A Ley de Janicek client is among four patients whose malpractice claims against Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Dare Ajibade were profiled in an ABC13 Houston investigation published August 18, 2026. Attorney Beth Janicek filed the lawsuit on behalf of Junis Maldonado, a 27-year-old San Antonio woman who suffered a catastrophic brain injury during a liposuction procedure with Ajibade in May.
According to the lawsuit, filed June 23, Maldonado suffered multiple seizures and cardiopulmonary arrest during the procedure and had to be resuscitated. The oxygen deprivation she experienced caused a brain injury that has left her with a tracheostomy and a feeding tube. Her treating physicians describe her prognosis as grave, with permanent cognitive, neurological, and functional disability expected for the rest of her life.
Our client’s case is one of four malpractice lawsuits the ABC13 Investigates team found filed against Dr. Dare Ajibade within a single year.
- A Virginia lawsuit alleges a patient died three days after a liposuction and fat transfer procedure that ran over six hours. The malpractice lawsuit describes an excessive dose of a numbing agent given her cardiovascular history.
- A separate Houston patient went into cardiac arrest in recovery after liposuction and abdominoplasty at Ajibade’s Montrose clinic and died five days later.
- A fourth patient, who traveled from Fort Worth for a liposuction procedure, says she required a skin graft for a third-degree medical burn and spent time in intensive care afterward.
Texas Medical Board Actions Against Ajibade
ABC13’s reporting also uncovered two separate disciplinary actions the Texas Medical Board has taken against Ajibade.
- El first medical board action, issued in December 2025, involved a liposuction procedure that didn’t adhere to the state’s medical standards of care. The board ordered a remedial plan. His status was cleared on April 13, 2026.
- On August 14, 2026, Ajibade received an agreed order for medical errors involving two separate patients. One patient died after suffering a preventable pulmonary fat embolism following a 10-hour surgery. The second patient underwent two lengthy procedures within a 48-hour period outside of a hospital setting.
The board found Ajibade’s records in both cases deficient and lacking proper consent documentation. In both cases, patients were poor candidates for the procedures. Both reports are available on the Texas Medical Board’s license lookup tool.
These are allegations raised in civil litigation and agreed medical board orders. Dr. Ajibade neither admitted nor denied the findings and agreed to a recordkeeping course, additional continuing education, and a $4,000 fine. Additionally, Ajibade has denied all responsibility in every malpractice lawsuit he’s faced to date.
It’s also important to note that Texas medical malpractice claims like Maldonado’s case require a qualified medical expert outside the case to review the allegations and submit a written expert report before the claim can proceed.
ABC13 Investigates’ Report: What Do You Really Know About Your Doctors?
ABC13’s follow-up reporting, “What do you really know about your doctors?” also examined how little information Texas patients are privy to when trying to vet a physician before surgery.
While House Bill 1998 allows the Texas Medical Board to pull national database information quietly, Texas law simultaneously enforces very strict confidentiality for practicing physicians. This hides pending investigations, complaints, and pending medical malpractice lawsuits from the public site.
Medical board data shows that complaints took an average of 263 days to close in 2025.
More importantly, under the Texas Occupations Code, only medical malpractice lawsuits that go to trial and end in a jury verdict are listed. This means that all malpractice lawsuits that are settled are not listed on the public website. This is true, even if they’re settled just minutes before jury decisions. Roughly 97% of all malpractice cases are resolved through out-of-court settlements. So, in reality, patients researching will only find around 3% of medical malpractice claims, since settled suits never appear on a doctor’s public profile.
How to Determine If a Plastic Surgeon is Qualified
When evaluating a cosmetic surgeon, patients must look far beyond before-and-after images. Most patients don’t realize that many surgeons aren’t actually board-certified in plastic or cosmetic surgery.
Additionally, licensed physicians who aren’t board-certified cosmetic surgeons but market themselves as such rarely have hospital privileges for those procedures. Elite societies, like the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, require active hospital privileges to set those surgeons apart.
What to Do If You’re Harmed by a Plastic Surgeon in Texas
If you or someone you love suffered seizures, cardiac complications, a brain injury, or another serious harm during or after a liposuction, tummy tuck, or other cosmetic procedure, you may have legal options regardless of how minor the surgeon made the risks sound beforehand. Janicek Law’s Abogados de errores quirúrgicos en San Antonio investigate cases involving inexperienced or overextended surgeons, including the office-based cosmetic clinics we’ve written about in our coverage of the Sono Bello lawsuits tied to Ajibade’s Houston practice.
Beth Janicek and her San Antonio malpractice litigation team have recovered more than $85 million for injured Texans over 30-plus years of practice. If you’re facing a similar situation, contact Janicek Law for a free case review.
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