A surgeon in Miami has stood up three public complaints related to the reported mishandling of cosmetic procedures, including buttock fat grafting — also known as a Brazilian butt lift, or BBL.
According to the most recent complaint filed, a woman was hospitalized after Julio A. Clavijo-Alvarez, MD, placed improper drains for her recovery and failed to document the complications at a follow-up visit.
In the complaint, the Florida Department of Health alleged that Clavijo-Alvarez saw a patient in 2021 at the New Life Plastic Surgery Clinic in Miami for a Brazilian butt lift and placed a Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain under the rectus abdominis, under from the peritoneum, and into the abdominal cavity.
According to the complaint, “the prevailing professional standard of care required respondent to refrain from placing a JP drain” in any of these areas. The next day, the patient first presented to Jackson West Medical Center in Doral with back and abdominal pain and was then transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where the drain in her abdominal cavity was removed.
A few days later, the patient returned to meet with Clavijo-Alvarez, who recorded their meeting, but reported that the patient had no pain after the BBL, according to the complaint, and did not record subsequent hospital stays, which the Department The health claims were a violation of Florida statute.
Pat Pazmiño, MD, plastic surgeon and owner of Miami Aesthetic, said MedPage Today that in the normal course of liposuction, water and epinephrine are injected into the layer of fat between the skin and muscle to limit bleeding and create working space for the surgeon. After liposuction, a drain is placed in this layer to drain any residual water, which helps the patient heal more quickly and comfortably.
“If you can think of the belly as a five-story building, we’re only supposed to work in the attic. The drainage [in this case] it ended up on the second floor,” said Pazmiño, who often reviews complaints as an expert for the Florida Department of Health. “So it was really very deep and there’s no need for drainage there. … It is not a suitable place for drainage.”
Clavijo-Alvarez had two other complaints filed against him from 2021 and 2022. The first focused on findings from an inspection of a different clinic where Clavijo-Alvarez worked called Jireh Cosmetic Center Corp in Miami Lakes.
Pazmiño said it is common for surgeons to move between clinics or for clinics to change names.
Just a few months before the complaint about the BBL drains, the Department of Health found that “on one or more occasions,” Clavijo-Alvarez failed to perform or document a preoperative exam, failed to provide the patient with written information about his staff privileges hospital, failed to obtain informed written consent from the patient regarding the risks of the procedure and anesthesia, and removed more than the specified margin of overlying fat from a patient during liposuction.
The clinic, according to the complaint, had items missing from the cart and employed a nurse with no post-anesthesia care unit experience to monitor patients recovering from anesthesia.
In the 2022 complaint, also from New Life Plastic Surgery, another inspection found blank, pre-signed prescriptions from Clavijo-Alvarez for oxycodone and diazepam in a “secure area” of the clinic, which the Department of Health claimed was grounds for disciplinary action. prosecution. by the medical board.
Florida Department of Health filings serve to further cement South Florida as a hotspot for dangerous and sometimes deadly Brazilian butt lifts, even though the events occurred in front of state lawmakers passed a law in May 2023 with additional security measures for BBL.
These complaints follow a suit filed by The family of a woman who died in 2021 of a pulmonary fat embolism after her surgeon, who worked at Seduction Cosmetic Center in Miami, presented her with false papers and punctured her abdominal wall and internal organs during a BBL.
Clavijo-Alvarez’s physician profile lists his Florida medical license as “Clear/Active” and notes no license discipline beyond public complaints, which could include fines, suspension, remedial courses or revocation as a result of hearings before the medical board.
Pazmiño had not reviewed all three complaints against Clavijo-Alvarez, but said the clinics’ practices in relation to the allegations, “really raise concerns about how carefully they pay attention and what they prioritize… It’s very troubling when you see a lot of different breaks with the standard of care.”
Clavijo-Alvarez, general counsel for the Department of Health and the Florida Board of Medicine did not respond to requests for comment from MedPage Today.
