A Florida plastic surgeon accused in the death of his wife intentionally caused her death by injecting her with an excessive amount of painkillers during a cosmetic surgery procedure, the victim’s outraged father told Fox News Digital.
Marty Ellington said Hillary Brown, 33, had confided to friends that she was planning to leave her husband after her 18-month marriage to Georgetown University graduate Dr. Ben Brown, 41, began to fall apart.
“People need to know who this guy is,” his father insisted. “He’s so elegant and gracious. He acts like he’s a victim, but he’s not. He’s Charles Manson.”
The Gulf Breeze doctor turned himself in Monday after a judge signed a warrant for his arrest for manslaughter, a second-degree felony that can carry a life sentence if convicted. He was released on bail.
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Dr. Ben Brown is accused of killing his wife, Hilary Brown, by injecting her with too much lidocaine during a cosmetic surgery procedure. (Facebook)
Investigators found that surgeons did not call 911 for nearly 20 minutes after the victim began convulsing, losing her vision and convulsing on the operating table.
Hilary Brown, who had three children with her ex-wife, was rushed to hospital on November 21, 2023, where she fell into a coma and died a week later.
The coroner concluded that the victim died from “complications from lidocaine toxicity.”
Mr Ellington said he believes as their relationship deteriorated, Brown saw an opportunity to end his wife’s life and tried to take it.
“I don’t believe it was premeditated,” Ellington told Fox News Digital, “but I believe throughout my life that he took a chance, because when she got to that stage (of lidocaine poisoning), he knew how many minutes of delay would have caused the outcome.”
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Florida surgeon Ben Brown is accused of murdering his wife, Hilary Brown, after performing a series of cosmetic surgery procedures on her. (Courtesy of Marty Ellington)
Brown’s staff told investigators that his wife had a seizure on the table and that Brown had asked them to call 911, but he refused.
An employee who left the now-closed clinic after the incident told police Brown would frequently give his wife more medication than was recommended for her weight. During a previous procedure, he would struggle to wake her up, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Brown’s lawyers declined to comment. “It is my policy not to speak to the media about pending cases,” his lawyer, Barry Velocette, told Fox News Digital.
Ellington, a Houston resident, claimed the surgeon’s once-thriving practice was on the verge of bankruptcy due to a flood of civil lawsuits and complaints from patients alleging shoddy care.
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Florida surgeon Ben Brown is accused of murdering his wife, Hilary Brown, after numerous surgeries. (Instagram/Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office)
Ellington said his daughter was planning to leave him after Christmas.
The grieving father had long been suspicious of his son-in-law and was alarmed by how Brown had drastically altered his daughter’s appearance through constant make-up changes.
A friend told him the doctor was trying to make her look like Megan Fox.
“Everything he did increasingly diminished her natural beauty,” he said, noting that the two first met when she visited his office for breast reduction surgery.
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Dr. Ben Brown, who is accused of murdering his wife, Hilary Brown, allegedly posted an ad on Facebook Marketplace selling her ski boots. (Facebook)
Ellington said Brown was strangely calm and didn’t shed a tear during the week his wife was in a coma.
The father stopped returning Brown’s calls soon after his daughter’s death and was disgusted when a friend told him Brown was selling her ski boots on Facebook Marketplace.
The doctor wrote that his wife was putting her luggage down because she no longer skied.
“I want his life to be as miserable every day as he made ours,” Ellington said, “and to my grandchildren, my extended family and all the other patients, he was so arrogant and self-centered and had no regard for safety precautions.”
Marty Ellington, left, holds his infant daughter, Hillary Brown. Ellington holds Brown’s hand in the hospital after Brown fell into a coma and later died. (Courtesy of Marty Ellington)
The Florida Department of Health determined Brown was negligent.
“Dr. Brown’s disregard for patient safety, even though the patient was his wife, demonstrates that he is neither willing nor able to provide an appropriate level of care to future patients,” the agency concluded.
A 2015 graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Plastic Surgery, Brown is licensed to practice in several states, including Florida, Virginia, Washington and Washington DC.
Dr. Mark Siegel, a professor of clinical medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, said Brown should never have performed the surgery on his wife, or any of his relatives.
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Hilary Brown, who died after being subjected to cosmetic surgery by her plastic surgeon husband, poses with her children. (Facebook )
“Whether it’s illegal or not, it’s immoral and unethical for a doctor to perform surgery on a family member,” he told Fox News Digital.
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He also slammed the surgeons for refusing to immediately call 911 as his wife writhed on the operating table.
“It’s shocking that someone would impede an emergency response by not immediately calling 911, especially during a seizure,” he said. “If someone is having a seizure, call 911. This is a clear departure from standard medical practice and extremely disturbing.”
Ashley Papa and Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
