The husband of Dhelmalyz Rios, the 26-year old Puerto Rican woman who died of complications resulting from a fat implant in her legs, says he doesn’t care if plastic surgeon Dr. Edgar Contreras goes to jail or not. "My goal is that nobody ever be operated by his hands, nor anyone run the risk again."The husband, Josel? Col?n’s crusade brought about a recent indictment by the Puerto Rican justice for the physician to stand trial in Puerto Rico. If guilty, he faces a sentence of 1-3 years in jail. While he cannot be extradited for malpractice to Puerto Rico, he can if he travels to US territory or to a third country that has an extradition treaty with Puerto Rico. Dr. Contreras has maintained his innocence and the quality of his services, but his credibility as a physician, is now being questioned by the Dominican judiciary. He was not accepted as a member of the Dominican Society of Plastic Surgeons because he did not fill that organization’s minimum requirements. He specialized in plastic surgery at the Los Lagos center in R?o de Janeiro, Brazil. Today, the District Attorney’s office is expected to accuse Dr. Contreras of the death of the Puerto Rican. He already ordered the temporary closing of the Centro M?dico Bellas Artes where Dr. Edgar Contreras operated on his patients. The District Attorney office’s interest has accelerated after Dr. Contreras was found to be implicated in the death of a renown Dominican journalist. With the worst of timing for Dr. Contreras, Dominican press correspondent in Puerto Rico, 48-year old Isabel Vargas died this month, three days after undergoing at his clinic surgery to remove fat from her abdomen, back, thighs and breasts. The family of Vargas initially hid the motive of her death, following the late journalist’s own wishes, but a press probe brought the truth forward. Press stories also carried notes on several irregularities, such as that Vargas’ corpse was lowered from the sixth floor to the first floor to be taken to the funeral home in a wheel chair so that patients at the clinic would not know she had died at the center. Likewise, while the physician’s brother Dr. Frank Contreras denied knowing Mrs. Vargas, press probes showed he signed her death certificate. The death of the well known and well-loved journalist brings the unorthodox operating procedures of Dr. Edgar Contreras home. This case could set a precedent in Dominican judiciary. Dominican law is obsolete in regards to medical malpractice. Journalist Pedro Angel Mart?nez in Ultima Hora reported that penalty of RD$10-RD$100 pesos and jail of six days to three years is contemplated by Dominican Penal code.
