Connecticut Attorney General's Office

Press Release

Attorney General Announces Plastic Surgeon Has Surrendered Licenses, Permanently Closing Dangerous Facility

December 14, 2009

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that a plastic surgeon whose surgical facility was urgently suspended from practice last week after inspectors discovered severe violations has voluntarily surrendered both her individual physician's license and her facility license.

Blumenthal's office, working with the Department of Public Health (DPH) last week, obtained an order suspending the license of Dr. Teresita Mascardo's facility, Connecticut Plastic Surgery Center, LLC of Ridgefield, after finding dangerous conditions including:

• An unlicensed anesthesiologist;

• single use suture sets and other supplies that were resealed after they were opened, and had blood and/or other human fluids on them;

• severe rust in the interior of a machine used to sterilize surgical equipment;

• a garbage container in a recovery room full of food, garbage and other surgical waste including syringes;

• animal droppings on equipment;

• dust, debris and blood on the floor and equipment;

• procedures conducted without nurses present;

• no effective program to control the distribution of drugs or manage infection control; and

• failure to properly maintain medical records and privacy on patients.

Following last week's temporary suspension, Blumenthal's office was preparing to seek permanent license revocation when Mascardo voluntarily surrendered her licenses.

"Faced with the inevitable path to permanent license revocation, this doctor voluntarily surrendered her licenses -- permanently closing a practice plagued by unsanitary and unsafe conditions," Blumenthal said. "State regulators on a routine inspection found the Connecticut Plastic Surgery Center unconscionably unclean with bloody dirty equipment, supplies that appeared used and resealed in packages and serious drugs that were expired and exposed.

"After immediately obtaining an order suspending this doctor's facility license, my office received several disturbing complaints from former patients with serious allegations about slipshod surgeries that have caused lasting damage. These allegations, many now in private litigation, substantiate our grave concerns.

"No amount of nip and tuck could repair the patient safety threat at this facility -- now closed permanently."

If Mascardo seeks to apply for a license at any time in the future, the allegations against her will be deemed true and the DPH Commissioner has the full discretion to deny the license, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal thanked Assistant Attorney General Daniel Shapiro who worked on the case.