Miami Police have arrested a woman for running an illegal recovery house for patients undergoing plastic surgery. One of those patients tells us she feared for her life while she was there. 7’s Heather Walker investigates.
Hope Estrada: “I have bruises here, I have bruises on my back.”
Hope Estrada says she still has nightmares about her time at an unlicensed recovery house. She says her surgeon’s nurse recommended the place.
Hope Estrada, patient: “You think whatever they refer is going to be the best.”
Hope paid $5,000 to stay in the house for nine days, because like other cosmetic surgery patients, she was unable to take care of her most basic needs.
Hope Estrada: “I cannot get up by myself cause my whole back is cut, my inner thighs are cut, under my breast is cut. I can’t put pressure on anything to lift myself up.”
Hope said caretakers at the recovery house were supposed to bathe her, feed her, and help her use the bathroom. But that’s not what happened.
Hope Estrada: “I was put straight into a shower, as I recall, and pills were being pumped into me.”
She took this selfie when she woke up to find an IV in her arm.
Hope Estrada: “I have bruises all over from from IV because they couldn’t find my vein.”
Hope says she hit rock bottom when a caretaker refused to take her to the bathroom.
Hope Estrada: “She left me in my own fecal matter and my own urine overnight.”
That’s when, out of fear, she started recording what was going on inside the recovery home.
Hope Estrada: “There’s like, beach chairs, rows and rows of beach chairs.”
Hope says patients, like her, spend most of their time in these chairs and cannot get in or out of them without help. Then she overheard the caretakers talking about moving the patients.
Hope Estrada: “They’re speaking in Spanish on how the city was going to come and raid them.”
Patients were taken to another location. While she was being driven there, she recorded and she called her family to let them know what was happening.
Hope Estrada: “One of the ladies that you sent money to is driving us. The other one is in the white car in front of us.”
Once in the new house, Hope asked the worker if she was a licensed caretaker. She says the lady told her to keep her mouth shut.
Hope Estrada: “I was so weak. I was being drugged up.”
So Hope called a friend to come get her. But when the caretaker refused to open the door, her friend called Miami Police and put an officer on the phone with Hope.
Hope Estrada: “I said, ‘Officer, I need help. I’m being held hostage right now. This woman is not letting me out of this house. I cannot, I’m in a position where I cannot move. I can’t get up out of the chair.'”
Heather Walker: “Police told Hope they couldn’t force the woman to let them in. But eventually, they convinced the caretaker to open the door.”
Michael Vega, Miami Police: “And they observed four women who had just had surgery sitting in some sort of recliners.”
Officers called for the Special Investigations Unit. The other patients were relocated and one of the caretakers was arrested.
53-year-old Yohandra Ramos-Gonzalez is charged with four felonies, [including] conspiracy to practice medicine without a license.
Michael Vega: “She did not have the credentials of a registered nurse or someone authorized to issue IVs.”
The Miami Police Department is now working with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which licenses these facilities, and says more arrests could be made.
Michael Vega / Miami Police: “It’s an ongoing investigation and we are taking this seriously. We take it seriously because people come from all over the United States here to Miami to have these types of special procedures done.”
And these patients need help during their recuperation. Unfortunately, Hope did not get the care she expected.
Hope Estrada: “I was in fear for my life and that I wasn’t going to make it out of there.”
Thankfully she did.
Heather Walker, 7News.
CONTACT 7 INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
7Investigates@wsvn.com
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.