posted on October 12, 2004 12:54:40 PM new
MIAMI (Reuters) - Police in Belize have arrested a Florida fugitive described by detectives as a fake doctor who drugged his cosmetic surgery patients with an animal anesthetic and left a male bodybuilder with female breast implants.
Silvestre fled after Miami Beach police charged him in 1999 with fraud, aggravated battery, practicing medicine without a license and grand theft in connection with botched surgeries that left his patients permanently disfigured.
He anesthetized patients with Ketamine, an animal tranquilizer known on the street as "Special K," police said.
They began investigating after a patient, described as a former model in her 20s, showed them a videotape she made of Silvestre operating on a male body builder who wanted pectoral implants to make his chest look more muscular.
"He ended up with female breast implants," police Capt. Charles Press said in 1999.
Police said the tape showed Silvestre jamming the C-cup implants into the patient's chest with "a spatula-type thing that you'd see in a kitchen" and sewing up the incision with crude X-shaped stitches. He said the patient awoke three times during the procedure and was told to go back to sleep.
The woman videotaped the operation at Silvestre's request because he had never performed a pectoral surgery and wanted to document his work, police said at the time.
posted on October 12, 2004 01:54:57 PM new
You know, with all the talk about phony and uncertified doctors, you'd think people would be more careful when handing themselves over to a plastic surgeon. I almost don't feel sorry for the victims.
posted on October 12, 2004 03:52:11 PM new
I wish people were happy with themselves the way they are...Most of these people, imo, don't need surgery. They are not disfigured. They won't be happy, regardless.
posted on October 12, 2004 04:54:36 PM new
If I remember correctly, Silvestri also had someone die on the table. In the case of the body builder, he was a retired body builder who had a growing acting carreer in Mexico or South America. Because he was no longer working out at the same level he did when he was competing his pecs had shrunk and the skin was sagging. Silvestri told him he could fill in the sagging skin with the implants and keep his career on track. Instead he destroyed it.
Krafty - most of those who go to these unliscensed doctors are not able to afford the skyrocketing costs of plastic surgery. Also, many of these doctors, like Silvestri, tell their patients that they are liscensed in another country but have not yet been able to obtain their liscence in the US. They are unhappy and made even more so when they are turned down by legitimate doctors and suddenly someone remembers that a friend of a friend went to Dr SuchandSuch and got it donefor half of what they have been quoted and they look great. They talk to Dr SuchandSuch and see pictures of his success stories hear all the right words and a perfectly reasonable story from someone who promises to fix that thing they hate most about themself. They are conned and for the rest of their lives they bare a physical evidence of their victimization for all the world to see. How can you not feel for them.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 12, 2004 05:45:56 PM new
Most people learn very early that all doctors are not reliable. I learned this based on personal experiences of my family and friends. So it really amazes me that someone would trust such unnecessary and invasive surgery to a so called doctor without checking his credentials at the local hospital. Shouldn't their ears perk up when they learn that he is "cheap"? I agree with KD.
