That patient was a 36-year-old mother of two, Megan Espinoza, who went to the doctor for routine breast augmentation surgery.
This plastic surgeon is facing a murder charge for allegedly failing to call 911 for three hours for a patient who later died.
That patient was a 36-year-old mother of two, Megan Espinoza, who went to the doctor for routine breast augmentation surgery.
Prosecutors claim that the doctor used a nurse with no certification in anesthesia to sedate the patient during her plastic surgery.
Then, when she fell into distress, the surgeon allegedly ordered his employees not to call 911.
Espinoza was eventually placed in intensive care at a hospital near San Diego for six weeks, but didn't make it.
"We've been given a life sentence of pain and grief," her mother, Judith Gorcey, tells Inside Edition.
Espinoza's husband, Moises, says he still remembers his last words with his wife.
"I remember I told her I loved her, and I'll see her soon. And it never happened," Moises says in an interview with Jim Moret.
"It definitely shocks the consciousness when you read what happened," the family's attorney Christian Jagusch explains.
Dr. Carlos Chacon pled not guilty when he appeared in court this week. He and the victim's family had already settled a civil malpractice suit.
Jagusch and co-counsel Allison Worden of Gomez Trial Lawyers represented the family in that proceeding.
The doctor's attorney referred to that suit in defending his client, saying: "This is a tragic accident. It's misfortune. And, you know, at best, it's a negligence case which has already been settled."
That is not how Gorcey feels about the criminal case.
"Well, it's probably the most important thing now since we will never have our daughter back," she says. "That the public would not continue to be at risk."
The judge set the doctor's bail at $500,000 and prohibited him from performing surgery in an unaccredited facility.
He also has to tell all of his patients he's facing a murder charge.
