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twitterAuthorities raid store where surgeries were performed in back room
Officials alerted after botched surgery
Leila Navidi
Botanica Maya on East Lake Mead Boulevard, where suspected illegal surgeries took place, is seen Friday.
Friday, June 26, 2009 | 1:15 p.m.
Botanica Maya
Sun Coverage
Health authorities today raided two retail stores in Las Vegas catering to Spanish-speaking immigrants after learning of illegal surgeries being performed at one of them, with bloody rags and used needles being tossed into a trash bin out back.
The raids, and a cease-and-desist order, were prompted after authorities learned of a woman who was bleeding uncontrollably because of a botched gynecological surgery performed in a back room at Botanica Maya, which sells over-the-counter medications, vitamins and herbs at 5347 E. Lake Mead Blvd. in Las Vegas.
Someone called 911 and authorities took the woman to a hospital, state Health Division spokesman Ben Kieckhefer said. The woman informed Metro Police investigators of another facility, Botanica San Francisco at 2645 S. Nellis in Las Vegas, where other surgical procedures were allegedly being performed, he said.
In the ensuing days, employees for Republic Services found biomedical waste — bloody rags, bottles of injectible drugs with Spanish labels, pill bottles, gloves, used syringes and needles — tossed in a Dumpster behind Botanica Maya, Kieckhefer said. The Health Division was notified Thursday and moved in this morning.
They discovered that the back room at Botanica Maya was set up as a crude surgical suite, Kieckhefer said. Inspectors found a cabinet with intravenous and injectible medications, many with Spanish labels, and a log with names of patients and dates of procedures. He said it’s unknown how many procedures were performed at the location, but that it’s a serious risk to the public.
“Disposal of syringes and other sharps in a dumpster out back obviously poses a threat to public health,” Kieckhefer said.
In addition, patients could become infected with disease during procedures, given the unsanitary conditions, he said, and whoever was performing the procedures could also take advantage of patients.
The health division said there were no obvious signs that procedures had been performed in the back rooms at Botanica San Francisco. The stores are owned by Adam Padilla, officials said.
Reached by phone, Padilla told the Sun he owns the Lake Mead store and his father owns the Nellis store. His step-mother, Patricia Padilla, ran the Lake Mead location, he said, and he claims he knew nothing about any surgical procedures being performed at the site.
On the day of the 911 call, June 19, “somebody called me and told me there was a bunch of cops in front of my store,” said Padilla, who works two other jobs. “I came down here and that’s when the cops told me what was going on.”
On the Internet, the location is listed as the address of “Patricia Padilla, MD,” but Adam Padilla said his step-mother does not advertise herself as a physician. State records show she is not licensed in Nevada as a medical doctor.
Padilla said the procedure performed June 19 was done by a man known only as “Gustavo,” and he fled to Mexico or Guatemala after the police were called.
Padilla said he is cooperating with the investigation, which also includes the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners, the Nevada Pharmacy Board and the Southern Nevada Health District.
“People need to recognize that this is an unsafe medical practice,” Kieckhefer said. “Anyone who received care at one of these facilities should go and see a licensed medical professional to ensure that they’re OK.”
Discussion: 29 comments so far…
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i used to have lake mead as one of my streets in my sales territory when i sold advertising...there are SO many creepy places like this on that street.
i'd walk in with my 3 ring binder, wearing a tie and a name badge and i'd say "is the manager here?" and i guess they figured i was some health, immigration, or i.r.s. official and there would be a creepy silence and the girl at the counter would rattle off some spanish jibber - jabber to get me out of the place as fast as possible or if i was lucky she would point to a side door and i would go in wondering what would be on the other side waiting for me.
there are LOTS of businesses in this area where you walk in and there's no cash register, no business license on the wall, no business cards, nothing.
Do you ever think that we are simply Tijuana North? And getting worse by the day. There is no doubt that as our immigrant population expands daily, there will be more and more stories like this. I remember being in Puerto Vallarta years ago, and seeing women standing in a river, and beating clothes with a rock. We don't have any rivers, but maybe Lake Mead will do....
Poverty is what fuels these "clinics" - not immigration. Angry racists like Bdover will take any excuse to viilify the hard-working, and law-abiding, Hispanic community.
Honestly Bdover, you make conservativism look ugly (and thus weaken our hand against the Socialists) when you insist on degingrating human suffering.
That being said, all the folks associated with this "clinic" should be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law.
My heart goes out to the patients who, most likely in a moment of desperation, were taken advantage of.
this website
http://www.manta.com/company/mmnvxkx
shows Botanica Maya as a General Medical and Surgical Hospital...WTF is going on????
This has been just a HUGE misunderstanding....This is Obama's New American Health Care Inititive where every American can afford back-alley health care. Open it back up...there are very sick & needy people waiting!
teambeam -- also in your WTF category:
"Inspectors found ... a log with names of patients and dates of procedures. He said it's unknown how many procedures were performed at the location..."
