Brenna Cooper
A Florida plastic surgeon has been charged with killing his wife after she died on his operating table.
Benjamin Jacob Brown, 41, was arrested after his wife Hillary Ellington Brown, 33, went into cardiac arrest and died during a procedure at his Restore Plastic Surgery offices last November.
According to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, authorities had responded to a medical emergency at Brown's clinic on 21 November 2023.
Upon arrival, officers discovered that Hillary had suffered from a cardiac arrest. She was taken to hospital for care and died a week later after being placed on life support.
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Brown has now been charged with Hillary's alleged killing after an 'extensive' investigation, with the surgeon arrested and charged with second-degree felony homicide for alleged manslaughter by culpable negligence on Monday (17 June).
An emergency order of restriction was placed on Brown's medical license in May 2024 by Florida State Department of Health, which revealed further details about the running of Brown's practice.
The report revealed that Hillary had been scheduled to undergo 'miniature muscle plication/abdominal scar revision, bilateral arm liposuction, lip injections, and ear adjustment procedures'.
It was also revealed that Hillary - who had no formal medical training - prepared her own anaesthetic solution and ingested several 'multi-coloured pills, which included valium'.
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The board went on to write that Hillary had become 'restless and her feet began twitching' while Brown was performing liposuction on her arm. The twitching got worse as Hillary's situation deteriorated.
"[Hillary] stated that her vision started to blur, and she told Dr. Brown that she saw 'orange'. Restlessness, muscle twitches, and blurred vision are all early signs of lidocaine [a type of local anaesthetic] toxicity," the report states, adding that had Brown continued to inject lidocaine into her face.
Hillary then became unresponsive and began to have a seizure, with the report noting that Brown told an assistant 'no' when they suggested calling 911.
Instead he 'shouted' at the staff, questioning them on the medications Hillary had taken.
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Brown finally instructed an assistant to contact emergency services around 10-20 minutes after the seizure. However Hillary would never regain consciousness.
Her death was later determined to be 'complications following lidocaine toxicity'.
The board summarised that Brown's treatment of his wife was 'careless and haphazard'.
"The level of disregard Dr. Brown paid to patient safety, even when the patient was his wife, indicates that Dr. Brown is unwilling or incapable of providing the appropriate level of care to his future patients," the report wrote.
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Brown is currently being in the county jail pending a first appearance in front of a judge and State Attorney's Office.
Following his arrest, Hillary's father Marty Ellington released a statement to Pensacola News Journal, blaming Brown for his daughter's death.
"My family lives in a sea of tears for eternity due to the actions of one careless individual," he said.