State moves to revoke license of Miami 'butt lift' surgeon accused of medical malpractice

Posted On:   04 April 2016

Florida, US – 16th March, 2016: Florida health officials this week took steps to revoke the medical license of a Miami cosmetic surgeon accused of severely injuring at least four patients in May 2015 while performing liposuction and another procedure known as a “Brazilian butt lift.”  The doctor has 21 days from the day he receives the state’s complaint to dispute the charges, accept them or negotiate a settlement. A settlement would require approval from the Board of Medicine at a public hearing.

If Omulepu, 43, chooses to dispute the charges, then he will face a hearing akin to a trial before the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings. State health officials likely would call on the testimony of witnesses, including the four patients. All of the patients’ injuries required hospitalization from three days to three months, according to a state emergency order issued in February, which barred Omulepu from performing liposuction and fat transfers to the buttocks. In two of the cases, Omulepu is accused of repeatedly tearing the patients’ internal organs, including the liver and small intestine, causing severe blood infections and, in one case, acute kidney failure and respiratory failure.

 

“I feel like I was just used like a test dummy,” said one woman, a 27-year-old mother of three who traveled from St. Louis, Missouri, to Miami for her surgery in May 2015. “I went to him to feel better about my body,” she said. “I feel even worse now. I completely, totally regret what I did. ... I feel stupid.” The woman said she was hospitalized three times with serious infections in her legs and her back.


The plastic surgeon promotes his work in numerous videos on YouTube showing graphic close-ups of surgeries. In one video Omulepu says, “My specialty that I love to do is the Brazilian butt lift. I'm known to be very aggressive when it comes to liposuction.”

Omulepu is not certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, according to state records. The Florida Society of Plastic Surgeons advises consumers considering plastic surgery to research their physician and to look for board certification and membership in a medical society for plastic surgery. The Texas woman said she’s now consulting with a certified plastic surgeon in the hopes that a new doctor can repair the cosmetic damage she attributes to Omulepu. “I’m not the same way I used to be,” she said. “I don’t look the way I used to look.”

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article66376602.html