Eye On Fire
Share this story:
We always hear stories about plastic surgery successes, but rarely about when things go terribly wrong. In Houston, one of the most prominent sculptors of bodies is Dr. Franklin Rose. Watch a woman who says she went in for a Dr. Rose facelift, but instead SHE WAS CAUGHT ON FIRE!
“A beauty pageant contestant goes to extremes to win,” a news anchor said.
“Holly Durst is about to compete in a beauty pageant but before she does, she wants a makeover,” said a reporter.
“We’re going to start with the nose here,” said Doctor Franklin Rose.
He may start with the nose, but Houston plastic surgeon, Dr. Franklin Rose, is getting ready to change her whole body.
“We check back one month later and, wow. Take a look at Holly. Here she is before, here she is after,” said a reporter.
He’s been called “Houston’s Michaelangelo,” attracting patients from around the world.
“I’ve worked on Kuwaiti princesses, Penthouse and Playmates of the Year, models and actresses,” said Dr. Rose.
What you won’t see or hear about on TV is when a Dr. Rose’s surgery goes wrong.
“Photo of Laura with burns on face/eye”
“When he did my eye lift while I was under anesthesia, asleep, he caught my eye on fire. It was horrific,” said former patient, Laura Edwards.
Laura Edwards is Executive Vice President of U.S. Alloys, a Houston steel distributor founded by her late father more than forty years ago. She’s so good at what she did, she’s become the Steel Queen.
“They nicknamed me that. And I’m just like, ‘oh, that’s so silly.’ But then, it kind of stuck with me and I was like, ‘I kind of like that,’” said Edwards.
Laura had gone to Dr. Rose for multiple procedures over the years.
“When I go into a boardroom with all these steel guys, you want confidence,” Edwards said.
On February 7, 2019, she went to Rose for a mini-facelift. Only this time, when she woke up from anesthesia, everything had changed.
“He was standing over me, and he said there was an accident,” Edwards told us.
During her surgery, Laura was getting oxygen through a tube in her nose at the same very time Dr. Rose used an electro surgical unit—a tool used to burn tissue or stop bleeding, but it’s also an ignition source.
Combined with oxygen, Edwards’ lawyers say there was a flash fire that burned Laura’s eyelids, cheek, and literally her eyeball.
“They didn’t know what to do with me. They were terrified,” Edwards said.
Laura was at First Surgical Hospital in Bellaire, where Dr. Rose operates.
She was transferred to a trauma center.
Her daughter was left in the dark.
“She’s calling, checking to make sure my surgery went okay. And they’re like, ‘no, there was an accident.’ And she’s like, ‘what?’ And she keeps calling and they would hang up on her,” Edwards said.
“Finally got an ambulance. It is 9:30 at night,” said Edwards’ daughter.
Tests at the hospital revealed that the fire burned off half of Laura’s cornea.
She says her vision was also permanently damaged when Dr. Rose put out the fire with a sponge.
Not only was Laura in constant pain, she couldn’t read anything for nearly six months—technical documents, metal specifications, and reports.
The Steel Queen couldn’t do her job.
“When she started falling off, I was left out there on my own,” said, John Lyons, a U.S. Alloys employee.
“So, welcome to my science project, which I deal with every day,” Edwards said.
Laura now wears a scleral lens, bigger than a regular contact lens and fluid-filled.
But by the middle of her workday, her eye starts burning.
“It’s just the burn, the burn. And then, once the burn starts, then this temple starts to pulse and I can hear it in my ears like pulsing—pulse, pulse,” Edwards said.
“It feels like you’re taking your whole eyeball out of your head,” Edwards told us
Even with the lens, reading is difficult and tiresome.
“I trusted him. He was supposed to protect me,” said Edwards.
“This is, a big deal. You know, a patient catching on fire is a big deal,” Doctor Emilio Lobato told us.
Dr. Emilio Lobato is an anesthesiologist in Gainesville, Florida.
He is one of two experts who looked at Laura’s case and decided that Dr. Rose committed one or more acts of negligence.
“The surgeon has to inform the anesthesiologist that they’re going to use an ignition source so the anesthesia provider can shut down the oxygen,” Lobato said.
