Jaynisha “Jayla” Williams, 26, was a photographer, wife, mother to two young children and her sister’s best friend.
“She was very caring and always knew what to say, a cheerful personality and all-around beautiful soul,” said her sister, Kimia Spikes.
On Oct. 20, 2021, Jayla traveled from Hillsborough County to the Best U Now cosmetic surgery center in Plantation for a breast augmentation and a Brazilian butt lift, or BBL.
Latoshia Leggett, her mother, flew from California to be by her side.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“I was asking every hour, ‘How’s my daughter doing? How are things going?’ and they kept telling me, ‘she’s OK, everything is fine,’” she said.
But Latoshia says she started worrying when all the other patients were discharged, and Jayla wouldn’t come out. Then, she heard a siren.
National Investigations
“The ambulance pulled up. That’s when I said, ‘excuse me, can somebody tell me what’s going on?’” Latoshia said.
According to a report provided by the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office, “the procedure was completed but she (Jayla) never awoke from the anesthesia.”
Latoshia says the doctor and nurses approached her as her daughter was being transported to Plantation General Hospital.
“They politely grabbed me and said, 'your daughter is dead,”' Latoshia said.
While the medical examiner’s report lists the cause of death as undetermined, the Florida Health Department has filed administrative complaints against the surgery center licensed as Serenity Capital Investments LLC, the Best U Now and Dr. John Edward Nees, the designated physician for that surgery center, claiming they allowed a doctor who was not a qualified anesthesia provider to sedate Jayla.
In Jayla’s case, Dr. Millicent Muir, an OB-GYN who is restricted from practicing that specialty for an unrelated complaint, administered the anesthesia. While the center has several anesthesia providers on record, she is not one of them. Instead, she is listed as “recovery” personnel on state records. According to the state’s complaint, she was employed to provide anesthesia for patients.
Dr. Michael Champeau is the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Without speaking directly about Jayla’s case, he explained, “in Medicare regulations, physicians are allowed to give anesthesia but in practice, that does not happen,” adding that anesthesiology is a specialty like gynecology that requires additional training.
In Florida, the standard of care rules require surgeons use a qualified anesthesia provider, like an anesthesiologist or certified registered nurse anesthetist to administer anesthesia.
The day the NBC 6 Investigators went to the Best U Now, Dr. Muir was locking up the place and said she didn’t want to go on camera but told us she had taken some courses in anesthesiology, without providing specifics.
“Anesthesiology is a recognized medical specialty just like obstetrics and gynecology or surgery or pediatrics,” Champeau said, adding, “to become an anesthesiologist, you would do four years of undergraduate school, then you would do four years of medical school like all other specialists, and then after the four years of medical school, there is another four-year period of residency training.”
In the administrative complaints, the Florida Department of Health is asking the center’s registration be suspended or revoked and that Dr. Nees also be penalized.
Jayla's family says nobody from the center has reached out to them as they mourn her loss and try to console her 5-and 2-year-old children.
“It’s hard, ma’am, it’s hard,” Jayla’s mother told NBC 6 while fighting back tears. “They ask if they can go to heaven to see their mom. They don’t understand.”
Neither the owners of the surgery center nor Dr. Nees returned our requests for comment. Dr. Muir told NBC 6 she would grant us an interview later but provided the wrong number.
