An Orlando doctor whose patient died from a faulty “Brazilian butt lift” procedure he performed in 2021 has had his Florida medical license fully revoked.

The Florida Board of Medicine revoked the license of Dr. Christopher Walker last week. Walker, a urogynecologist who worked at Beja Body Med Spa in downtown Orlando, had his license suspended in 2021 after the patient’s death.

At the time, Walker was under indictment for a vaginal mesh implant scheme. Walker later pleaded guilty to enticing women with such implants into removing them and suing the device manufacturers to get larger settlements. He faced up to 10 years in prison but was ultimately sentenced in a New York federal court to the two months of jail already served and fined a penalty of more than $800,000.

Andrew Pietrylo, the chief legal counsel for the Florida Department of Health, said in a hearing on Dec. 6 that Walker’s initial charges alone should have prevented him from practicing in Florida, but Walker did not disclose the guilty plea on his renewal application, and it was renewed “by error or by fraud.”

Pietrylo also said Walker had performed cosmetic surgery despite not being certified, leading to the death of the patient by “repeatedly puncturing intra-abdominal organs and internal blood vessels” during a procedure.

According to the emergency order suspending Walker’s license in 2021, a 38-year-old woman had gone to Beja Body Med Spa for a liposuction of her abdomen and back and fat transfer to her buttocks, which is marketed as a “Brazilian butt lift.”

Doctors found the patient had multiple organ injuries, arterial bleeding, cuts to her liver and pancreas, and injuries to her stomach and colon, according to the order.

A Florida administrative law judge recommended his license be fully revoked, but Walker appeared before the board on Dec. 6 to argue for a lesser penalty.

“I sit before you today completely broken,” Walker said. “In my eagerness to help my patients suffering from tremendous pain from the faulty vaginal mesh implants, I unfortunately, unintentionally, failed to comply with the laws governing patient travel.”

Walker and others had paid kickbacks and bribes in exchange for the referral of patients across state lines for the surgeries, according to prosecutors.

He added that he took “full responsibility” for his patient’s death.

“This indescribable tragedy has left me with profound grief,” Walker said. “Looking back now, I see where in my distress, my judgment was flawed in my effort to survive under the weight of a criminal indictment.”

Walker said he “voluntarily stepped away from being a surgeon, which was my first love,” and asked to be able to see patients in an office-based setting.

The doctors on the board, however, were skeptical that ending his surgical practice was the blow to his dreams he claimed it was.

Walker “just told us his first love or first passion was surgery,” said Dr. Scot Ackerman. “He never did training in surgery. He did Internal Medicine in Jamaica. He did radiation therapy in Jamaica. He came to the United States and did OB GYN and family practice. So that’s nice hearing him say that. But what he’s saying is inconsistent with his history and with his training.”

The board rejected Walker’s request and revoked his license, and also suspended him from the Florida Medicare program for three years. It did, however, waive the $30,000 in legal costs the DOH requested from Walker.