Florida’s Board of Medicine has revoked the medical license of a doctor who performed Brazilian butt-lift surgery, three years after his license was restricted after a botched surgery killed a patient.
Dr. Christopher Walker, who had operated at a spa in Orlando, punctured multiple organs and blood vessels, causing the 38-year-old patient to bleed to death, according to the Department of Health’s 2021 emergency license action.
At a board hearing Dec. 5, Walker pleaded with the board to stop short of fully revoking his license, according to the Orlando Sentinel and other Florida news reports. A Florida administrative law judge in June had recommended revocation. The Board of Medicine declined to go easy and took action this week.
Walker should have been barred from practicing the fat-transfer procedures in Florida early on, thanks to criminal charges he faced in New York involving pelvic mesh claims, the chief counsel for the Florida Department of Health said. The doctor was ultimately sentenced to two months in jail and a fine of $800,000 after he pleaded guilty to using kickbacks and enticing women to have the mesh removed, then filing suit against the mesh manufacturers in order to trigger larger settlements, the Sentinel and Department of Health reported.
Walker failed to disclose the guilty plea on his Florida license renewal application, the health department attorney said.
The 2021 death of Walker’s patient was one of several injuries and deaths of butt-lift patients in Florida, which led state lawmakers to approve House Bill 1561 early this year. The bill, now law, requires most butt-lifting clinics to obtain liability insurance coverage of at least $250,000 per claim and an annual aggregate of at least $750,000.
Physician offices must also register with the state Department of Health, regardless of whether the liposuction procedure was considered temporary or permanent transfer of fat. Until this year, some clinics were able to avoid registering and avoid liability coverage due to the wording of the previous Florida statute.
The new law also raises penalties for those that do not register, allowing the Department of Health to fine doctors for multiple offenses in the same day, according to a legislative analysis of the bill. It also requires more inspections and adherence to safety procedures at clinics.
Related: Another Butt-Lift Doctor Banned from Surgery After Second Patient Dies at Clinic
Topics Florida
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