- In License to Kill, Botched star Dr Terry Dubrow investigates the jaw-dropping cases of murderous medical professionals.
- The series chronicles harrowing accounts of patients put at risk by medical professionals' sinister use of their expertise.
- License to Kill airs weeknights at 20:00 on CBS Justice (DStv 170).
You'll know him from Botched, the series where plastic surgery disasters are fixed. But renowned plastic surgeon Dr Dubrow also hosts the fascinating true crime series License to Kill, where medical professionals are caught doing the exact opposite of what they are supposed to.
Dr Dubrow first came to the public eye when he appeared on The Swan TV series, a reality show that transformed women through fairly intense cosmetic procedures. Before that, however, he was widely known in Newport Beach, California, for his amazing skills with the knife and for his role as chief resident of general and plastic surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine. One of his main claims to fame (other than being married to Real Housewives of Orange County star Heather Dubrow) is that he advocates minimal procedures that ultimately create amazing results.
However, in this series, Dr Dubrow puts down his scalpels and introduces us to the doctors, nurses, and other medical carers who deliberately inflict harm on their patients.
Dr Peter Normann, for example, was an Arizona surgeon who offered quick, lunchtime procedures that promised amazing results. As patient JeanAnn Schwark discovers, when she goes for liposuction, his work is less than satisfactory. After the op, she finds seven holes in her body, with incisions that are infected. She's one of the lucky ones, however, as she survived. Dr Normann kills three people with his dodgy medical techniques before he is brought to justice.
In another episode, Colorado 'doctor' Brian O'Connell offers his patients miracle cures for cancer. One of the treatments involves drawing blood from patients and putting it through a photoluminescent light before reinserting it into their bodies. As cancer sufferer Sean Flanagan tragically discovers, the procedure actually depletes his oxygen levels and speeds up his death. Unfortunately, it isn't before more people are conned out of their money and given deathly treatments that the so-called doctor is arrested.
These are just two examples of the cases Dr Dubrow investigates, with the horrifying stories being told through the eyes of the victims, families, colleagues and law enforcement agents, who go behind the scenes to try to establish why these crimes were committed.
What motivates a carer to become a killer? You decide in this thought-provoking series.
License to Kill airs on CBS Justice (DStv 170) weeknights at 20:00.
