Is cosmetic surgery worth the risk? Important
- High School Cheerleader Dies of Breast Surgery Complications
- FoxNews 26/03/2008
- Liposuction contributed to woman's early death
- Telegraph 01/03/2008
She was captain of her high school cheerleading squad, a nearly straight-A student and a soon-to-be pre-med freshman at the University of Florida.
But now, 18-year-old Stephanie Kuleba is dead, and her friends, relatives and family attorney are pointing to breast surgery as the reason.
No official cause of death has yet been released, but family lawyer Roberto D. Stanziale told FOXNews that doctors believe Kuleba died of a rare and potentially deadly genetic reaction to general aesthesia known as malignant hyperthermia, which sends the body into shock.
Paramedics were summoned to the teen's aid at the Boca Raton outpatient surgery unit where she'd had reconstructive breast surgery Friday, and they rushed her to Delray Medical Centre. She died there the next day.
Stanziale, a medical malpractice lawyer, said Kuleba had gone in for cosmetic surgery to correct an inverted nipple and asymmetrical breasts — a procedure that involves implants.
But her doctor hadn't gotten to the breast augmentation phase of the operation when something went terribly wrong. More
Cosmetic surgery on a 50-year-old company director to reduce the size of her thighs contributed to her sudden death, a coroner ruled yesterday.
Pauline Bainbridge, a mother-of-two, had the £3,500 liposuction operation at a private clinic but died from a heart attack 48 hours later.
An inquest into her death heard that the surgery, at the Capio Fulwood hospital in Preston, probably contributed to a blood clot that led to the fatal heart attack on July 22 last year.
After Nigel Meadows, the Manchester coroner, recorded a verdict of misadventure, Mrs Bainbridge's husband, Alan, warned others not to have unnecessary surgery.
The hospital was not to blame, the inquest heard, and the heart attack - one of a series she suffered - could have occurred anyway. But on the balance of probabilities the risk was increased by having surgery.
Mr Meadows told the victim's family at Manchester coroner's court: "The evidence indicates that the liposuction procedure must, on the balance of probabilities, have had a contributory effect."
He gave the formal cause of death as first, a heart attack, with a second cause as "liposuction on both thighs".
He added: "I don't think it is possible or appropriate to record natural causes because of the elective procedure. More
