MANILA, Philippines -- A doctor was ordered charged with reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries by the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office for allegedly botching a facial procedure on a nurse.

In a three-page resolution, second assistant city prosecutor Edgardo Hirang recommended the filing of criminal charges against Dr. Jennifer Roslyn Sison-de Leon of the Belo Medical Group Inc. (BMGI), but at the same time junked raps against BMGI owner Dr. Victoria “Vicki” Belo for lack of merit.

He said the culpable act pertained extensively to Sison -- not her employer -- when she reportedly failed to exercise caution during the radio-frequency procedure on Leila Palaganas in July 2008.

The 50-year-old nurse based in the United States, who underwent the skin-tightening treatment at the BMGI’s Makati clinic, demanded P20 million in damages from the cosmetic surgeons when she sustained permanent scars.

Submitting pictures of her swollen and bruised face after Thermage, Palaganas said she suffered emotionally from the facial deformity.

In finding probable cause against Sison, the prosecutor said the doctor admitted in her affidavit that she was only trained but not licensed to perform Thermage.

“Respondent Sison, under the circumstances, is not just negligent but unjustly so, Sison not only failed to act with due care in performing Thermage, she should not have performed it in the first place without any supervising certified Thermage practitioner,” said Hirang.

Sison, he stressed, had the nurse sedated even when the procedure was usually done to patients while awake so they could react to the heat being applied.

“Also at the start of the procedure, she admits discovering a single and bumpy point on complainant’s right zygomatic area. It should have cautioned her to proceed,” noted the fiscal.

“She could have thereby opted to perform the procedure with the complainant awake. But she continued,” he added.

A bail of P2,000 was recommended for Sison, whose case would be raffled off at the Makati Metropolitan Trial Court.