A doctor removed fat instead of an appendix in Coral Gables. He’s been fined (again)
A Miami area doctor got his second state fine in three months Monday, this time for a mistake during a 2019 appendectomy at Coral Gables Hospital.
Dr. Fernando Lora went in to remove an appendix on May 18, 2019. He removed an accumulation of adipose tissue or body fat.
READ MORE: A Coral Gables doctor went in for an appendix, but removed only fat, state says
That’s in the Florida Department of Health’s December administrative complaint, the facts of which weren’t disputed by Lora, according to Monday’s Board of Medicine Final Order.
Lora, now 80, will pay a total of $9,863 — a $5,000 administrative fine and $4,863 of case costs. The order also requires Lora to complete five hours of continuing medical education in risk management if he wants to retain the license that he’s held since February 1985.
Lora’s Florida Department of Health profile says he’s certified by the American Board of Surgery. That board’s website says Lora’s certification expired July 1, 1990.
READ MORE: Violations at a Miami surgery center selling Brazilian butt lifts cost a doctor $5,000
If Lora being fined sounds familiar, it happened in May. Lora got dunned $5,026 for being the designated physician — the doctor in charge of compliance with state regulations — when inspectors found multiple violations at Miami Surgical Center, the plastic surgery business at 5733 NW Seventh St.
That office surgery center in the Miami strip mall (not related to the Miami Surgical Center that’s an ambulatory surgical center near Kendall) replaced Lora as designated physician with Dr. Amin Atul.
