Plastic Surgeon Allegedly Refused To Call 911 While Wife Seized During Procedures

A Florida plastic surgeon turned himself in on Monday after authorities said he refused to call 911 while his wife was experiencing a seizure as he operated on her at his office in Pensacola last November.

Benjamin Jacob Brown, 41, was booked on suspicion of second-degree felony homicide: manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of his wife, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office announced. Hillary Ellington Brown, 33, died at a local hospital after having a heart attack.

On the morning of Nov. 21, 2023, Brown was scheduled to undergo multiple cosmetic procedures at her husband’s business, Restore Plastic Surgery, including a miniature muscle plication/abdominal scar revision and lip injections, according to anadministrative complaint filed by the Florida Department of Health and obtained by HuffPost.

Staff members at Restore Plastic Surgery detailed the events leading up to Hillary Brown’s seizure in interviews with detectives, according to an unredacted arrest warrant obtained by HuffPost. They said she had ingested a “handful” of pills before her procedure.

During the surgery, the anesthesia that Hillary Brown was receiving through IV bags ran out, according to staff members. Benjamin Brown then instructed employees to pour “two containers into a bowl” without diluting the contents and to inject the solution into his wife’s arms and face, the warrant states.

Prosecutors identified the undiluted solution in the bowl as Xylocaine, a brand name of the local anesthetic lidocaine. According to the arrest warrant, the medical examiner determined that Hillary Brown died from complications from lidocaine toxicity, and alleged that Benjamin Brown did not document injecting undiluted lidocaine into his wife’s arm.

Pros