Medical License Suspended Over Horrific Office Conditions

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and state health officials suspended the license of Dr. Teresita Mascardo, d/b/a Connecticut Plastic Surgery Center, LLC of Ridgefield in an emergency action after discovering horrific office conditions.

Blumenthal announced today that state health inspectors discovered violations so severe at a plastic surgeon’s office that his office obtained an emergency order from the Department of Public Health (DPH) suspending the facility’s surgical license.

Blumenthal said today that a state inspection of the facility revealed unsafe and unsanitary conditions including:

• An unlicensed anesthesiologist;

• single use suture sets and other supplies that were resealed after they were opened, and had blood and/or other human fluids on them;

• severe rust in the interior of a machine used to sterilize surgical equipment;

• a garbage container in a recovery room full of food, garbage and other surgical waste including syringes;

• animal dropping on equipment;

• dust debris and blood on the floor and equipment; and

• procedures conducted without nurses present.

Blumenthal and DPH Commissioner J. Robert Galvin are working together to stop this severe and unacceptable risk.

“This emergency suspension stops a medical nightmare — a facility plagued with dirty bloody equipment, unsterile supplies and other grossly unsanitary and unsafe conditions,” Blumenthal said, “My office is working closely and urgently with the Department of Public Health to close this facility permanently and to prevent a health care catastrophe.”

“We have obtained an immediate and temporary suspension of Connecticut Plastic Surgery Center, and will continue our case to seek additional remedies and complete closure.”

Inspectors also discovered that the facility failed to develop an effective program to control the distribution of drugs; failed to develop an infection-control program; and failed to properly maintain medical records on its patients, including adequate protection of confidentiality.