A few months ago we published the gruesome story of an OC plastic surgeon who had a drinking problem and left several patients hacked and deformed up in Sacramento before relocating to Orange County, where he now practices in Huntington Beach. One of the women in our story was Becky Anderson, who made national news when she went public with her story and images of her severe deformities—protruding intestines and a leg that looked like someone had taken machete to it—caused, in part, by the r
An administrative law judge heard the Attorney General's case against alcoholic-plastic surgeon-gone-bad, Brian West, in Sacramento this week. The hearings followed the accusation filed earlier this year by the Medical Board of California alleging that West had performed multiple acts of gross negligence against several of his former patients.
Three former patients, a string of experts from both sides, pathologists and West himself took the stand. The patients allege they were disfigured afte
Brian West, the former local plastic surgeon with a hard-to-kick drinking problem accused of disfiguring
some patients, and who later filed a restraining order against one of
them, has been found guilty in two of the four cases brought against him by the state Attorney General -- one, for lying to an investigator about being on his way to the hospital when he got into a drunken driving accident, and the other for disfiguring a former cancer patient after performing a surgery she had not consente
A supporter or two of Brian West--the plastic surgeon whose ups and (mostly) downs, involving his drinking problem and former patients, I've covered in these pages--has now taken to trying to sully mine and Sacramento CBS television reporter Kurtis Ming's names with a comical new blog experiment. Ming has covered the story involving West since it began to unfold in Sacramento several years ago, and before West moved down south and began practicing in Long Beach, Huntington Beach and LA.The new b
Many of Dr. Brian West's patients didn't know he was in the state medical board's substance-abuse-diversion program. At least six of them claim they're paying the price
No scalpels allowed.When we last left off in the strange case of alcoholic Huntington Beach plastic surgeon Brian West, we'd just learned that he'd been found guilty for lying to investigators about a DUI and disfiguring a former patient without her consent. The administrative law judge recommended that his license be revoked but the Medical Board of California, which had final say, decided, strangely, to reject the recommendation and have their own panel determine West's fate. Today that panel
Marcin TusinskiRemember the series of stories we shared about the Hungtington Beach plastic surgeon who had a penchant for red wine and accumulating DUIs?
And remember how California's Medical Board egregiously allowed that
doctor (and many like him) to keep practicing medicine despite his
having failed out of its secretive drug diversion program (which was
shut down last year after repeated failed audits)? Turns out
doctors like Brian West, who the state Medical Board allowed to keep
practic
