CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — A doctor testified at a preliminary hearing for a plastic surgeon charged with murder that he was shocked by the condition of a critically ill patient who arrived at the hospital after getting a breast augmentation surgery.
“What astounded me when I read the records was that she had been maintained in that position for approximately three hours,” said Dr. John Perri, who saw Megan Espinoza in 2018 at the Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista.
Espinoza, a mother of two, had just gotten a breast augmentation at Divino Plastic Surgery in Bonita. Prosecutors have charged Dr. Carlos Chacon with murder for Espinoza’s death and allege he allowed her to suffocate for three hours while seeing other patients for consultations.
Perri testified Monday that Espinoza was critically ill and unresponsive when she finally arrived at the hospital.
“She was on a mechanical ventilator requiring high levels of oxygen and pressure to maintain her oxygen saturations," he said. "She was in shock.”
He said he was so outraged by Espinoza's condition that he told her family to get an attorney.
RELATED: Bonita plastic surgeon charged with murder after allegedly leaving patient suffocating for hours: DA
Perri was the first witness called to testify during day two of the preliminary hearing for Dr. Chacon.
Chacon appeared calm in court as he heard Perri testify and typed on a laptop next to his attorneys.
The second witness to take the stand was former Divino employee Carla Hernandez.
She appeared nervous at times while giving testimony and told the court she was a scrub tech who oversaw making the operating room sterile and prepping patients for surgery.
Even though she had no formal medical training, Hernandez testified she gave Espinoza an anesthetic to her breasts in an area Chacon had marked.
Hernandez said toward the end of the procedure something went wrong and “the monitor started making a noise.”
She said Espinoza’s chest turned a bluish-purple color, but Chacon continued the surgery.
Hernandez said the surgeon checked Espinoza‘s pulse, gave chest compressions and used an AED machine to shock the patient.
She testified despite Espinoza’s condition, Chacon left the room for 10 to 20 minutes.
“I asked Heather (the nurse) if we were going to call 911, if someone should call and she said 'No that it was doctor’s orders' and we had to wait for him,” Hernandez testified.
Chacon’s lawyers are promising a vigorous defense and say the surgeon acted reasonably.
They argue Espinoza’s death was the result of her family deciding to terminate her life weeks after she went under the knife.
“She died when the decision was made to cap her trach tube, so to that extent it seems disingenuous at best to say Dr. Chacon murdered his patient where she lived for six weeks afterwards,” attorney David Rosenberg told 10News during a recess.
