The Medical Board of California has put Orange County gynecological surgeon Lawrence Hansen, MD, on probation and forbidden him from operating on patients for 35 months as a result of charges of negligence in a case where a patient died after surgery in an unaccredited Anaheim Hills facility.

The medical board ordered Dr. Hansen to take clinical training and medical recordkeeping courses and to undergo psychiatric evaluation within 6 months. Once the probation period ends, his license will be fully restored.

The ruling, announced Feb. 9, stems from a 2008 case in which Dr. Hansen, 85, performed a posterior colporrhaphy and perineal repair on 39-year-old Maria Garcia, who was scheduled to receive liposuction from another surgeon immediately afterwards.

Dr. Hansen, who retired in 2003, hadn't performed a colporrhaphy in 5 years. He had never met Ms. Garcia before he arrived at the Hills Surgical Institute 15 minutes before the procedure. According to medical board documents, he didn't gather the patient's history, examine her or get proper informed consent for the surgery.

Ms. Garcia died from an intra-abdominal hemorrhage after a "needle-type puncture wound," reported the medical board. Dr. Hansen didn't report any bleeding in his post-op dictation. However, in a court deposition the following year, he admitted that he'd noted bleeding from a "little artery" at the edge of the vaginal mucosa and that he'd had controlled it using cautery.

Once he finished the colporrhaphy, Dr. Hansen left the surgery center while Ms. Garcia was still under general anesthesia. He never verified that another physician was monitoring her during or after her second surgery. At the end of the liposuction, Ms. became hypotensive and went into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the hospital. While Dr. Hansen had been notified of the transfer, he never went to the hospital to check on her. Ms. Garcia died an hour after arriving in the emergency department. An autopsy revealed a puncture wound in her vagina that had been sutured.

Dr. Hansen's attorney, Raymond McMahon of Santa Ana, Calif., described his client as a victim, too. "He's a very good doctor who didn't have the financial resources" to defend himself against the medical board's accusations, he said.

The surgeon who performed the liposuction procedure, Harrell Robinson, MD, surrendered his license in 2009 to settle charges of incompetence, negligence and dishonesty in several cases, say medical board documents.

The Hills Surgical Institute and surgeons who have operated there have been the subject of several press reports and investigations.

Kent Steinriede