A Manhattan plastic surgeon's office in posh Ridgefield, gave health inspectors more than enough evidence to shut it down -- complete with an animal dropping on equipment, trash cans full of garbage and syringes, and rusty sterilization machines.
The surgical license for Dr. Teresita Mascardo, who called her business Connecticut Plastic Surgery Center, was suspended Friday, according to the Connecticut Attorney General's office. Now, New York state is trying to revoke her license,
Mascardo apparently also runs Woman to Woman Cosmetic Surgery Center in Manhattan on the Upper East Side at 120 East 61st Street. A biography on her website says Mascardo has been specializing in plastic surgery since 1978.
Among the troubling findings by the Department of Public Health at Mascardo's Connecticut office were:
- an unlicensed anesthesiologist;
- single use suture sets and other supplies that were resealed after they were opened, and had blood and/or 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; and
- procedures conducted without nurses present.
Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement: "This emergency suspension stops a medical nightmare -- a facility plagued with dirty bloody equipment, unsterile supplies and other grossly unsanitary and unsafe conditions."
In addition, his office said the facility had not created a system to control the distribution of drugs, an infection-control program and did not properly maintain medical records.
Calls to the Mascardo's offices were not returned.