Only government can open a book with everything in it and still not get it.
Too bad the same applies to law books.
This is what happens when you don't have a 'public option' for healthcare.
Time to remove greed from the health care system.
I am a former Las Vegan, and a gringo, now living in Puerto Vallarta for the last five years and on-line reader of the Sun. The story is appalling indeed ... but what in the h### does a lady washing her clothes in the river in Puerto Vallarta have to do with it? Ignorance still lives!!!
By the way, hate to branch off in new issue, but my family and I are far safer walking the streets of Puerto Vallarta than we ever were in Las Vegas. Also, the medical care here is outstanding and far less expensive than in the US.
Oh by the way, not a single swine flu case in Puerto Vallarta either.
OG
"Honestly Bdover, you make conservativism look ugly (and thus weaken our hand against the Socialists) when you insist on degingrating human suffering."
As one of the "Socialists," I've got to say your attitude does a pretty good job of making "conservatism" look ugly too.
Public option my foot--this is what happens when you don't come to the US legally and don't qualify for medicaid like other poorer Americans.
i love how liberals think profit and running a business = greed.
If our health care system is not fixed now this problem will get worse.
Maybe they will start franchising Tijuana dentists in Las Vegas. I hear they do extractions for $29.00 and cleaning for $20.00.
Rejco 100...you're blaming everyone.You don't seem to have a problem with the center...then I suggest you see their doctors. I'm sure they'll clean up the exam table with those soiled bloody rags.Make sure they wipe of that needle before sticking you...we don't want you picking up something you didn't come in with after all.
Health care is the United States is awful. WE need Universal Care now. These people have no choices.
They are doinmg the best they can.
Shame on America
So remind me why we should care if they are cutting up the illegals? It not like American's frequent that business its set up to serve illegals.
Republican Senators do not have to worry about long term care for acquired STDs, as they have federally funded medical and dental care programs.
This is not a white-brown local story, any more than Dr. Desai is not a Pakistani-Caucasian story. All human beings are the same on the inside, any doctor will tell you that.
Sadly, this story is one of desperation, as human beings decided this was their best choice for proper healthcare.
Today in Washington DC there is an ongoing battle-negotiation over America's biggest public policy decision, healthcare delivery and cost containment, with long term strategic and economic outcomes at stake.
The fearheads, and the above the glass ceiling Corporate America elites and lobbyist-attorneys they represent, are out in mass in the halls, desks, and tables of the nation's capitol.
Today, over 70 percent of Americans state they want universal care.
Yet, there are Republican members of Congress, moderate Democratic members of Congress, and lobbyist-attorneys who state they believe in free markets, and they believe in market competition to provide efficiency, lower prices and costs of good sold.
Yet, they turn around and state that a national, public sector plan option for healthcare would lead to the demise of private sector healthcare in this country, because the private sector would not be able to compete.
Interesting.
Police, fire, schools, transportation networks, national parks, Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, Secret Service, CIA, FBI, ATF, Border Patrol, Coast Guard, add the Pentagon, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, as some examples, are all federally funded and operated programs. The majority of Americans believe most, if not all, of these public sector programs are efficient and perform well. We all contribute taxoayer funds into a pool for something larger in scope and nature than the private sector is entrusted with.
The wealthy can afford access to healthcare. The indigent can "qualify" for access to healthcare. It is the middle class which is being rationed, or "shut out" (see Natalie Sarkisian) from healthcare, and it is their family's life savings-equity that are being taxed to absorb the costs, outside the private sector insurance coverage system. The current situation is a tax on middle class equity, and do not be fooled into thinking Congress and lobbyist- attorneys do not know it. They DO!
I encourage all Nevada Citizens to write, email, or call your elected represensation and be heard before August on this issue of national importance.
Insurance company execs hoard the premiums in compensation, everyone slowly says no for long term chronic illness care, and large corporations who can afford economies of scale to be self funded in providing healthcare (thus the tax benefits) state they cannot afford to pay, on big claims, their best defense.
The time is now to be heard.
Early this week the USA Today newspaper, page 4D, ran a story where people of professional expertise stated that young to teenage Type 2 diabetic youth in America were being systematically outed by their parents' insurance plans for coverage, leading to higher costs to society down the road for their care.
In either the current Time or Newsweek, without referencing I cannot be specific (Time, I think), there is a healthcare article disclosing that Mayo Clinic, Rochester is able to provide more comprehensive care than UCLA at 40 percent less cost on average, for the last two years of life for patients with chronic illnesses.
We have volunteer soldiers, undrafted, returning from two wars we initiated on foreign soil with long term care issues that are going to be placed on their immediate families, long term, who battle shortages of VA doctors, just as Southern Nevadans battle shortages of specialists in the care available to the community.
