so angry to learn it had spread," said Linda.
Linda begged Dr. West to never allow anyone to suffer the same infection.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. David Herbert says gloves are important to stop the spread of disease. He also says that the risk of infection after cosmetic surgery is low.
Without examining each patient's medical file Dr. Herbert says it's tough to pinpoint the cause of the infections or if Dr. West was doing anything wrong.
"If each of the patients or most of them had an unusual germ or the same germ then you might think gosh, maybe there is some issue relating to the operating room, or the technique, or medication, or instruments or something off there," said Dr. Herbert.
It's also tough to know, if Dr. Brian West’s dirty little secret was to blame for the infections.
What his patients never realized while they were being treated was that Dr. West had already posed for this mug shot.
He was arrested in 1997 for drunk driving in Tahoe. West was also arrested in 2000 in a crash on I-80 where someone was hurt. In that accident his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
Normally when you're convicted of a DUI the medical board launches an investigation. But Dr. West took advantage of a state law stopping him from being punished by enrolling in the medical board's alcohol treatment program--a confidential program, meaning his patients had no idea he was battling an addiction. They never knew that the plastic surgeon they trusted their lives with was flunking out of that very program.
"I was Dr. Wests Humpty Dumpty," said Linda.
"I was stitched up so tight I couldn't move," said Bobbie.
These patients never knew their plastic surgeon had a problem with alcohol.
"How do I know he wasn't hung over the day he operated on me," said Bobbie.
And court documents show he was failing the state medical board's alcohol treatment program. Records state that he pressured an office manager to lie about his attendance of Alcoholics Anonymous.
"He had his staff lie for him, and say he was attending meetings he was not attending? In two instances," said Mara Faust, state prosecutor.
When the medical board ordered him into rehab, according to court records, he never showed up.
The state has proof he continued to drink while in the program, failing four urine tests.
"There was random testing. He would test positive and say that he wasn’t drinking that day," said Faust.
The Sate Attorney General's office went after Dr. West for washing out of the treatment program.
"He was leading the life of an alcoholic. He's a self admitted alcoholic," said Faust.
You may be surprised to know that neither state prosecutors, nor the medical board, ever investigated how his addiction was affecting his patients.
"He promised me that he would never let that happen again," said Linda.
That was a promise to Linda that Dr. West didn't keep. A CBS 13 investigation found several patients of his whom also suffered these rare massive infections. The patients claim the cure was worse than the disease.
"It looked like somebody had cut me with a machete," said Marion.
"I was cut in half," said Bobbie.
Some patients who spoke with us, on the condition of their anonymity, say not only did they suffer infections, but that Dr. West made mistakes during their operations.
"He stitched me up so tight i couldn't move," said Bobbie.
Just as you heard in Linda's case, this woman we'll call Bobbie says he also cut her infected incision open without anesthesia.
"I was in excruciating, devastating, extreme, agonizing piercing pain," said Bobbie.
Same story for a tummy tuck patient named Marion who says Dr. West performed liposuction on her back side even though she said she didn't want it.
"He went ahead and did it anyway," said Marion.
Another patient told us that Dr. West put in two different sized breast implants, oth larger than she wanted. She also suffered an infection as a result of her surgery.
"She was extremely special to me," said Ken.
Ken Mickulecky says his late wife Sharon suffered severely from her infection from a Dr. West surgery. During one treatment Ken couldn't believe his eyes.
"He stuck his finger without a glove on in my wife's wound," said Ken.
"We have to receive information from a source that something else is going on. We did not receive information as part of this case," said Faust.
Even though they knew he was battling alcoholism Candis Cohen of the state medical board says the agency never received any credible complaints.
"We can't go on a fishing expedition; we have to have information to get a subpoena so we can go and take a look at the doctors records," said Candis Cohen, California State Medical Board.
It's true. Not one of the patients we spoke with filed a complaint with the state medical board, each saying they thought their case was an isolated case.
"He told me it had never happened before," said Linda.
Although his patients didn't know it then, some now realize that there were signs he was troubled.
"Certainly it crossed my mind it was alcohol,"
The day of her operation, Marion says that Dr. West was flushed, sweaty, hyper and edgy. Was it alcohol? She dismissed it as her own nerves.
"I thought you were just nervous, just a bit scared." said Marion.
While in the hospital Linda says the doctor was shaky.
"One morning he seemed very hung-over and he smelled like had a big night," said Linda.
Linda never questioned him.
"She said ‘he smells like he's got alcohol on his breath’. I said Doctors wouldn't do that," said Ken, Sharon’s husband.
A number of patients we found also gave Dr. West the benefit of the doubt.
One woman complained he had an open bottle of wine in his office.
A breast implant patient says he made a joke out of smelling like booze.
I'm disgusted other doctors don't step up to the plate and talk about what's going on," said Marion.
So what about his staff? They had to know, right?
"There is no snitch law in California. There is no requirement for a physician report another physician to the medical board so they're on their honor," said Cohen.
Cohen says it's a matter of ethics not law. Although she says medical professionals are encouraged to report bad behavior.
"We accept information from any source," said Cohen.
Dr. West has since closed his practice, and filed for bankruptcy--shutting the door on some of his patients who were still battling infections.
Just this month, a judge sentenced him to five years probation, for failing the state's treatment program. He can't operate on anyone until he completes the program.
You're going to be watching him like a hawk," said Faust.
So, where is Dr. West now?
We looked for Dr. West searching phone books and online databases. We found P.O. boxes, former addresses and numbers no longer in service.
And guess where we found him?
Dr. West was hiding out behind the protected walls of Travis air force base.
Now you're paying for Lt. Col. Brian West's $55,000 dollar a year salary for his job at the Medical Center. An air force spokesperson told CBS 13 that he has not been allowed to touch patients since arriving more than two years ago, and he's currently under review. They wouldn't elaborate citing his privacy rights.
I called Dr. West at the air force base who referred us to his attorney. She told me that because he's currently being sued, she won't let him sit down with us for an interview.
"There's so much evidence, this person should not be practicing medicine on anyone," said Marion.
Some patients claim that Dr. West left them disfigured for the rest of their lives and damaged them psychologically.
"I can't even stand to look at myself in the mirror," said Bobbie.
"When I take a shower I still fear my stomach is going to drop open," said Linda.
For Linda Starr she's now planning her finances. She's dying of cancer and may only have a year left to live.
"I just keep going," said Linda.
I've been working on this story for two months. Every week, we're finding more patients with complaints about Dr. West.
We're up to 11.
In the wake of our investigation everyone we spoke with has now filed a complaint with the state and because of it the medical board has launched a new investigation.
If you think your doctor may have done something wrong, the state medical board wants to know about it.
Here’s a list of questions to ask your doctor before you have plastic surgery:
