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Death by Lipo - Plastic Surgery Deaths

By Catherine Williams

When considering plastic surgery, most people have enough to worry about - whether the result will look right, what the reaction of their family and friends will be, how much the procedure will cost, and so on. But in addition, customers electing plastic surgery must also be aware of the risks associated with plastic surgery.

There have been numerous instances of deaths occurring during or immediately after routine plastic surgery, such as rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, or liposuction.

According to the ASPS (American Society of Plastic Surgeons), one in every 54,459 plastic surgeries results in the death of the patient. With more than 10 million procedures performed annually, doing the math implies that each year, in the US alone, more than 180 patients opting for elective plastic surgery die as a direct result of the operation.

Most of the deaths are caused by the incorrect administration of anaesthesia, inadequate post-operative care, or complications, i.e. infections.

Those are the direct causes. The indirect causes are incompetent and/or unethical physicians, and a poor regulatory environment that allows doctors to perform surgeries even if they aren't qualified.

While unlicensed operations occasionally do take place in private homes and basements, in almost all cases, the surgery is legal - i.e. performed by a physician who is licensed to practice medicine. However, it is often the case that the physician was not a plastic surgeon, nor even a surgeon, but a doctor from far afield (such as gynaecology) who ventured into cosmetic surgery because of the higher profits.

"The deaths would have gone unreported if the same doctor hadn't been responsbile for all three."

While researching this article I discovered that the mainstream media generally do not feature deaths caused by plastic surgery. The current situation is one of chronic under-reporting.

The vast majority of cases do not even make it into the local news. Here is a list of the cases that did make it into the national media; almost all involve a person well-known locally or nationally.

July 10, 2009 (Blackpool, Scotland) - Denise Hendry, 42-year-old wife of a former captain of the Scottish soccer team, died due to extended complications from a botched liposuction, during which her intestine was punctured, leading to blood poisoning and multiple infections.

March 16, 2008 (Palm Beach, FL) - 18-year-old cheerleader Stepahnie Kuleba died due to malignant hyperthermia, a complication from anaesthesia in which the body temperature rises beyond what it can tolerate, after undergoing a procedure to correct the assymetry of her breasts.

November 10, 2007 (Los Angeles, CA) - Donda West, 58-year-old mother of celebrity Kanye West, died of complications caused by plastic surgery. Her death sparked new regulatory legislation called the "Donda West Law."

September 20, 2007 (Toronto, Canada) - Krista Stryland, a 32-year-old real estate agent, died when her heart stopped beating immediately following routine liposuction. Staff at the clinic called 911 but paramedics were unable to revive the patient.

April 25, 2007 (Anthem, AZ) - Alicia Santizo, 41, died a few hours after plastic surgery. Her death, and those of Ralph Gonzalez and Leslie Ray, both of whom also died following plastic surgery in 2007, would have gone unreported were it not for the fact that the same doctor was responsible for all three.

February 13, 2007 (Philadelphia, PE) - Tracy Jordan, 38, was administered the wrong drug during a procedure involving breast reduction and liposuction, and died shortly thereafter. Bupivacaine was given instead of lidocaine, which is similar in appearance.

December 28, 2006 (Tuscon, AZ) - Kimberley Taylor, a prominent 53-year-old lawyer, underwent combination surgery involving both a facelift and liposuction. Taylor apparently suffered a heart attack during the procedure, and died shortly afterwards.

March 17, 2005 (Manhattan, NY) - Kathleen Cregan, a 42-year-old Irish national, was taken off life support after having fallen into a coma following a facelift. According to the New York Times, her case attracted attention in part "because of the unusual circumstances surrounding her trip to New York." (She did not tell her family about it.)

February 16, 2004 (Manhattan, NY) - Susan Malitz, 56, was about to undergo a facelift at the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hopsital, but her pulse started racing after being administered lidocaine. Efforts to rescusitate her were unsuccessful and she died an hour and half later.

January 15, 2004 (Manhattan, NY) - Prominent novelist Olivia Goldsmith, 54, went into a coma after being administered general anaesthesia at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, and died a week later. The planned procedure was a face-lift.

April 14, 2004 (Montreal, Canada) - Micheline Charest, co-founder of a billion-dollar media company, underwent a combination facelift, breast augmentation and liposuction, and died of respiratory failure a few hours later. She had been left unconscious, unattended and without a breathing tube.

"Her head was as big around as a basketball."

In 2004, ABS investigated dozens of plastic surgery deaths in Florida. Many of the deaths occuring during plastic surgery were caused by inexpert administration of anaesthesia. A particularly horrific case was that of Dr Kurt Dangl, who was a dentist. Legally, any doctor of medicine can perform any surgery, whether the doctor is a specialist or not, so technically Dr Dangl wasn't breaking any laws.

