James McAdoo, a plastic surgeon already facing a malpractice complaint in the 2016 death of a woman, is facing a new complaint in another surgery.
The Department of Health filed the complaint in January 2020 against McAdoo. The complaint centers around a breast lift and tummy tuck Ivis Beracierto says left her scarred for life.
Ivis says three weeks after her surgery, she had to have emergency surgery because her wounds got so bad. She had to have a procedure to help heal the wounds, she lost tissue and needed skin grafts.
"Doctors at the hospital told me that if I would have waited another day, I would have died," said Ivis in Spanish.
The complaint from the Department of Health says McAdoo failed "to obtain a complete and comprehensive physical examination" and a "complete medical history" before the surgery and didn't "see or contact (her) within 24-48 hours" after the procedure.
In a statement, Mcadoo wrote, "I do not agree with the DOH allegations and have all the documentation of the patient's chart referred to in the complaint. We will share it again with the DOH and the documentation does not agree with (her) recollection of her past medical care."
McAdoo is the same surgeon who operated on Heather Meadows in May 2016. The mother of two from West Virginia died after undergoing what's known as a Brazilian Butt Lift at the same Hialeah clinic where Ivis had her surgery. The clinic is now closed.
The Department of Health filed a malpractice complaint against him in Meadows death.
McAdoo is still a practicing plastic surgeon with an active license. No hearing has been set in either complaint.
The system in Florida frustrates Heather's dad, Reggie Meadows.
"They do something wrong, put them on a shelf for six months or something, penalize them somehow," he said in an interview in November 2019. "Just don’t slap them on the wrist and say here, go on back and do it to somebody else."
In both complaints against McAdoo, the state is asking the Board of Medicine to revoke or suspend McAdoo's license. McAdoo has not commented on the complaint he faces in Meadows' death.
Since 2016, when the NBC 6 Investigators began investigating the cases of women hurt or killed after plastic surgery, Florida lawmakers and the Board of Medicine have made changes to Florida's laws and rules governing plastic surgeons. Now if a patient is injured or dies during plastic surgery, the doctor could be immediately taken out of the operating room.
