Miami plastic surgeon disappeared as his patient bled into unconsciousness, state says
The Florida Department of Health didn’t have a problem with what Dr. Oliver Chang did during a 2018 liposuction surgery. It’s what the state says the Miami doctor did afterwards that drew the administrative complaint.
Nothing.
Despite a follow-up appointment scheduled for the next day and the patient being taken to two hospitals because of bleeding, the state says Chang “failed to respond to multiple attempts to contact him with regards to patient R.M.’s condition.”
An administrative complaint starts the ponderously paced discipline process with the Board of Medicine.
Online records say Chang has been licensed in Florida since June 2013 and has no previous discipline issues.
According to the administrative complaint, Chang performed liposuction on R.M.’s abdomen, lower back and chin on Dec. 8, 2018. Chang noted no complications and 150 ml of blood loss. He scheduled a follow-up appointment the next day.
“Patient R.M noted bleeding from the operation site on her way to her hotel and lost consciousness,” the complaint says.
The complaint doesn’t say whether or not the surgery took place at Chang’s Spectrum Aesthetics office in Miami, but R.M. was taken to Westside Regional Hospital in Plantation, where doctors diagnosed hypovolemic shock (shock from fluid and blood loss). After blood transfusions, she was transferred to Plantation General Hospital. She remained there until Dec. 10.
Chang could not be reached, the complaint said.
Chang, the complaint said, “fell below the minimum standard of care in his treatment of Patient R.M. by failing to be available or to respond to communications following Patient R.M.’s post-operative deterioration and/or by failing to provide a designee to respond to communications following Patient R.M.’s postoperative deterioration.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 10:45 AM with the headline "Miami plastic surgeon disappeared as his patient bled into unconsciousness, state says."
