SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Before a judge sentenced her to prison for her role in a botched plastic surgery that killed a patient, a former nurse spent her final weeks of freedom working at a surgical center.
Heather Lang Vass was employed at the San Diego Outpatient Surgical Center in Kearny Mesa and had worked there since the summer of 2023, Team 10 has learned.
The former nurse shielded her face from our camera, which was waiting outside the facility as she finished a shift 10 days before a judge sent her to prison in September.
“I am shocked that they would hire someone who had lost their license due to a malpractice issue. It is quite concerning to me,” said Judith Gorcey, in an interview from her home in Oxnard, California.
Gorcey’s daughter Megan Espinoza died in a botched 2018 breast augmentation surgery at the Divino Plastic Surgery clinic in Bonita.
Before the operation, Vass gave Espinoza an excessive and lethal dose of powerful drugs, including fentanyl, Percocet and ketamine. She had no legal right to provide the drugs and had never been authorized to administer anesthesia, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing.
Espinoza’s heart stopped during the surgery. Instead of calling 911 right away, Vass and Dr. Carlos Chacon waited hours while the mother of two was in the operating room fighting for her life, Superior Court Judge Maryann D'Addezio said at Vass’s sentencing.
“It is unconscionable to me that she did not pick up a phone and call an ambulance,” Gorcey told Team 10.
In 2021, both Chacon and Vass were criminally charged for their roles in Espinoza’s death. Vass pleaded guilty in May 2023 to involuntary manslaughter. By August of that year, she had surrendered her nursing license.
Hired as 'quality assurance coordinator'
That wasn’t a problem for the San Diego Outpatient Surgical Center, which had hired her earlier that summer as a “quality assurance coordinator."
Her hiring triggered concerns among some employees who spoke to Team 10.
The staffers said the former nurse was hired to be a supervisor at the surgical center and oversaw nurses and other employees.
One source provided a video of Vass standing in scrubs near a patient who was having a seizure after surgery at the center.
“My biggest concern is patient safety. I mean, we all went to school for our license, and how [could] she be in charge of us when she has no license?” one staffer said.
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Schedule listed former nurse as 'supervisor'
The California Board of Registered Nursing said a license isn’t required to wear scrubs and stand near a patient.
The sources spoke to Team 10 on the condition of anonymity and said they fear retaliation for speaking out.
The surgical center’s administrator, Susan Danielsen Raub, confirmed Vass’s employment at the facility before she was sent to prison.
“We will confirm that Ms. Vass holds a master’s degree in nursing from Point Loma Nazarene University and [was] employed at San Diego Outpatient Surgical Center in an administrative support position, collecting, compiling and disseminating information,” she wrote in an email.
However, employees who worked with Vass rejected the center's characterization of her role at the facility.
“That is not true. She [was] in charge of nurses and other staff, and she actually [got] involved with patient care,” said one staffer, who provided Team 10 with a photo of a scheduling whiteboard that listed “Heather” as a “supervisor.”
The surgical center didn’t respond to questions from Team 10 regarding Vass’ day-to-day duties and said the company has a policy of not commenting on personnel matters.
Sources told Team 10 Vass had given staff at the facility flu vaccines and tuberculosis tests.
The California Board of Registered Nursing told Team 10 a nursing license is required for that kind of medical work.
“If a person were to perform these tests with a revoked RN license, then this would be a violation of the Nursing Practice Act," board spokesman Vincent Miranda said.
Team 10 asked the board what duties someone can perform in a surgical facility without a license.
Miranda said the supervision of nursing that requires a substantial amount of scientific knowledge or technical skill “must be reviewed and evaluated by another RN.”
He said any overlapping or related duties that are “not specific to the practice of nursing” may be reviewed and evaluated by a non-nurse who is knowledgeable of those areas.
Nurse 'deeply sorry' for role in mother's death
At the sentencing hearing for Vass and Chacon, Espinoza’s friends and family begged the judge to give both a tough punishment.
“Her children were only 3 and 6 years old at the time of her death, and they have very little to no memories of her of their own,” said Mina Sheppard, Espinoza’s best friend, who asked the judge to revoke Vass’ nursing license indefinitely.
Vass apologized to Espinoza’s family and said as a mother, she can’t imagine the pain she’s caused or picture her own family going through a Christmas without her.
“I understand that nothing I say today will bring Megan back to you, and words cannot express how deeply and truly sorry I am for my part in her untimely death and how it will haunt me for the rest of my days that I did not call for help," Vass said.
Judge D'Addezio called Vass a continued danger to the community and said the facts of the case couldn’t be more “egregious.”
She noted Vass admitted she gave conscious sedation to patients 100 times despite the fact she wasn’t authorized.
“One hundred times she put her desire for extra cash over her own patients,” D'Addezio said, adding six months before Espinoza’s surgery Vass overmedicated a patient and blamed the client’s marijuana use when Chacon couldn’t wake her.
The judge said the incident speaks volumes of her mindset and her attitude toward the people who put their lives into her hands.
“It’s at the very least disrespectful, it’s dismissive, and it’s so dehumanizing," said D'Addezio.
License could get reinstated
The judge sent her to prison for two years but did not revoke her nursing license indefinitely.
Since the sentencing, Team 10 has confirmed Vass can apply to get her license back.
State law allows nurses with revoked licenses to ask for them to be reinstated after three years.
Data provided to Team 10 from the nursing board shows 224 out of 327 nurses got their licenses back in the past five fiscal years.
Miranda said an administrative law judge reviews requests for reinstatement and writes a proposed decision for the nursing board to review and vote on.
Vass will be able to apply for her license to be reinstated in Aug. 2026.
The San Diego Outpatient Surgical Center would not say if she would be rehired once she’s released from prison.
The attorney for Vass refused to comment on this story when Team 10 approached him outside the courtroom.
Chacon was given a three-year prison sentence after taking a plea deal. He agreed to surrender his medical license indefinitely and is barred from seeing patients again in California.
Team 10 investigative reporter Austin Grabish covers the Medical Board of California, military investigations, and is a government watchdog. Email: austin.grabish@10news.com
