Woman Charged With Practicing Medicine Without License

Police said 72-year-old Angela Martinez injected a woman with three B-12 shots and her ‘patient’ contracted a severe skin infection instead.

Martinez is facing three counts of practicing medicine without a license and one count of criminal penalties for additional harm.

Martinez, turned herself in last week, and was released from jail on Wednesday.

When ABC-7 crews approached Martinez at her home on Wednesday, she denied her own identity, at first, until she was faced with her mugshot, obtained by ABC-7. Upon further questioning, she said her lawyer told her not to speak with anyone about the case.

According to arrest affidavit obtained by ABC-7 Martinez, who purported herself to be a nurse, prescribed her ‘patient’ a series of three B-12 shots, for $10 per-injection, in her right buttock to combat her anemia.

Police said that further investigation revealed Martinez was not licensed to practice medicine by the Texas Medical Board or the Texas Board of Nursing.

The victim ended up contracting Necrotising Fasciitis. The disease garnered national attention when a 24-year-old Georgia college student caught it in March 2012, after a zip-line accident.

The flesh eating disease spreads rapidly and, According to court documents, the victim’s severe, deep tissue infection consumed the majority of her right buttock and required extensive surgery.

“(Martinez) offered expertise beyond her training, beyond her judgment, saying, ‘Hmm, this person has anemia. What can we do for anemia?’ You have to have the training to be able to do that,” said medical negligence defense attorney Cynthia Llamas.

Llamas, who has no affiliation with the Martinez case, said the victim’s pain often continues long after the botched procedure ends, “One of the things that might be unsatisfying for the victim is, (Martinez) might get a criminal conviction, but what about her pain and what about her suffering and what about her additional medical expenses?”

ABC-7 tried to track down the victim at her listed address, but the woman who answered the door said the victim moved away in 2011.

Martinez turned herself in to police on May 31, and was booked into the El Paso County Jail on bonds totaling $110,000.

Martinez’s lawyer did not return ABC-7’s phone calls at the time of publication.