HEALTHCARE

Phony plastic surgeon is ordered to pay $5 million

A Miami-Dade jury awarded nearly $5 million to a woman left disfigured by a man whom investigators dubbed the Butcher of South Beach.

BY SUSANNAH A. NESMITH

snesmith@MiamiHerald.com

A woman disfigured by a man pretending to be a licensed plastic surgeon won some measure of justice this week when a jury awarded her $4.6 million.

Reinaldo Silvestre, dubbed the Butcher of South Beach by the television show America's Most Wanted, abruptly abandoned his practice in Miami Beach in 1999. He was arrested five years later in Belize, where he was performing surgeries and even teaching at a medical school. One of his students saw the America's Most Wanted episode.

Silvestre was convicted earlier this year of practicing medicine without a license, grand theft and aggravated battery.

One of his victims, Jinette Bernal, sued Silvestre and the woman who posed as his medical assistant in civil court. The case was tried Monday in front of Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick.

Bernal went to Silvestre to get breast implants, but instead had almost all of her breast tissue removed, leaving her looking as if she had undergone a double mastectomy, her attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, said.

Silvestre represented himself in the case and is currently in prison. He could not be reached for comment.

''He admits to practicing without a license, but said that all the complications that people had are explainable things, just complications,'' Aronfeld said.

Bernal had to have $100,000 in reconstructive surgery done and was left with dramatic scars, Aronfeld said.

The surgery was donated by a local plastic surgeon and Baptist Hospital, but Bernal plans to reimburse them for their expenses -- if and when she's able to collect the judgment, Aronfeld said.

Two other former patients have also sued Silvestre. One man, a Mexican bodybuilder, wanted more masculine pectoral muscles but was given implants designed for women's breasts. Silvestre filmed the surgery, which was used against him in the criminal and civil cases. In the video, he can be seen using a wooden-handled kitchen spatula, Aronfeld said.

The man told police that he woke up several times during the surgery because Silvestre used animal tranquilizers on him instead of drugs designed for humans. When police first saw the video tape in 1999, they termed it a ``horror movie.''

Silvestre, 66, is scheduled to be released from prison in 2012.