FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- After a long sentencing hearing that lasted all of Wednesday, a former Oakland Park, Fla., doctor who injected himself and three other people with a botulism toxin that could have killed them was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.

Bach McComb said he should receive a lenient sentence because he was one of the victims. But no such leniency was granted. McComb received the maximum sentence he could be given as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Lou Zant, a friend of McComb's, called the sentence "outrageous" and said McComb should not have received such a stiff punishment.

McComb pleaded guilty in November to federal charges of administering unapproved drugs. He was charged as part of a national network that sold the potent poison as a cheap alternative to the federally licensed beauty treatment.

McComb was accused of having a suspended medical license when he gave himself and three others fake anti-wrinkle shots containing the botulism toxin as a cheap alternative to Botox. As a result, McComb, his girlfriend, and Bonnie and Eric Kaplan, both of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., were temporarily paralyzed by the November 2004 poisonings.

Eric Kaplan testified at a sentencing hearing that he considered McComb to be a "Dr. Frankenstein."

"It was recklessness and arrogance, and it could have been prevented," Kaplan said.

Prosecutors described McComb as a criminal predator who habitually risked the health of patients to fatten his own pockets.

McComb's attorney, Jose Herrera, said his client never intended to harm anyone and was misled about the danger of the product.

"Evidence of that was that he not only injected himself, he also injected someone that he loved very much," Herrera said.

Speaking in his own defense, McComb apologized for his actions.

"I never intended to hurt or deceive anyone," McComb said. "I wish I could turn back the clock and undo this nightmare, but of course I can't."

One key factor in the judge's decision to impose the maximum sentence was the fact that McComb's license as an osteopathic physician was suspended when the injections were administered.

Dozens of McComb's patients and colleagues wrote letters to the judge supporting a light sentence, and several testified on his behalf in court Wednesday.

Herrera argued that he deserved a lenient six-month sentence or no prison time at all because he did not realize the harm the shots might do.

But when McComb and his girlfriend were treated at a hospital emergency room in New Jersey for their own poisoning symptoms, McComb told a state health official there that the compound had not been properly diluted and was many times more powerful than it should have been, according to testimony Wednesday.

McComb's federal charges stemmed from his use of another unapproved brand of shots sold by Arizona-based Toxin Research International.

The company's owners are accused of defrauding people who thought they were getting a safe alternative to Botox.

McComb's attorney has 10 days to file an appeal.