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Fake Doctor Sentenced In Botched Plastic Surgery Cases

By Jennifer Brice

DENVER (CBS4)- A fake cosmetic surgeon is going to prison for the botched procedures he conducted on women. He is a surgical assistant from Mexico who posed as a doctor.

Prosecutors say he was utterly under qualified to perform the dangerous and details surgeries.

carlos hernandez fernandez (1)
Carlos Hernandez Fernandez (credit: CBS)

A judge sentenced Carlos Hernandez Fernandez Friday afternoon to six years in prison and six additional years of probation.

The patients, many of them immigrants, lined up at his storefront on Federal Boulevard looking for cosmetic surgery.

Hernandez Fernandez Care
Hernandez Fernandez Care (credit CBS)

What CBS4's Jennifer Brice heard in court from the victims was disturbing as many of the patients were operated on without proper anesthesia, which created tortuous pain.

Carla Perez is one of 50 women who thought they were going to a certified plastic surgeon. Instead, these women say they were butchered by Hernandez Fernandez.

carla perez
Carla Perez is one of Hernandez Fernandez's victims (credit: CBS)

Perez says she will never look the same, "The thing I'm most angry about is that I trusted him as a friend, a doctor."

Another patient, Nomi Garcia, says she became sick after one of her surgeries but was instructed by the suspect to not go to the hospital.

Nomi Garcia
Nomi Garcia is one of Hernandez Fernandez 's victims (credit: CBS)

"He knew I was ill, after one of the surgeries, and he knew that I could have lost my life and he didn't care," said Garcia.

Prosecutors say the suspect made hundreds of thousands of dollars off the women.

Joe Morales of the Denver District Attorney's Office says the surgeries performed were vast, "Breaking bones doing nose jobs, implants, liposuctions, facelifts and scaring them for life, for money."

carlos hernandez fernandez
Carlos Hernandez Fernandez in court during his sentencing (credit: CBS)

Hernandez Fernandez says the situation snowballed after one person asked him for medical advice, knowing he had some kind of medical training from Mexico.

He apologized to the victims in court, "I wish I went back in time and did the right thing and initially all i wanted to do was benefit them."

However, it did not says prosecutors. So now, the very hands that cut open these victims are now handcuffed, as the fake surgeon will spend the next six years in prison.

carlos hernandez fernandez (2)
Carlos Hernandez Fernandez placed in handcuffs (credit: CBS)

Prosecutors negotiated a plea deal, a lesser sentence of six years, because they felt the restitution of $189,000 would be more valuable to the victims so they could try to get reconstructive surgery. The court says he showed up with less than $1,000.

Jennifer Brice is a reporter with CBS4 focusing on crime and courts. Follow her on Facebook or on Twitter @CBS4Jenn.

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