Nurse Accuses Surgeon of Ugly Practices

MINEOLA, N.Y. (CN) - A Long Island plastic surgeon reused syringes, charged $15,000 for an anesthesiologist who wasn't there, and ran errands while patients were sedated, then fired a nurse for complaining about it, she claims in court.

Joanne Mastroianni sued Dr. Amiya Prasad and his Garden City, N.Y. plastic surgery firm in Nassau County Supreme Court. Mastroianni is a licensed practical nurse with 22 years experience, and also an RV, she says in the complaint.

Prasad Cosmetic Surgery's website, checked this morning (Friday), features a New York Daily News article about Kim Kardashian's bloody "vampire facial," which quoted Prasad as saying that he could have done the procedure "very, very gently."

Mastroianni complaint centers on Prasad's Garden City office, not his Manhattan one.

Mastroianni claims she started working for Prasad four years ago, and became a registered nurse during her employment there.

She says she learned during her training that only licensed nurses can give I.V. push sedation, under a doctor's supervision, but that Dr. Prasad ordered medical assistants to perform this role during surgery while he was in another room.

"Dr. Prasad saved (or ordered his employees to save) syringes of face fillers (Restylane / Radiesse) from one patient and then would use the same syringe on the next patient with a new needle," the complaint states.

It continues: "Dr. Prasad charged patients for the cost of a full syringe even though he used part of a syringe.

"There are logs with lots numbers of the syringes showing that more than one patient was receiving the same syringe.

"An HIV patient came to the office for face filler (Radiesse). A medical assistant came out of the room where she was treating the HIV patient and she had a little Radiesse left in the syringe. Ms. Mastroianni said, 'What are you doing with that?' She responded, 'Dr. Prasad told me to save it.' Ms. Mastroianni took it out of her hand and threw it away." (Parentheses in complaint.)

Prasad also overbilled patients for fillers that were diluted with anesthetic or saline, and charged a patient $15,000 for an anesthesiologist who was not present at the surgery, Mastroianni says in the complaint.

"More than once, Dr. Prasad started a surgery, put the patient under sedation, and then left the patient with Ms. Mastroianni or a medical assistant to handle his marketing efforts," the complaint states.

"Once he left two patients under sedation, left the office suite, and went down the hall to shoot a marketing video.

"Dr. Prasad hired people with no medical experience or training, gave them prescription pads, had them write pre-op meds and fill out history and physical forms.

"Ms. Mastroianni opposed Dr. Prasad's practices and told him that what he was doing was wrong."

Mastroianni claims she persuaded the doctor to use a connector in syringes to avoid contamination and to stop sedating three to four patients at a time. She says he demoted her to part-time, then fired her, after she complained.

Mastroianni wants her job back, lost wages, costs, and damages for labor violations.

She is represented by Orit Goldring of New York City.

Prasad did not respond to a request for comment.

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