Dr Dangl, like a shockingly large number of other licensed physicians performing cosmetic procedures, was clearly not competent enough to operate on anyone. He often performed procedures without an anaesthesiologist present, and in one case allegedly sent a patient home before she had a chance to recover from surgery.

According to ABC, a relative of a patient reported that Dr Dangl tried to stuff her aunt into a taxi just minutes after a procedure that went on for nine hours. "Her head was as big around as a basketball. And her limbs were just jerking around," said the relative.

The bill for dealing with the complications? $25,000. But that patient was one of the lucky ones - she didn't end up in the morgue.

Generally, citizens of the US seem to start off with considerable trust in the healthcare system, and blindly assume that all surgeons are competent, and that any clinic they choose to walk into is safe and well-managed.

As this article has shown, that blind faith is misplaced, especially where plastic surgery is concerned. The plastic surgery industry is poorly regulated and full of risk. Do not place your life in the custody of someone whom you haven't investigated in detail first.

Contributor's Note

My first "intel"! I spent a week researching this article from news sources, and was shocked by what I found. If a friend of yours is considering cosmetic surgery, please send them my article. You'll be thanked!

		nick appreciated this intel. Feb 18, 2011
		snakesmum appreciated this intel. Feb 28, 2011
		SadieJane appreciated this intel. Apr 28, 2011

Shocking! I never ceased to be amazed that pure vanity can persuade people to undergo what is tantamount to torture and to risk their lives to change their physical appearance. We are what we are, we are made in God,s image and should accept the way we look unless there are good medical reasons to do otherwise. If one person decides against these pointless experiments as a result of this article, Your time researching it, will have been well spent.Brian Parsons, Somerset,U.K.

Brian Parsons Dec 9, 2009 09:29

Someone I know got a breast augmentation from which she ended up looking deformed. It could have been worse, she could have died, eh?

carallelworld Dec 15, 2009 10:56

Almost every surgery that we have can be life ending. Unfortunately, too many people don't do enough research to find the best facility and doctor to administrate their procedure. They look mainly at the cost.
Great intel, great research!
Frederick

frederick Dec 15, 2009 11:14

Personally, if my medical condition is not life threatening; surgery is out. I have so far survived three atopic pregnancies and only the 1st and 3rd demanded emergency surgery. My good health rebounded after the 2nd atopic.

I vividly recall the death of Mrs. Donda West, sad for she was the light of Kanye's eyes.

JazLive Dec 31, 2009 11:22

I hate the way plastic surgery has become so "popular". It has it's place but it's such a money grab and half of the time it looks bad. Aside from unqualified physicians performing it, I have read that people are trying things at home that endanger their lives as well. Botox injections and such.

mulberry Dec 31, 2009 17:22

No words for that... but the search for vanity increases at high rates. Unfortunately my own country seems to be one of the leaders in that area, high number of deaths... Brazil!!

Today it´s not a big surprise when a girl reaches 14 or 15 to demand for their surgery. If that sounds unbelievable, do make a research based on this statement.

Shiva Tantrika Jan 6, 2010 06:52

Really great informative Intel. Self-Love needs to be promoted 24/7 because people who go to this extreme really don't love themselves. The media has drove people to think they need to look a certain way in order to feel good about themselves. Whatever happen to old fashion eating right, fitness, wellness and accepting yourself for who and what you were birth to be? Self Love for all.

Spiritdancer Jan 6, 2010 11:55

Well done article. You make your point very well.

Just to be a devil's advocate, I have a response: Plastic surgery for vanity sounds foolish and somewhat dangerous in light of your research. But don't forget that plastic surgery also has a proper place for certain accident victims and people with certain other conditions. I wonder how many of the deaths you report were after vanity surgery and how many deaths happened after plastic surgery on, say, an accident victim who had other problems after the accident. In other words, maybe the people who died after plastic surgery had other conditions which contributed to their deaths. Did you factor that into your research?

You're right, it would nice to have the statistics of deaths from cosmetic surgery vs deaths from reconstructive surgery. But actually, the only point I was trying to make is that deaths caused by plastic surgery are under-reported in the media.

This is a great article and very well researched. I had no idea that any surgeon could perform plastic surgery. Luckily I have no intention of getting plastic surgery.

riskreward Feb 2, 2010 20:07

I'll stick with my blubber, thank you very much. Thanks for the info girl.

Robert McCulloch Jul 11, 2010 01:49

Great intel and well researched, thanks.

LadyD Jul 27, 2010 16:12

Taht was an excellently researched, presented and written intel. It's easy to criticize women / people for wanting plastic surgery but that's not the point, is it?

I visited the www.surgeoncheck.com site and the minimalist approach works really well - it's almost "clinical" - I hope it helps folks.

Andrew Goulding Aug 22, 2010 07:47

What a great article - 5 stars for sure. You have researched the subject well and it shows - well done! Very informative - and scary too. I hope your article is seen by many, and if it just saves one life, it will have been worth all the hard work you put into it.

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