Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon Dies From COVID After Patient Coughs on Him

A plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills has died from COVID-19 ... and it appears to be entirely because he was able to keep working on patients during a pandemic.

Dr. Payman Simoni -- who's been featured on "The Doctors" show -- passed away while hospitalized in L.A. -- this after he contracted the virus while performing a cosmetic procedure on a patient who turned out to be COVID positive ... so say family sources.

We're told Dr. Simoni was doing a lip injection on a woman last month ... obviously an elective procedure. She was temperature checked and filled out a COVID questionnaire. She was not tested.

While the doc was hovering over the maskless woman, our sources say she coughed in his face. He had his mask on, but still ... she sprayed on him. She contacted the office a few days later to inform them she had tested positive for COVID.

Dr. Simoni then went into quarantine and began experiencing symptoms -- shortness of breath, etc -- and in short order, he was on a ventilator at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. We're told Dr. Simoni was eventually placed in a medically induced coma as his lungs started failing. He died Friday from a brain hemorrhage.

It's a cautionary tale ... one that might've been avoided if the City of Beverly Hills hadn't passed a resolution allowing cosmetic surgery offices to remain open while cases continue to surge. Some docs have opted to hold off -- others obviously haven't.

Simoni was 50.