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November 23, 2009

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Medical board suspends license of Vegas doctor

By Marshall Allen (contact)

Published Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 11:04 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, July 29, 2009 | 2:54 a.m.

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Dr. Sean Su

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Medical authorities took the uncharacteristically aggressive tack Tuesday of suspending the license of Dr. Sean Su before concluding their investigation of him, citing the immediate danger he posed after two botched procedures and an ongoing refusal to participate in its investigation.

In announcing its decision against Su, the Nevada State Medical Examiners Board cited a breast augmentation that left the patient infected and scarred and the implant protruding from the incision, and a laser liposuction procedure that resulted in the scarring of the patient’s face.

Su, a family doctor, did not return calls for comment.

The medical board’s action comes more than three weeks after the State Health Division ordered Su to stop performing surgeries in his medical office after it found him allegedly running an unlicensed and unsafe surgery center and using expired medicines.

Su did not cooperate with the medical board’s investigation and provided what appeared to be falsified records, according to the medical board’s findings. One source told the Sun that he ran away from investigators who had gone to his office.

The medical board’s ongoing investigation “gives rise to serious and substantial concerns regarding Dr. Su’s competence and ability to safely serve patients in Nevada,” the order said.

The action comes two days after the Sun published a story questioning why it was taking the medical board so long to act on Su, given the Health Division actions against him.

In the past three weeks the medical board has been working on its investigation as quickly as possible, said Louis Ling, the board’s executive director.

According to the board’s suspension order, Su performed an eight-hour breast augmentation procedure April 16 in his Skin & Body Institute clinic on a patient who had won the surgery through her health club. Su used only local anesthesia, which faded in effectiveness, causing the patient pain.

Su failed to provide a space large enough to accommodate the breast implant, and on June 3 the patient returned to Su’s office. Her right implant was protruding through the original incision. Su performed a repair surgery, again in his office under local anesthetic. He reinserted the implant, which was still too large for the pocket he had created, the medical board said.

On June 15 the patient was admitted to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center with an infection in her right breast. Surgeons who removed the implant noted that Su’s incisions — about 10 centimeters each — were about five times longer than they should have been. The incision on the right breast was “jagged and uneven,” the order said, and at the time the patient came for surgery, the implant protruded from the incision made by Su.

The surgeons also discovered a mass of sutures that Su had apparently left along the patient’s chest wall. They removed the sutures.

Su’s lack of cooperation with the medical board’s investigation raises “substantial concerns regarding (his) trustworthiness” and the concern that records will be altered or destroyed, according to the order, which was delivered to Su on Tuesday.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said it took too long for the medical board to suspend Su’s license.

“Reading the health division’s report, it’s clear that patients have been at risk these past three weeks, and I find that very disturbing,” Leslie said.

Leslie complained that the medical board protects the interests of doctors more than those of patients, and should have suspended Su’s license immediately.

Ling said the medical board handled Su’s case as quickly as it could, and that when new laws go into effect in October, it will be much quicker to respond.

Discussion: 20 comments so far…

  1. By denro
    7/28/09 at 11:59 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    What a guy. Doing procedures he's apparently not qualified to do, for the money, and then not being cooperative in the investigation. Way to go, Medical Board.

  2. By bremskraft
    7/28/09 at 12:05 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Just another doctor without regard for the health of women... when will it end?

  3. By logic_should_rule
    7/28/09 at 12:07 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Wow, I guess I'll have cancel my appointment.

  4. By mk1234
    7/28/09 at 12:45 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    DEPORT his ass back to the country he came from.Why would any woman allow breast surgery to take place in a dcotor's office.The patient and the Doctor are nuts.Women you have to use common sense,you don't have surgery just anywhere,unless the patient was foreign also and did not understand....

  5. By unclegig
    7/28/09 at 1:04 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    They should send this guy back to Korea or wherever country he came from.

  6. By Birdiedreamin
    7/28/09 at 1:19 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    the medical board is a disgrace...
    they represent the doctors...
    not the public...
    the legislature needs to pass legislation which removes all of the board's powers...
    then fire all of the board members...
    especially louis ling...
    and then start over from scratch...
    just look at how those fools handled the hepatitis epidemic...
    that was over a year ago...
    have they done anything substantial yet...
    hmmm...
    nothing but excuses...
    an absolute disgrace!!!

