Fraud, illegal cosmetic surgeries, a butt-lift death lawsuit: Orlando’s ‘Dr. Downtown’
Orlando doctor Christopher Walker’s Instagram page still claims “Dr. Downtown” is a “cosmetic surgeon” working out of Beja Body Med Spa, which he started.
Not mentioned: Walker is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 22 after a guilty plea in federal court in a transvaginal mesh implant removal scam; the death of a patient under Walker’s knife during a Brazilian butt lift, cosmetic surgery for which Beja Body is being sued; and that the Florida Department of Health says Walker, a urogynecologist, wasn’t qualified to perform that cosmetic surgery.
Administrative complaints start the discipline process with the Board of Medicine. The complaint over the surgery is one of two the department has filed against Walker, who is free at least until sentencing.
Walker, MedSurg Consultants and UroGyn Specialists of Florida
The second complaint, filed in August, says Walker performed cosmetic surgeries at his office surgery center, MedSurg Consultants, in 2020.
Complaint Problem 1: Walker. He lacked “the background, training and experience” to perform cosmetic surgeries.
Complaint Problem 2: MedSurg. Cosmetic surgery was beyond the limits of MedSurg’s office registration with the state. Also, Walker didn’t have a transfer agreement with a hospital “within reasonable proximity to Med Surg.”
Complaint Problem 3: Dr. Sonia Espinoza and Dr. Evans Amune. They did surgeries at MedSurg, but weren’t registered with the department to do so.
MedSurg’s registration, No. OSR 1109, got hit with an emergency suspension order on June 7. The order says Med Surg submitted an application to the state naming a doctor as Designated Physician even though that doctor isn’t licensed in Florida.
A call to MedSurg’s number on Tuesday went to the phone bank for UroGyn Specialists of Florida. The only provider listed on UroGyn’s website: Dr. Christopher Walker.
UroGyn’s website says it’s an “all-in-one practice” that does “minimally invasive and robotic surgery.” A search of the Florida Department of Health’s License Verification site did not turn up an office surgery registration (OSR) for “UroGyn,” “Uro Gyn,” “UroGyn Specialists” or “UroGyn Specialists of Florida.”
Those who answered the phone Tuesday couldn’t provide the OSR to the Miami Herald and said they would find someone who could. No one from UroGyn called back.
Beja Body Butt Lift Death
MedSurg, then UroGyn listed Suite 710 of 810 Orange Ave. as their address. That was the address on the initial state registration of Beja Body Contouring, which listed Walker as the manager. Beja Body is now in Suite 760.
As with UroGyn, the Florida Department of Health database search for licenses of “Beja Body Med Spa” or “Beja Body Contouring” doesn’t show anything. Daniel Ortiz’s lawsuit against Beja Body noted that lack of licensing.
“Since its inception as a company, Beja has never been registered with the Florida Department of Health as an office where Level III Office Surgeries could lawfully be performed,” says the negligence lawsuit filed in Orange County Circuit Court by the Faiella & Gulden law firm.
By the time Daniel Ortiz’s wife, Ulesha Ortiz, came to Beja Body Med Spa on Jan. 15 for a Brazilian butt lift, Beja’s official leadership had changed.
Walker was indicted in the transvaginal mesh scam in May 2019, then had his bond revoked on Feb. 3, 2020, after his indictment on witness tampering charges. Rhondalee Webster, originally hired as Beja’s business development manager in February 2019, acquired an ownership interest in Beja in February 2020.
When Walker was released, he went back to work at Beja. Into April, his page on the Beja Body website said: “Following his passion in the appreciation of art and beauty, Dr. Walker completed his training as a cosmetic surgeon in 2008 and became an Associate of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgeons.”
(The Beja Body Med Spa website recently became a password-only website.)
But the Florida Department of Health complaint said that Walker didn’t notify it of any such training, wasn’t board certified in cosmetic surgery and didn’t “have the adequate education, training, and/or experience to perform liposuctions.”
A Brazilian butt lift is a liposuction in which abdomen and back fat get sucked out by a tube called a “cannula’ and then inserted into the buttocks. No intraabdominal organs should be touched.
“[Walker] repeatedly crossed through [Ortiz’s] abdominal muscles and punctured multiple organs and arteries,” the complaint said. “[Ortiz] experienced significant internal bleeding, several sources of arterial and venous bleeding, and multiple organ injuries including penetrating abdominal wounds, liver and pancreas lacerations, and injuries to the stomach and/or colon.”
Ortiz was hustled from Beja Body to Advent Health Orlando, two miles away. Despite the efforts of an Advent Health emergency surgical team, Ortiz died at 10:55 p.m. Jan. 15.
The lawsuit also said Walker sometimes allowed surgical technician Angelica Quinonez to operate the cannula. Surgical technicians don’t have to be licensed in Florida.
Beja Body didn’t return two phone messages from the Miami Herald.
Dr. Christopher Walker’s criminal problems
Walker is board certified in urology, obstetrics and gynecology, giving him the training to work on transvaginal mesh (TVM) implant replacement scheme.
After problems with TVMs led to lawsuits against manufacturers, the FDA banned them in 2019. The settlements to women who had the TVMs removed were larger, generally, than to those who hadn’t had them removed.
The indictment accused Walker and partner Wesley Blake Barber of telling women who might need to have the TVMs removed and getting them to use Walker by lying to them, then worming their fingers into the settlement.
“Certain agreement entered into by the victims included provisions in which the women agreed to repay the costs of the removal surgery plus interest, which accrued at exorbitant rates, if the women ultimately received a settlement or favorable judgment against the mesh manufacturer,” the indictment said. “In certain funding arrangements, the victims were responsible for the medical bills associated with the removal surgeries even if they did not receive a settlement.”
Walker pleaded guilty to travel act conspiracy and travel act violation for getting women to travel to Florida for the TVM removal as part of the scheme.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 7:41 AM.
