MIAMI _ Florida health officials on Tuesday filed a final order revoking the medical license of a Miami doctor who seriously injured four patients in 2015 during so-called Brazilian butt lift and liposuction surgeries performed at office clinics, according to state records.
The doctor, Osakatukei "Osak" Omulepu, and his attorney could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
He has 30 days to file an appeal in state court challenging the Florida Board of Medicine's decision, which initially was announced on April 7 _ more than two years after the state first deemed Omulepu an "immediate serious danger" to the public and moved to prevent him from performing liposuctions and fat transfers to the buttocks, a procedure known as a Brazilian butt lift.
Omulepu fought the state's restriction and retained the privilege to continue performing the surgical procedures.
The doctor, who is not board-certified in plastic surgery, had been working for a network of office surgery clinics in Miami-Dade and Broward counties where physicians, according to state records and interviews, have maimed patients repeatedly and discharged them to recover in hotels and even a horse stable, with no medical attention.
The clinics lure out-of-town patients, mostly women, with the promise of cheap plastic surgery. But the results have been gruesome, with at least four deaths in the past year and other patients rushed to local hospitals with debilitating injuries and infections.
In revoking Omulepu's license, the state medical board rejected a lighter discipline recommended by an administrative law judge in January, which included a $14,000 fine, a reprimand and two years of probation.
The board's order said the harsher punishment was justified because Omulepu injured two different patients in a similar manner on the same day in May 2015, and because of the severe nature of the injuries to one patient, whose liver was repeatedly punctured. Other patients suffered punctured bowels and severe infections related to the surgeries, according to state records.
During liposuction, doctors use a metal rod called a cannula to remove fat through a surgical incision, plunging the instrument in and out of the patient's body. According to evidence presented during an administrative hearing, Omulepu allegedly perforated patients' organs with the cannula.
At the time of the medical board's meeting on April 7, Omulepu's attorney said he would appeal the decision in state court, which can overturn the medical board's rulings.
