Divino Plastic Surgery, Inc. v. Superior Court

I.

BACKGROUND

A. Fatal Surgery Carlos Chacon, M.D., performed an augmentation mammoplasty on Megan Espinoza at his surgical clinic, Divino Plastic Surgery, Inc. (Divino; Chacon and Divino are collectively called Chacon when it is unnecessary to distinguish them). During the surgery, Megan went into cardiopulmonary arrest. Megan remained intubated and unresponsive until she died about six weeks later. B. Original Complaint On October 21, 2019, Megan’s husband, Moises Espinoza, and two minor children filed a complaint for damages against Chacon, Divino, and Heather Lang, a registered nurse who assisted Chacon during Megan’s surgery. The Espinozas alleged Chacon had told Megan a licensed anesthesiologist would be present during the augmentation mammoplasty to

2 administer the anesthesia and to monitor her, but Chacon and Lang actually administered multiple anesthetics, even though neither was licensed to do so, and failed to monitor Megan during the procedure. As a result, the Espinozas alleged, Megan went into cardiopulmonary arrest and, although Chacon and Lang performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Megan for approximately three hours without her consent, she…