February 9, 2009 - 'Minor Surgery' Death Lawsuit

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An Upper East Side doctor with a history of botched procedures stood by while his young patient went into fatal cardiac arrest during a minor procedure on his penis, according to a bombshell lawsuit.

After suffering with a sexually crippling deformity all his life - an 80-degree bend in his penis - Brian Hoefler, 21, turned to a fancy Manhattan clinic to correct the problem.

But he never made it out of surgery.

Dr. Mikhail Zalmanov, the Khazakstani owner of Mobile Anesthesia Associates, and Dr. Igor Yukelis failed to identify malignant hypothermia, an adverse reaction to knockout drugs, a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court alleges.

Two hours into his surgery on May 8, 2006, Hoefler's body temperature spiked to 107 degrees, his body became rigid, and his jaw clamped shut on his oxygen tube, according to an affidavit.

The wrongful-death case was not the doctor duo's first brush the law.

Mobile Anesthesia Associates has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical-malpractice suits - at least two involving wrongful deaths.

Charles Smith, an obese Yukelis patient, died from complications with anesthesia during hernia surgery in 1998, according to court records.

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