But Dr. Lobato says Dr. Rose didn’t inform the anesthesiologist or even take a time out to let the oxygen dissipate.
Even after the fire, he says Dr. Rose failed to document what happened and do a root cause analysis to keep it from happening again.
“Dr. Rose was pretty arrogant, saying, ‘I’ve been doing it like this for years.’ Well, it’s like saying, ‘I don’t stop at the stop sign for years,” Lobato said.
We have looked at courthouse records and couldn’t find any other allegations of other surgical fires.
“Getting away with stuff, even though you’re practicing substandard, it’s not an excuse,” Lobato said.
Dr. Scott Kasden is a plastic surgeon in Argyle, Texas, who also signed a sworn statement that Dr. Rose committed several mistakes that led to her surgical disaster.
One of them was failure to insert corneal shields to protect the eye from a fire—like the one Laura currently wears just to see.
“If he would have used that, we wouldn’t have this discussion right now,” said Edwards.
“You know, there’s been litigation involved, and she’s a lovely, lovely patient,” Dr. Rose said.
A lovely patient who is now suing this famous doctor for malpractice.
“Our most important consideration here at Utopia Plastic Surgery and Med Spa is the safety of the patient,” Dr. Rose said.
“Promo video Dr. Franklin Rose and Utopia Spa welcomes you Patient: 3:35 You need to know pretty much everything that could happen. And he gave all that up up front.”
But Laura says she was never told that one of the risks was her eye catching fire.
“100%. Would never have done it in a million years,” Edwards told us.
You can find other Dr. Rose patients with regrets.
Kimberly H. writes, “horrible experience. Botched me for life.”
Frannie H. writes that she was treated like total crap when things didn’t go right.
And then there’s Ann Hammond, who sued the doctor, claiming she was promised a free facelift in exchange for publicity of her before and after photos.
She did the before photos.
Her story even made news.
Her lawsuit claims Rose allegedly never performed her surgery.
And Laura is most offended at what Dr. Rose proposed to fix her screwed-up eye.
“He offered me a lifetime of Botox. That’s an insult,” Edwards said.
Dr. Rose appears to be fighting any settlement to compensate Laura for extra medical bills—her pain and suffering, and damage to her professional life.
Laura says Dr. Rose was a no show at two planned mediations and has rescheduled depositions for the lawsuit three times.
“Yeah, I think that’s a misunderstanding. She’s a really lovely patient and I think the world of her,” Dr. Rose said.
“So, why won’t you compensate her for the permanent damage to her eye?” Reporter Andrea Palacio asked.
“Right. She’s a lovely patient,” Dr. Rose responded.
Dr. Rose’s lawyers were equally unhelpful.
“At this time, I’m not at liberty to share any information about the case,” said Taylor Taylor, Dr. Rose’s attorney.
“He shouldn’t listen to his attorneys. He should listen to his heart because he knows what happened and he knows he was wrong,” Edwards said.
“I’m kind of going for a more of a Carmen Electra look,” said a patient of Dr. Rose’s.
There’s no shortage of people who want to change the way they look, but Dr. Lobato says the risks shouldn’t be taken lightly by patients, or by doctors like Dr. Rose.
“This is pretty egregious stuff. And, and that this might be a sign of something else that has not been fixed. So, having popularity is not a substitute for performing with patient safety,” Lobato said.
Laura found it hard to find a lawyer.
Many malpractice lawyers use the Houston plastic surgeon as an expert witness.
“He doesn’t take it seriously. He thinks it’s a joke. He thinks I’m a gold digger. This isn’t about the money. I have money. This is about justice,” Edwards told us.
In Texas, there’s a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice judgments.
Laura will never get fully compensated, but she goes forward with her lawsuit to help others.
“You cannot find a malpractice attorney to take your case because of the cap. They’ll just tell you upfront, ‘Nope,’” Edwards said.
That’s why she came to Dolcefino Media to tell her story.
“For him to take this serious. For him to say, ‘yeah, this was an accident, and this will never happen to anybody ever again,’” Edwards said.
Keep up with us on social media:
