A grieving grandfather has told of his anguish at having to explain to his two grandchildren’s children that their mother died during a botched breast enlargement operation.
David Gorey said at a sentencing hearing in San Diego that the nature of his late daughter Megan Espinoza’s death in January 2019 had to be made clear to the children, who were three and six years old at the time.
Speaking as surgeon Carlos Chacon was jailed for three years on Friday, Gorey said: “I’m sure this court can appreciate how painful and heartbreaking it is to tell this version of events to two young people who don’t understand why their lives are turned upside down without their mother.”
Megan was a 36-year-old kindergarten teacher when she checked in for breast augmentation surgery at Divino Plastic Surgery six days before Christmas 2018.
She went into cardiac arrest during the operation and Chacon and her nurse Heather Lang Vass, 44, were unable to dial 911 for three hours afterward.
Megan was rushed to the hospital in a coma and died a month later. Chacon ordered Vass and other colleagues to administer anesthesia to Megan, even though they were not qualified to do so.
He avoided calling 911 after Megan suffered a heart attack for fear that the sight of an ambulance would scare his other patients.
Chacon and Vass pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and Vass received two years in prison. Both also surrendered their medical licenses.
Megan’s widower, Moises Espinoza, also spoke at Friday’s sentencing hearing, saying, “It’s hard to live without Megan in my life. I try for the sake of my children… but I was robbed,” Moises said as he held back tears.
Megan’s widower shared how his children “will never understand the love a mother has.”
Moisés Espinoza lost his wife and mother of his children, Megan Espinoza, 36, after his medical team improperly and without a license to do so, administered a lethal dose of anesthesia to her.
Along with his late wife’s parents, Moses appeared in court on Friday and gave heartbreaking statements detailing how difficult it has been to explain to his young children, who were three and six at the time of her death, why their mother is not coming home.
South Bay surgeon Carlos Chacon, 49, and nurse Heather Lang Vass, 44, pleaded guilty to their roles in the Dec. 19, 2018, operation that led to the death of the mother of two and kindergarten teacher.
Superior Court Judge Maryann D’Addezio said at the sentencing hearing that Chacon’s decision not to call 911 was “inexplicable” and “unjustifiable.”
“I’m sure this court can appreciate how painful and heartbreaking it is to tell this version of events to two young children who don’t understand why their lives are turned upside down without their mother,” Megan’s father, David Gorcey, said Friday.
Superior Court Judge Maryann D’Addezio said at the sentencing hearing that Chacon’s decision not to call 911 was “inexplicable” and “unjustifiable.”
“You were thinking about yourself and only yourself,” D’Addezio said.
The hearing also addressed an incident that occurred nearly six months before the fateful procedure, in which Vass overmedicated a patient who could not be awakened from her sedation.
The woman was handed over to relatives and Chacón ordered them to let her “sleep it off,” the judge said, describing the incident as a demonstration of “her lack of care for her patients.”
Both Chacón and Vass made humiliating apologies during their sentencing.
“I deeply regret the immense pain and suffering my failure to fulfill my duty has caused to those who knew, knew and loved her,” Chacon told the court.
“I can’t undo what happened and it haunts me every day. She trusted me to take care of her and I failed her.”
Vass said becoming a mother made her feel even more distraught over Megan’s passing, saying she was “deeply and truly sorry” and that Megan’s death “would haunt me for the rest of my days.”
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