Two Women Held on Suspicion of Illegal Surgery

Two women have been arrested on suspicion of performing cosmetic surgery at a Little Saigon clinic disguised as a beauty salon, police and state medical officials said Thursday.

Investigators from the Medical Board of California and Westminster police officers said they found no evidence that hair was being cut at the Christina Beauty Center on Magnolia Avenue in Westminster. They said they found no hair stations, no shampoo sinks and no hair or nail products at the salon Tuesday.

But police, who discovered the clinic Tuesday after receiving a tip from a former boyfriend of one suspect, did find a patient having surgery performed on her eyelids, officials said.

Arrested Tuesday were Thu Ba Tran, 45, and Tuyet Nguyen, 49. They were charged with practicing medicine without a license, a felony, and were released on $10,000 bail each. They face as much as three years in state prison if convicted.

The patient, Sanh Thai, 48, of Oregon, told investigators she paid $1,600 for the surgery and that Nguyen performed the operation with Tran as her assistant. The surgery, a cosmetic procedure on the eyelids sought by some Asians to make their eyes appear European, was being completed when authorities arrived. Paramedics were called but Thai refused treatment, said Candis Cohen, spokeswoman for the medical board.

Investigators found medical supplies and prescription drugs at the beauty center, including the anesthetic lidocaine, syringes, scalpels, medical clamps and silicone breast implants.

A bloody scalpel and clamp and materials for suturing were found in the same room as the patient. In the shop window was a sign, medical board officials said, reading in Vietnamese: “Cosmetic Surgery Done by Well Known Doctors.”

Authorities also found a framed medical assistant’s diploma issued to Nguyen from Medical Career College in Garden Grove.

Hoang Huy Tu, an attorney representing both women, said Nguyen sells cosmetics and creams and provides beauty consultations. He said Nguyen works with many doctors and refers patients to a Beverly Hills plastic surgery clinic.

Tu said Nguyen attended medical school in Saigon but did not finish after the North Vietnamese won the Vietnam War. He said Nguyen is a member of the American Assn. for Cosmetic Surgery and immigrated to the U.S. in 1992.

The medical supplies at the store belong to doctors who oversee Nguyen’s work, and she sterilizes equipment for them, Tu said. He said she uses the breast implants to show clients the sizes available but that she does no surgery herself.

The store was open Thursday and people inside were talking and watching TV. A counter held facial creams and cosmetics. Signs on the window advertised that the center can get rid of skin tags, moles and pimples.

Nguyen has an establishment license with the state Bureau of Barbering and Cosmetology, meaning she can own the shop but not cut hair, said Mike Luery, spokesman for the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Tran was not licensed. Tu said Tran was a receptionist. “She never touched any clients,” he said.

Unlicensed doctors have became a big-enough problem that the state medical board began Operation Safe Medicine in 2001 to crack down on backroom clinics. Only a physician licensed in California can practice medicine in the state.

John Hirai, who heads the new unit, said authorities have increasingly received reports of unlicensed medical operations from the Asian community in the last three years. He said that probably does not mean illegal activity is increasing but that more people are aware of how to report problems.

In many cases, he said, they receive complaints after a patient is injured or the procedure is botched. He said there has been an increase across the board in reports of illegal cosmetic procedures, such as anti-wrinkle Botox injections. He said it would be very unusual for these illegal clinics to perform breast implants.