The facts and outcomes are there in front of Americans, every day.
The United States is 234 years old, a country still full of vigor ahead in technology, and blessed with abundent natural resources and two large oceans for natural protection.
But, we are in arrears to some of our allie-friend countries on social issues.
1865- Slavery Abolished by Law
1965- Civil Rights Act
???? Universal Healthcare
Americans want healthcare, not health plans.
If the Canadians, French, Germans, English, Japan and other countries can do it, then we should be able to do it for even less money per capital, with a larger population base, and we should be able to do it BETTER, because we are Americans.
Make your individual voices heard, on either side of this issue in play right now in the nationa's capitol. Your "elected" leaders need to hear from you now.
Note to Congress: It's the COST, stupid.
i'm all for universal healthcare IF we close every mcdonald's and burger king, make cigarettes illegal, and mandate that every person walk at least 1 mile every week, and nobody can have more than 2 children, and anyone over 200 pounds has to pay an extra 10% in taxes to support the system.
if you want money out of MY paycheck, then i get to have a say in what you eat, smoke, how healthy you are, and how many people you put into the system.
if you bleeding heart liberals aren't cool with that, then shut up, put on your birkenstocks, turn on the phish dvd and leave me alone.
lol, any fool that would go to that place is just that a "FOOL.
This is the problem with society today; personal responsibility doesn't exist for the most part. Politicians will stop at nothing to train the brain dead to succumb to the mindset that they aren't responsible for their choices and what occurs in one's life. Somebody else did this, the so called family made a choice, now live with your choice. The patient made a choice, now live with it or suffer the consequences of your choice.
On the local news the media reported that a cease and desist order was being granted by the courts. What makes the law enforcement agency think that this will work, stupid is stupid does. They're operating an illegal medical practice, put them in jail where they belong, cease their property and auction it off to pay our legal bill that "WE" are paying.
Dear SteveM... it is already taking money out of your paycheck. All of our rates are sky high because of the abuse of the system. What we should all come together on is the horrible state of health care in the city in which we live. Just think.. if we all stood together on that instead of just spewing out what we here on the radio. Way too much HATE. You people are sick with it.
How again is this Obama's fault? He's been in office for 5 months. Are you guys really that dumb? Oh-- I forgot--this is Las Vegas--land of the hateful and ignorant. Go put another $20 in a poker machine and then complain about taxes- LOL!!
I'm with Stevem,
If I live a healthy life and don't have kids, why should I pay the same as some fat-ass, smoker, drinker with 9 kids? That isn't right!!
Since we're talking about our broken healthcare system:
I am a middle class working professional. I've been with my company for 2 years, but I still have no insurance. I honestly don't care how I get to see a doctor, just that I can. There are programs for the poor, but none for the working uninsured.
How much are your insurance premiums and copays right now? Do you honestly think our taxes will go up that much? I'm not asking you to pay for me. I'm asking for us to pay for us.
Lisa90268:
LOL, I have to wonder when you and your fellow lunatics will begin to accept responsibility for choices. Obama was elected, he is your president, he can't continue to skirt the issues and he surely can't blame the past for what he is responsible for. He took an oath, now he needs to fulfill his responsibilities. And to the followers who voted for change, enjoy the change, Obama is going to tax you to death unless you're one that sucks off the system and no desire to work.
Democrats need to stop using excuses and for god's sake step up to the plate and become responsible. It is not our fault that Obama chooses to live in the past and that he is unable to provide any effective leadership role to America. It is obvious that Obama was a recipient of the affirmative action programs and he didn't have to produce anything meaningful or useful during his tenure, let alone be held accountable for his actions and choices. Now we're stuck paying him a salary for life along with secret service protection for life. What a waste of a few billion taxpayer dollars, a free ride for life. One has to love America, only here can you be voted into office and blame everything on the past and still get paid for doing absolutely noting useful. He is breaking America and democrats are proud of this fact.
the top 2% refuse to pay their sare of taxes.
Bring on the taxes and give us healthcare now.
15 million new Americans will get Amnesty soon. They need healthcare too.
Maybe John Ensign can leave his hookers alone long enough to do his job
This particular clinic has nothing to do with any government administration or the wrongs of our country and states - It has to do with a greedy woman and her husband who took advantage of underprivilaged frighten people. A woman (Patrica Pidilla) who called herself a doctor for many many years...and was just a pharmacist in Mexico. But she came to the USA and saw easy pickens. She is the lowest of low...she diagnosed people and sold mexican prescription medication to people if they needed it or not. She has a warrant for her arrest in CA too under Patrica Becera - she fled to Mexico when they busted her. She is scum and its about time the authorities finally paid attention to this type of crime - because I am sure she is not the only one. OH, and she was making $1000.00s and $1000.00 of dollars - There needs to be harsher penalites for this type of crime.