Karina Jones couldn’t wait for her “mommy makeover." The Chula Vista mother had just lost over 100 pounds and wanted to get rid of excess skin as well as have a tummy tuck, breast augmentation and liposuction.
She asked questions and shopped around, driving to Mexico to talk to two plastic surgeons before deciding to book a consultation with Dr. Carlos Chacon, whose offices were close to her home.
At that meeting in early 2019, Jones says she asked Chacon about the “outcomes” of previous surgeries and he showed her a series of before and after pictures. She also asked if there had been any “unfavorable outcomes."
“He showed his accreditations and all of his licenses and he told me that I’m doing the right decision to come to him instead of going to Mexico, that I’m gonna have a really good outcome and not to worry,” Jones recalled.
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Chacon did not tell Jones that a patient of his, 36-year-old Megan Espinoza, died several months earlier after she suffered a cardiac arrest during breast augmentation surgery. Chacon is now facing a charge of second-degree murder in that case. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“There was nothing said,” she told NBC 7. “If I’d have known I probably never would have done the surgery."
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Jones checked the California Medical Board’s website but found no disciplinary actions against Chacon. She decided to pay him $25,000 for her surgery even though she recalled there were a few “red flags."
Although other doctors she consulted said she would first undergo things like blood tests and an MRI to make sure she was a good candidate for surgery, Chacon had no such requirement.
The day of her surgery Jones recalls she was pretty out of it when she went home. She was unable to keep her pain pills down and went to bed. Sometime after 1 a.m. she woke up and realized she couldn’t move her left leg. Her sister helped her get to the restroom and back to her bed, but both women knew something was seriously wrong.
Jones tried calling Chacon at the number he told her to call if she had any questions or problems. It went straight to voicemail. Jones called the anaesthesiologist who had been present for her surgery and he was able to reach Chacon.
“I get a phone call 10 minutes later from Dr. Chacon,” recalled Jones. “'Oh, it’s probably just a pinched nerve. You’ll be fine. Why don’t you come to our clinic in the morning? Get some rest,' he said.”
It wasn’t a pinched nerve, but a stroke, that eventually impacted Jones' left arm and her speech. After a visit to Chacon’s office, Jones’ husband rushed her to the hospital, where she was quickly diagnosed.
A month into her ordeal, Jones was watching the news on TV when she learned about the death of Megan Espinoza.
“I was in shock. It triggered me. I thought I did my due diligence.”
Nearly four years later, Jones still suffers from the effects of her stroke. She says she’s still angry that no one warned her about Chacon.
Jones doesn’t want to get involved in a lawsuit, but she does want some things to change. She believes physicians under investigation should be suspended pending the outcome or, at the very least, those accusations be made public so potential patients can make informed choices.
Had she known then what she knows now?
“I probably would have reconsidered.”
Jones says she told her story to investigators from the California Medical Board and the San Diego County District Attorney’s office.
