State Board Accuses Doctor of Negligence in Implants

The Medical Board of California has accused Fullerton plastic surgeon J. Bradford Fisher of gross negligence and incompetence in two 1989 breast implant surgeries.

In addition, state officials described the 39-year-old physician as grossly negligent when he allegedly failed to control bleeding and did not immediately hospitalize a patient who “lost a substantial amount of blood” during 1988 face-lift surgery in his office.

The state attorney general’s office, representing the medical board, is seeking to revoke or suspend Fisher’s medical license.

Reached at his office this week, Fisher said he was unaware of the accusation. “I have not seen this. I don’t know anything about this at this point,” he said.

His Los Angeles attorney, Christopher Dumbrowski, called the complaints frivolous. “They are certainly groundless,” he said.

Dumbrowski added, “The doctor intends to seek a dismissal of the accusation” before any administrative hearing, but if the matter gets that far, “he will seek vindication.”

The formal accusation, issued on Feb. 21, cited three surgeries in which Fisher allegedly showed negligence and incompetence.

In the first, a March, 1989, breast augmentation case, Fisher allegedly placed inflatable devices incorrectly so that his 30-year-old patient’s breasts were asymmetrical, the complaint said.

And when Fisher performed corrective surgery in August, the result was “further asymmetry of the breasts,” the complaint said. It also accused Fisher of giving that patient steroid injections that were inappropriate and caused skin around the implant to atrophy.

In an April, 1989, breast surgery, Fisher allegedly put inflatable implants in the wrong place and then caused his patient “substantial and unwarranted pain” when he inflated them.

Another of Fisher’s patients lost “a substantial amount of blood,” during and after an October, 1988, face lift, but Dr. Fisher “did not provide for any additional medical treatment” and even told the woman’s son he could take his mother home, the complaint said. Fisher only agreed to hospitalize his 48-year-old patient after her son insisted, the accusation said.

Fisher then allowed the woman to leave Buena Park Doctor’s Hospital “even though it was not appropriate for her to leave,” the complaint said. It noted that the woman was admitted to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center later that day and “immediately received three units of blood.”