Ex-Employee at County Hospital Is Accused of Posing as Surgeon

Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and the state medical board are investigating allegations that a former laboratory technician at the county-run hospital posed as a doctor and solicited patients for liposuction surgeries.

The technician, Marco Luzuriaga, performed the procedures in a Tijuana clinic and at least one of his “patients” suffered a painful abdominal infection, according to a CBS News “48 hours” segment scheduled to air Thursday.

A spokesman for the county Department of Health Services said Tuesday that Luzuriaga, a pathology laboratory technician in the Women and Children’s Hospital at County-USC, was “no longer an employee of the county.” He declined to elaborate.

Luzuriaga could not be reached Tuesday but denied wrongdoing on the “48 Hours” segment.

The county is investigating Luzuriaga’s alleged activities as well as whether he may have been “aided or abetted” by others, health services spokesman Fred MacFarlane said. No other employee has been disciplined or suspended at this point, MacFarlane said.

A medical board spokeswoman said the agency was probing whether Luzuriaga was practicing medicine without a license and would turn any findings over to local prosecutors.

The case is the latest hint of trouble and controversy in the field of liposuction, a potentially lucrative practice that recently has drawn inexperienced physicians, and, occasionally, physician impostors.

The Medical Board of California last year formed a committee to investigate liposuction after two physicians were accused of contributing to patient deaths and a third nonphysician was accused of homicide after performing surgery on a patient who died.

In the television segment, a reporter and about half a dozen other women posed as patients interested in liposuction surgery. Through a connection, they arranged for Luzuriaga to come to a private home to give a presentation on his technique, investigative reporter Roberta Baskin said. Baskin said Luzuriaga, on camera, offered a diagnosis and gave out a card that indicated that he was a physician.

Baskin said she scheduled a procedure in Tijuana, then confronted Luzuriaga, accusing him of practicing medicine without a license. He denied it, she said. It is illegal in California and Mexico for nonphysicians to perform liposuction.