Doctor, nurse sentenced in deadly plastic surgery

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 06:32:45 +0000

Left to right: Heather Alice Lang Vass and Carlos Chacon in court (KGTV) Inset: Megan Espinoza (Glen Abbey Memorial Park & Mortuary).

A California plastic surgeon and his nurse were sentenced for their roles in a botched plastic surgery that killed a patient and mother of two.

Dr. Carlos Chacon was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison as part of a plea deal to manslaughter in the killing of Megan Espinoza, 36, who died from a fatal dose of drugs, including ketamine and fentanyl. He is also banned from practicing medicine for life in California.

Chacon’s nurse, Heather Alice Lang Vass, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She surrendered her nursing license but can eventually apply to have it reinstated.

Espinoza’s mother, Judith Gorcey, took Vass to task for not calling 911, San Diego’s ABC affiliate KGTV reported.

“That man and his nurse who are responsible for callously ending Megan’s life gave her the death penalty, and they gave all of us who loved her a life sentence of extreme pain,” Gorcey said.

The defendants apologized, San Diego’s CBS affiliate KFMB reported.

“You are a far better man than I ever could be to stand behind those rails. You should know at my core, if I could trade places with Megan, I would,” Chacon said to Espinoza’s father.

Vass added in a statement: “Her death will haunt me for the rest of my days that I didn’t call for help.”

David Gorcey, Espinoza’s father, decried the light punishment.

“The minimum sentencing of three years seems, well, painfully inappropriate,” he said.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Megan Espinoza’s heart stopped at Divino Plastic Surgery six days before Christmas in 2018.

The probable cause warrant said Espinoza went into cardiac arrest mid-surgery at around 2:20 p.m. on Dec. 19, 2018.

Chacon reacted by leaving the room to see four other patients between 3:15 p.m. and 5 p.m., calling two doctors to ask for their advice rather than calling 911, ordering staffers, some of whom had no medical background, not to call 911, and lying to Megan Espinoza’s husband about what was happening, according to the warrant,

“Chacon made the conscious decision to stop others from providing emergency lifesaving efforts on at least 7 occasions,” the warrant said.

Prosecutors said that Chacon did not call 911 until 3 hours after Espinoza’s heart stopped. By then, it was much too late to save her.

Espinoza died on Jan. 28, 2019, at 10:26 p.m., the warrant said. An autopsy determined she died from “ischemic encephalopathy […] caused by a lack of blood flow and oxygen to the brain.”

In December 2022, KGTV reported that the victim’s family had settled a lawsuit against Chacon.

An obituary noted that Megan Espinoza was a kindergarten teacher, devoted wife, and mother.

“Megan’s teaching career was something for which she had the utmost passion,” the memorial reads. “She taught kindergarten and T-K for the Cajon Valley Union School District, and taught in San Ysidro and San Diego earlier in her career. Megan loved spending time at the beach, cooking, gardening, going on walks, taking yoga classes and taking pictures, especially of her boys. She loved being with family and arranging get-togethers with her many friends, but being with Moises and her boys were her greatest joys.”

Law&Crime’s Matt Naham contributed to this report.

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‘Disgruntled’ ex-patient opens fire in dentist office: Cops

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:48:23 +0000

A disgruntled ex-patient, Mohammed Abdulkareem, bottom inset (via El Cajon police), allegedly shot up a dentist’s office near San Diego, California, killing Benjamin Harouni, top inset (via Smile Plus Dentistry), and injuring two others. Cops say Abdulkareem fled in a U-Haul pickup truck (left inset via KFMB). San Diego police later arrested the suspect. (Screenshot: KFMB/YouTube)

A “disgruntled” ex-patient walked into his former dentist’s office on Thursday and shot three people, including one fatally, authorities say.

The incident happened just after 4 p.m. in El Cajon, California, a suburb of San Diego. The El Cajon Police Department received calls about shots fired inside the Smile Plus dentist’s office at 480 N. Magnolia Ave. Officers arrived to find two men and one woman suffering from gunshot wounds. One of the men, 28-year-old dentist Benjamin Harouni, died on the scene while the other two victims were rushed to the hospital in serious but stable condition.

Cops identified the suspect as 29-year-old El Cajon resident Mohammed Abdulkareem and learned he fled the scene in a white U-Haul pickup truck. License plate readers picked up the truck’s tag. The department released suspect and vehicle information to local media.

Just after 9 p.m. Thursday, a citizen called San Diego police after seeing the U-Haul truck near 6th Avenue and Quince Street. Officers responded and found Abdulkareem nearby. He allegedly had a gun that he purchased about two weeks ago, along with several handgun magazines. Abdulkareem faces charges of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was taken to San Diego County Central Jail where he’s being held without bond.

Detectives believe he was a “disgruntled former customer” although they didn’t specify why he was upset or whether Harouni was his intended target.

“The El Cajon Police Department mourns with the family and friends of the deceased victim and extends heartfelt condolences to those injured in [Friday’s] senseless and evil act of violence,” El Cajon police Chief Mike Moulton said in a statement.

Police addressed concerns that Harouni may have been targeted due to his Jewish faith.

“While we are still in the early stages of the investigation, we want to make it clear that there is no indication the attack was racially or politically motivated. As we continue to conduct a thorough investigation, we will keep the community informed of any new developments,” the agency posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The Anti-Defamation League’s regional director for San Diego said it has been in contact with law enforcement and noted the ADL’s Center on Extremism has so far not discovered any extremist or hate-related motivation behind the shooting.

Harouni’s family laid him to rest on Sunday and held a vigil in his honor.

“I just wish that I could tell him I love him,” Harouni’s younger brother Jacob said, according to local NBC affiliate KNSD. “I don’t think I told him that enough. I wish I could hug him — hug him really tight. I miss him so much.”

Jacob Harouni said their father, a dentist himself, tried to persuade his brother to pursue a career outside of dentistry. But Benjamin Harouni was insistent.

“He said, ‘No, this is what I want to do. I want to take care of people. I want to help people and literally make people smile,”” the brother reportedly said.

Abdulkareem has a court date scheduled for Tuesday.

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Doctor, nurse sentenced in deadly plastic surgery

‘Disgruntled’ ex-patient opens fire in dentist office: Cops