His real name is Reinaldo Silvestre but locally he was known as Dr. Rienaldo Castaneda and tonight the Cuban national is at the Hattieville prison awaiting extradition to the United States where he is wanted for major medical malpractice. Acting in concert with the F.B.I., yesterday morning, Belize's Crimes Intelligence Unit picked up Silvestre at his home in the King's Park area. He was taken to a magistrate for a closed door hearing and then remanded to the Hattieville prison where he awaits extradition proceedings.
Silvestre who has no legitimate medical credentials, gained notoriety in the United States when he acted as a plastic surgeon and gave a male bodybuilder female breast implants. Now U.S. authorities want him on charges of aggravated battery, practicing medicine without a license, and administering narcotics illegally. And while the United States is looking after its legal affairs with the rogue medicine man, more alarming is that Silvestre worked and practiced in Belize for at least a year. Alfonso Noble followed his dubious trail to Belize's largest healthcare facility, the Karl Heusner Memorial:
Alfonso Noble Reporting
These images are from a videotape of a surgery being conducted on bodybuilder and former Mr. Mexico, Alex Baez in Miami in 1999. Baez took the surgery to enhance his pectoral muscles, but instead he ended up with a pair of breasts, C cups to be precise - breast implants that were stuffed in to his chest with what a kitchen utensil resembling a spatula.
It's a bizarre and almost laughable case of extreme medical malpractice, and you may be asking yourself what this has to do with Belize. Well, the man responsible for this ridiculous and reprehensible procedure is Reinaldo Silvestre also, who called himself Doctor Reinaldo de la Concepcion Silvestre Castaneda here in Belize. But he never was a real Doctor, and got by on forged documents. Now that he's been caught in Belize by the FBI a shocked medical community is trying to pick up the pieces.
The Chief Executive officer at the KHMH today confirmed that in fact Silvestre Castaneda was working with Belize's largest Hospital and the National Referral Center for at least one year, when he treated hundreds of patients.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado - CEO-KHMH
"The person we are talking about came to KHMH as doctor Reinaldo de la Concepcion Silvestre Castaneda. And he presented credentials of medical degrees from the University of Havana based on which he was given a license to practice in Belize. So he was licensed to practice by the Belize Medical Council which is the legally established authority to give doctors license to practice medicine. Based on the license he had to practice in Belize and based on the credentials and the background checks we did, which we normally do, checking for example references which might have been given he was offered a job as a medical officer and General Practitioner on July 3rd of 2001."
He worked at the KHMH'S A and E up until April of 2002 when he resigned, but not before trying to get into the surgical theaters and to get hold pf his much loved scalpel or whatever sharp tool he could find. But Rosado says he never made it to that point.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
"Doctor Castaneda presented qualifications from the University of Havana both as a General Practitioner and as a General Surgeon. KHMH authorities after due diligence could not establish his competence as a surgeon. We hired him as a General Practitioner on July 3rd of 2001. On April 4th of 2002 there was a vacancy for a surgeon and doctor Castaneda applied for that vacancy but his application was turned down because we were not able to establish his competence in surgery."
"We at KHMH practice due diligence to the greatest extent that we can. Nobody is allowed to practice at KHMH until they have passed an informal residency if you want to put it that way or somebody who practices under supervision. He was never ever operating or acting in the capacity of a surgeon at KHMH. He was a general practitioner actually he was stationed at the Emergency section what we call the Accident and Emergency. That was his posting."
And that was a good thing considering Silvestre's past. At least two women have levied suits against him in Florida for grotesquely failed breast enhancement surgeries which he performed in a makeshift operating theater without proper surgical instruments. Now Rosado says that while Silvestre Castaneda was able to con his way into the KHMH as a general practitioner, the controls that are in place at the hospital made it impossible for him to go further than that. But still there is concern.
"The KHMH does not do any background checks that are not immediately warranted based on the information we have. So if and when doctor Castaneda applied for a job here we would have made checks with the institutions he said he studied, institutions that he said that he practiced and that sort of thing. But we would not have gone around the world trying to find out if he practiced in Nigeria if he didn't mention that. So we do the reasonable checks that we have."
"I don't think that we can have a perfect system but given the resources that we have now and the sort of steps that we can reasonably take. I think that we do exercise due diligence. I certainly will be looking at it given this and any other thing that gives us an opportunity to review what we are doing. We will certainly be looking at it and seeing if there is anything we can do to tighten the strings."
But thankfully those strings are not suture strings and no one at the KHMH never went under a knife wielded by this medical monster. The concern however remains that while in the country he was working at a private medical facility and teaching medical students, reportedly as a professor of surgery.
Documents obtained by 7 news show that silvestre gained permanent residency in Belize and also carried a Belizean Social Security card. But one thing he did not ever get was a full medical license. While Rosado says that Silvestre was hired on the basis of an authentic license form the Belize Medical Council, the president of the council Carl Meggs this evening confirmed that he was never fully licensed. Meggs told us that when Silvestre first arrived in Belize he was granted a temporary three month permit to work as a surgeon at the Emmanuel Clinic in Orange Walk. He only lasted there three weeks when his incompetence as a surgeon became apparent. From there, Meggs says he went under the radar and resurfaced a year later at the KHMH working as a general practitioner. When he finished at the KHMH, he went to the Central American Health and Sciences University at the Burrell Boom cutoff where he was hired as a professor.
How was Silvestre able to infiltrate the system despite lacking accreditation and any discernible skill? Well, the safest conclusion seems to be that he was a competent con artist - so good that he even got the prime minister in on his scheme. Dr. Meggs confirmed that the prime minister wrote him on Silvestre's behalf querying why this Cuban doctor could not get a license to practice in Belize. Meggs responded to the prime minister pointing out many inconsistencies and lack of proof in his personal records. So how far did his trail of incompetence spread in Belize. Well, let us know. If you were treated or mistreated by this doctor, give us a call or send us an e-mail and we'll follow up on it.