Plastic surgeon Dr Ben Brown is a ‘maniac’, former sufferers warn
Former patients of a Florida plastic surgeon charged with killing his wife on the operating table have warned he was a ‘maniac’ who left them ‘traumatized.’
Dr Ben Brown, 40, was charged this week with second-degree felony homicide: manslaughter by culpable negligence over his wife Hillary Brown’s death in November 2023, while he was operating on her.
He is accused of overusing medication causing his wife to go into cardiac arrest – with former patient Sylvie Hazen telling DailyMail.com that her own procedure with the award-winning surgeon left her ‘terrified.’
‘I have never experienced something more medically traumatic than that procedure,’ she said of her breast implant surgery last year. ‘He’s like a Frankenstein.’
Hazen and a former staffer at Brown’s clinic also revealed Hillary – who underwent a dramatic physical transformation after meeting Brown and becoming obsessed with surgeries – would pose as a nurse despite having no medical training.
Dr Brown’s clinic, Restore Plastic Surgery, did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.
Sylvie Hazen told DailyMail.com that her experience with Dr. Ben Brown was ‘traumatic’ after a breast implant surgery left her with a number of health complications
After going to the surgeon in February 2023 for breast augmentation, Hazen said her ordeal with Brown, who she described as having a ‘manic energy’, began when he ‘messed up’ her initial surgery.
Hazen said she was stunned when she returned to find Hillary posing as a medic at Restore Plastic Surgery, and claimed she performed a minor procedure on her by draining a seroma despite having no medical training.
‘She seemed like the office manager,’ Hazen said. ‘I trusted that she had medical qualifications… I mean, you would if someone is in scrubs.’
Hillary was said to have become hooked on plastic surgeries around the same time she married Dr Brown two years ago, and her social media evidences her changing appearance over that time.
Dr Ben Brown (left), an award-winning plastic surgeon, has been charged over the death of his wife Hillary (right), who died in November 2023 after suffering a cardiac arrest and seizures when he operated on her
Brown, one of the best-known plastic surgeons in Florida’s Gulf, married Hillary around two years ago. However her father speculated she only stayed with him because of her easy access to plastic surgery procedures
Hazen claimed she had to return to Brown’s clinic for repeat correctional procedures after the first augmentation surgery left her with several side effects including issues with open wounds and a large scar wrapping from her armpit to under her rib cage.
She alleged her ‘bizarre’ experience with Brown also saw her plied with lidocaine and the anesthetic Versed, which left her ‘very loopy’ in her subsequent surgeries.
Hazen said Brown’s clinic was like ‘something out of a third world country’, and appeared unsanitary despite his award-winning reputation.
After being forced to undergo several reconstructive surgeries, including a four-hour procedure in June to entirely remove her implants at a separate hospital, Hazen estimates the total cost of her surgeries and corrections has cost her well over $25,000.
Hillary appeared to undergo a dramatic plastic surgery transformation in recent years, and her father recalled questioning to her: ‘Why are you doing this?’
Hillary Brown, 33, suffered a cardiac arrest on November 21 while undergoing several plastic surgeries carried out by her husband, who is now under investigation
Brown is an award-winning plastic surgeon known throughout Florida’s Gulf, however some have alleged to DailyMail.com that his late wife Hillary to posed as a medic despite having no medical training
In his charging documents, it is claimed that Hillary was essentially acting her her own nurse in her final surgeries, including allegedly spiking her own IV bag while taking a ‘handful’ of pills that included Valium.
Dr. Brown even allowed Hillary to suture her own skin after the initial procedure.
Brown is believed to have operated on his wife a number of times following their marriage. Hillary’s father Marty Ellington has also speculated that the plastic surgeon was not following proper procedures when he operated on her.
Ellington alleged that Brown admitted on the night of Hillary’s death that his clinic was ‘out of’ the medicine they would usually use ‘so he used something different,’ the Pensacola News Journal reported at the time.
He also claimed there was no crash cart in the operating room with life-saving equipment such as oxygen and defibrillators.
Similar allegations were echoed by a former nurse in Brown’s clinic, Debra Brown Guy, who told DailyMail.com that she lasted just three weeks working with the surgeon after raising alarming complaints.
Dr Ben Brown was charged this week with second-degree felony homicide: manslaughter by culpable negligence
When she died, Hillary is said to have spiked her own IV bag while taking a ‘handful’ of pills that included Valium
Guy, who had over 14 years experience in the medical field, was hired in September 2022 as a surgical assistant.
But said claims she began complaining about the clinic ‘almost immediately’ due to issues, including Brown allegedly performing complex surgeries in his office suite.
Debra Brown Guy, a former surgical assistant at Dr. Brown’s clinic, said she raised a number of disturbing issues with the top surgeon
‘There was no monitoring of patients, no blood pressure, no oxygen, basically no medical equipment to monitor or carefully control any kind of drug-induced patient,’ she claimed to DailyMail.com.
Guy claimed she complained to Brown within days of starting work because it was a ‘horrific situation’, and claims she saw ‘unlicensed employees mixing medications that he was then injecting them into patients’, despite no charting or monitoring of what was used.
Guy left the clinic the same month she started after writing a ‘letter of concern’ to Brown because she ‘could not stand to witness it anymore.’
The letter alleged inadequate staffing and equipment, biohazards including no proper disposal of medical waste, and improper monitoring of patients after surgery.
Guy sent this letter of concern, provided to DailyMail.com, alleging a number of instances of malpractice, including inadequate staffing and equipment, biohazards including no proper disposal of medical waste, and improper monitoring of patients after surgery
One of Brown’s former medical assistants claimed she raised a number of instances of alleged issues at his clinic
Brown was believed to have carried out a number of surgeries on his wife, and a former staffer claimed that ‘patients would come in and they would say they needed this or that, and Hillary would decide she needed it too’
Guy also claimed the surgery ran on the married life between Ben and Hillary, which she described as ‘very touchy-feely.’
She said Hillary acted as the manager of the clinic, and would get jealous if Ben went to see a patient without her.
Guy added: ‘She would kind of see herself as the savior, to come in and save the darker Ben Brown.
‘As soon as things kind of started to fall apart or maybe his mental state started to go awry, she could get him back up.
‘He did a lot of surgical procedures on her.. patients would come in and they would say they needed this or that, and Hillary would decide she needed it too.’
Hazen said that given her own alleged experience with Brown, seeing the accusations that he overmedicated his wife forced her to recall her own ordeal.
‘It’s terrifying to think that this could have happened to anybody… disgusted to think that this man was the number one surgeon (in the area), had all these good reviews.’
Dr Brown has faced a slew of allegations in the weeks since his wife died on his operating table, with some alleging he is ‘manic’ and a ‘butcher’
In a statement to DailyMail.com, the family of Dr. Brown denied all allegations against him and say he will be fighting the charges brought this week.
‘Ben continues to mourn the death of his loving wife Hillary, and this arrest, which is completely without merit, only deepens his pain and grief,’ the statement read.
‘All safety and medical protocols were strictly followed on the day of Hillary’s passing.
‘Ben is a conscientious, dedicated, and incredibly talented surgeon, and he is looking forward to presenting the actual facts in a court of law and clearing his name of this horrible accusation.’
