Dr. Castellano of Tampa: BBL Death, Discipline, and Lawsuits

The Tampa lawsuit involving Dr. Joseph Castellano that draws the most attention is a medical malpractice case brought by the estate of Aubrey Torres, a 35-year-old patient who died during a Brazilian butt lift procedure at his Tampa clinic in February 2020. That case settled for $250,000 and led the Florida Board of Medicine to permanently bar Castellano from performing BBL surgeries. He has also been a party to two other suits: a defamation action he filed against a competing surgeon, and a federal trade secrets case he brought against a former contractor.

The 2020 BBL Death and Malpractice Settlement

On February 20, 2020, Aubrey Torres, a single mother of a toddler, underwent abdominoplasty, liposuction, and gluteal fat grafting at the Castellano Cosmetic Surgery Center. During the procedure, the anesthesiologist noticed her oxygen levels drop, and she stopped breathing while still under anesthesia.¹ She was transported to Memorial Hospital Tampa, where doctors identified a pulmonary embolism along with an undiagnosed heart muscle disease.²

An autopsy concluded the cause of death was multiple bilateral fat emboli, with liquefied fat and loose fat graft particles found lodged in and between Torres’s gluteal muscle bundles.² Investigators determined that Castellano had injected fat into Torres’s gluteal muscles, a practice prohibited by Florida Department of Health Rule 64B8-9.009, which requires that gluteal fat grafting be performed only in the subcutaneous space above the deep gluteal fascia.¹

Torres’s estate filed a malpractice suit in Hillsborough County. It settled in March 2022 for $250,000, with the funds directed to support Torres’s son, who was 23 months old when his mother died. In an emailed statement, Castellano said he could not comment on the patient’s “extenuating circumstances” and denied all liability.¹

Discipline From the Florida Board of Medicine

On June 2, 2023, the Florida Board of Medicine voted to approve a settlement agreement with Castellano stemming from Torres’s death.¹ The final order, posted in July 2023, imposed:²

A permanent prohibition on performing Brazilian butt lift procedures.
A $10,000 fine, plus $12,854 in Department of Health investigative costs.
A formal letter of concern placed in his record.
Completion of a five-hour continuing education course in risk management.

License Status

Castellano’s Florida medical license remains listed as “Clear/Active” with an expiration date of January 31, 2027. The Florida Department of Health practitioner profile states that no final disciplinary actions have been reported within the last 10 years and that no liability claims exceeding $100,000 have been reported.³ The gap between that self-reported profile and the documented July 2023 board order is unexplained in the available records.

Defamation Suit Against Dr. David Halpern

In a separate matter unrelated to Torres’s death, Castellano sued Dr. David Halpern, a board-certified plastic surgeon, for defamation and intentional interference with a business relationship. The dispute grew out of a fight over who should be allowed to perform cosmetic surgery at HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital.

Castellano had proposed that the hospital create a new cosmetic surgery practice area, which would have opened clinical privileges to general surgeons like himself that had previously been limited to board-certified plastic surgeons. When the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee moved to recommend the proposal to the Board of Trustees, Halpern wrote to hospital leadership calling the proposal “irresponsible and unnecessary” and arguing it put patients “at great risk, with little or no reward.”⁴ Halpern framed his opposition as a patient safety issue and wrote that “it is not about petty competitiveness.”⁵

Castellano alleged the letter contained false statements made for “malicious and anti-competitive purposes.” The trial court blocked much of Castellano’s discovery on the ground that the documents were protected under Florida’s hospital peer review and credentialing statutes. On December 29, 2023, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal ruled in Castellano’s favor on that discovery question, finding that because his lawsuit did not arise from peer review or credentialing proceedings themselves, the statutory privilege did not apply. The appellate court concluded that blocking discovery would “eviscerate” his ability to prove his claims and quashed the protective orders, sending the case back to the trial court.⁵⁴

Trade Secrets Suit Against a Former Contractor

In May 2021, Castellano Cosmetic Surgery Center filed a federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida against Grace Rashae Doyle and her professional association.⁶ Doyle had worked as an independent contractor at the practice starting in 2016 and left in 2020. The suit alleged she had downloaded a client list from the practice’s electronic medical records system in 2018 and later used it to send promotional emails for a new business she launched in 2021, called BevelUp. Doyle maintained the download had been authorized by the office manager so she could recover a personal list she had lost.⁷

Castellano brought claims under federal and Florida trade secrets laws, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, breach of contract, and tortious interference. In July 2021, the court denied his request for a preliminary injunction, finding no substantial likelihood of success on the merits and no showing of irreparable harm.⁷ The parties jointly stipulated to dismissal with prejudice in September 2021.⁶

Background and Current Practice

Castellano earned his medical degree from the University of South Florida in 2005 and completed general surgery residencies at the University of Florida and the Medical University of South Carolina, followed by a cosmetic surgery fellowship through the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.⁸ He is board-certified in general surgery by the American Board of Surgery and is recognized as a specialist by the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, most recently recertified in 2022.⁹ He is not certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, the ABMS-recognized board for plastic surgery, a distinction that sat at the heart of his dispute with Halpern over hospital privileges.

He has operated the Castellano Cosmetic Surgery Center in Tampa since 2011, offering procedures including breast augmentation, abdominoplasty, liposuction, facelifts, and eyelid surgery.¹⁰ His Florida medical license remains active, and he continues to practice cosmetic surgery, with the exception of Brazilian butt lifts, which he is permanently barred from performing under the 2023 Board of Medicine order.¹

1
Tampa Bay 28. Tampa Cosmetic Surgeon Disciplined Over Brazilian Butt Lift Death
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Miami Herald. Tampa Cosmetic Surgeon Disciplined Over Brazilian Butt Lift Death
3
Florida Department of Health. Practitioner Profile – Norman Joseph Castellano
4
FindLaw. Castellano v. Halpern MHT LLC
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vLex. Castellano v. Halpern, 380 So. 3d 486
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PACER Monitor. Castellano Cosmetic Surgery Center, PA v. Doyle et al
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vLex. Castellano Cosmetic Surgery Center v. Doyle
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Florida Department of Health. Practitioner Profile – Joseph John Castellano
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American Board of Cosmetic Surgery. Joseph Castellano
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Castellano Cosmetic Surgery. Meet Dr. Castellano