  7. By bgrebs
    7/28/09 at 1:53 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Not that I'm endorsing this meatball surgeon, but the racist idiots above might be interested to know he was born and educated in California and Nevada and has lived in the US his whole life.

  8. By dcdc97
    7/28/09 at 2:40 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    His race or name has nothing to do with his stupid crime. Please keep race/nationality out of it. I myself am a local physician with a "foreign" name but I have been here for over 25 years, went to college and chiropractic school right here in US. I am a US citizen. So, if I do something stupid, I should also be sent to where I came from? This is a sad, sad situation for the patient and has nothing to do with doctor's race/nationality. Here she is thinkng she won a breasy augmentation and not realizing it is from a doctor who went to some weekend seminars and thinks he can perform the procedure. Shame on the doctor. He forgot the oath he took that states first do no harm.

  9. By unclegig
    7/28/09 at 4:20 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    bgrebs: Are you Dr. Su? Regardless of his origin, send his butt back to the Country of California.

  10. By LV08
    7/28/09 at 4:21 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    It is true that race/name has nothing to do with crime but there are more foreign physicians who later became licensed in the US that perform such procedures at their offices. The point is that physicians have too much power in this country and they have to do something so drastic to be questioned.
    I have practiced in a few states in the US, however, NV is something else. It is full of corruption and they give out practice licenses to everybody here. I have witnessed physicians (e.g., in Sunrise Med Ctr) that expose patients to many unnecessary drugs.

  11. By help
    7/28/09 at 4:58 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    I am always amazed how quickly the self proclaimed non-racist express racist comments.

  12. By unemployed_legal_american_citi
    7/28/09 at 8:33 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    SEND THE BUM BACK TO WHERE EVER HE CAME FROM AND ALL THE OTHER bumS FROM INDIA,CHINA ECT>>>> AND AFTER THAT ROUND UP ALL THE ILLEGAL MEXICANS, YOU COULD START WITH THE ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AT CITY CENTER ANd GO EITHER SOUTH OR NORTH, MAYBE THE LEGAL UNEMPLOYED AMERICAN CITIZENS SOMEDAY WILL HAVE WORK AGAIN !!

  13. By revtomperl
    7/29/09 at 8:48 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    ok, then round up all who may be descendants of illegal Germans, Irish, Italians, Brits, etc., and then give the country back to the Mexicans and Native Americans from whom it was stolen. That has NOTHING to do with the doc who was appropriately identified publicly as unqualified and irresponsible. The board took a better action here than some of their others. I think that if the board doesn't disqualify some of these inadequate physicians, then they should make appointments to receive their own care from them.

  14. By Northsider
    7/29/09 at 1:03 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Why on earth would anyone go to a family doctor for plastic surgery? Its like going to doctor Buckwalter for anything . "Kudos" to the Las Vegas Sun's reporter Marshall Allen . This man deserves credit . Put Mr. Allen on the Medical Board maybe things will be better for the people of Las Vegas . Peace & Blessings

  15. By sheckyvegas
    7/29/09 at 1:04 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Quick! Get his birth records! Make SURE he was born in this country. Oooo! He shore looks like a fer-ner! Oooo! Send his ass back to Ty-Wan or werever his kind come frum! Oooo!

  16. By Northsider
    7/29/09 at 1:14 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Well at least the medical board suspended his license in a timely fashion , UNLIKE doctor Buckwalters license which only took 3 years along with over 9 deaths under his belt . Again this could not be done without the reporting of the Las Vegas Sun reporters .

  17. By gold1020
    7/29/09 at 2:24 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    It's pretty sad when it takes investigative reporting from a newspaper to force The Medical Board Examiners to do the job they're supposed to be doing in the first place.

  18. By Babyboomer
    7/29/09 at 6:07 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    People need to realize one thing...you have to be your own patient advocate...There are state by state web sites where you can look up ANY doctor (as long he/she is licensed) and find any previous out of state judgements included if his license was revoked or surrendered on his own by the doctor. A must look up before you do anything. I walked out of the office of a ENT Doctor years ago...a TOTAL WHACK job...only to find in a search a few years later...he surrendered his license before they had a chance to revoke it(looks better for the doctor)

  19. By geriatric1943
    7/29/09 at 10:08 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    You don't like this doctor? He is the type we will be getting when we have government sponsored health care.

  20. By annienonymouse
    7/30/09 at 6:19 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    If men/women weren't so obsessed with bigger boobs, maybe none of this would have happened.

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