SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Before a judge sentenced her to prison for her role in a botched plastic surgery that killed a patient, a former nurse spent her last weeks of freedom working at a surgery center.

Heather Lang Vass was employed at the San Diego Ambulatory Surgical Center in Kearny Mesa and had worked there since the summer of 2023, Team 10 has learned.

The former nurse shielded her face from our camera, which waited for her outside the facility as she finished her shift 10 days before a judge sent her to prison in September.

“I’m shocked they would hire someone who lost their license due to professional misconduct. That concerns me a lot,” said Judith Gorcey, in an interview from her home in Oxnard, California.

Gorcey’s daughter, Megan Espinoza, died during a botched breast augmentation surgery in 2018 at Divino Plastic Surgery Clinic in Bonita.

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Before the surgery, Vass gave Espinoza an excessive and fatal dose of powerful drugs, including fentanyl, Percocet and ketamine. She had no legal right to provide the medications and was never authorized to administer anesthesia, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing.

Espinoza’s heart stopped during the operation. Instead of calling 911 immediately, Vass and Dr. Carlos Chacon waited for hours while the mother of two fought for her life in the operating room, Superior Court Judge Maryann D’Addezio said . said during Vass’ sentencing.

“It’s unconscionable to me that she didn’t pick up the phone and call an ambulance,” Gorcey told Team 10.

In 2021, Chacon and Vass were criminally charged for their roles in Espinoza’s death. Vass pleaded guilty in May 2023 to manslaughter. By August of that year, she had given up her nursing license.

Hired as “Quality Assurance Coordinator”

That wasn’t a problem for the San Diego Ambulatory Surgical Center, which had hired her earlier that summer as a “quality assurance coordinator.”

His hiring sparked concerns among some employees who spoke to Team 10.

Staff said the former nurse was hired as a supervisor at the surgical center and supervised nurses and other employees.

A source provided video of Vass standing in a scrubs near a patient who was having a seizure after surgery at the center.

“My biggest concern is patient safety. I mean, we all went to school for our license, and how (could she) take care of us when she doesn’t have a license? » said a staff member.

The schedule listed a former nurse as “supervisor”

The California Board of Registered Nursing has stated that a license is not required to wear scrubs and stand near a patient.

The sources spoke to Team 10 on condition of anonymity and said they feared retaliation for speaking out.

Surgery center administrator Susan Danielsen Raub confirmed Vass’ employment at the facility before she was sent to prison.

“We will confirm that Ms. Vass holds a master’s degree in nursing from Point Loma Nazarene University and (was) employed at the San Diego Ambulatory Surgical Center in an administrative support position, collecting, compiling and disseminating information,” she wrote in an email.

However, employees who worked with Vass rejected the center’s characterization of his role at the facility.

“That’s not true. She (was) responsible for the nurses and other staff, and she (was) involved in patient care,” said one staff member, who provided Team 10 with a photo of a planning whiteboard showing “Heather” as “supervisor”.

The surgery center did not respond to Team 10’s questions about Vass’ daily duties and said the company has a policy of not commenting on personnel matters.

Sources told Team 10 that Vass gave facility staff flu shots and tuberculosis tests.

The California Board of Registered Nursing told Team 10 that a nursing license is required for this type of medical work.

“If a person were to perform these tests with a revoked nursing license, it would be a violation of the Nursing Practice Act,” board spokesman Vincent Miranda said.

Team 10 asked the board what tasks a person can perform in a surgical facility without a license.

Miranda said nursing supervision that requires a substantial amount of scientific knowledge or technical skills “must be reviewed and evaluated by another registered nurse.”

He said any tasks that overlap or are “non-specific to nursing practice” can be reviewed and evaluated by a non-nursing person who is knowledgeable in those areas.

Nurse ‘deeply sorry’ for role in mother’s death

At Vass and Chacon’s sentencing hearing, Espinoza’s friends and family pleaded with the judge to give them a harsh sentence.

“Her children were only 3 and 6 at the time of her death, and they have very little or no memory of her,” said Mina Sheppard, Espinoza’s best friend, who asked the judge to dismiss Vass’s nursing license. indefinitely.

Vass apologized to Espinoza’s family and said that as a mother, she could not imagine the pain she had caused or imagine her own family spending Christmas without her.

“I understand that nothing I say today will bring Megan back to you, and words cannot express how deeply and truly sorry I am for my role in her untimely death and how much it will haunt me for the rest of my life that I didn’t call for help,” Vass said.

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Judge D’Addezio called Vass an ongoing danger to the community and said the facts of the case could not be more “egregious.”

She noted that Vass admitted to administering conscious sedation to patients 100 times despite the fact that she was not authorized to do so.

“A hundred times she put her desire for extra money on her own patients,” D’Addezio said, adding that six months before Espinoza’s surgery, Vass overmedicated a patient and blamed him for his marijuana use when Chacon couldn’t wake her.

The judge said the incident speaks volumes about his state of mind and his attitude towards people who put their lives in his hands.

“It’s disrespectful, dismissive and so dehumanizing to say the least,” D’Addezio said.

License could be reinstated

The judge sentenced her to two years in prison but did not revoke her nursing license indefinitely.

Since the conviction, Team 10 has confirmed that Vass can apply to get his license back.

State law allows nurses whose licenses have been revoked to apply for reinstatement after three years.

Data provided to Team 10 by the Nursing Council shows that 224 out of 327 nurses have regained their licenses over the past five fiscal years.

Miranda said an administrative law judge reviews reinstatement requests and writes a proposed decision for the nursing board to review and vote on.

Vass will be able to apply for reinstatement of his license in August 2026.

The San Diego Ambulatory Surgical Center would not say whether she would be rehired once she is released from prison.

Vass’ attorney declined to comment for this story when Team 10 approached him outside the courtroom.

Chacon was sentenced to three years in prison after accept a plea deal. He agreed to give up his medical license indefinitely and is barred from seeing patients in California.

Team 10 investigative reporter Austin Grabish covers the Medical Board of California, military investigations and is a government watchdog. E-mail: [email protected]