The margins of safety for administration of sedation and local anaesthesia are very narrow. While the inexperienced may often get away with it, the internet is replete with unnecessary deaths and injury when it doesn’t go right.
Patients die from cosmetic surgery in several ways
Toxic doses of local anaesthetic are administered which cause cardiac arrest. This may be the cause in both the recent Chippendale case and the cases last year at Bondi Junction. There is a narrow margin between therapeutic and toxic doses of local anaesthetic. Where surgeons try to perform large procedures under local anaesthetic these margins may not exist at all.
The patient suffers airway obstruction and impairment of their breathing because of the sedation provided. This is what happened to Michael Jackson, and likely played a role in the death of Joan Rivers. Without the skills, equipment and facilities to provide airway and breathing support patients will continue to die unnecessarily.
Patients die or are severely debilitated because of tissue damage, infections and physiological stress from the procedures themselves. Particles (emboli) of fat or prosthetic filler can enter the blood system and block the circulation causing cardiac arrest. Further people commit suicide because of disfigurement, unrelenting pain, and psychological trauma. They often feel unsupported by those who have carried out the cosmetic procedure.
Even when strict standards are attained, no corners cut, patients still suffer adverse events.
Beyond this there is another pressing issue that we must not overlook.
As an anaesthetist I assess sick patients booked for surgery to treat disease. Sometimes after open discussions between the patient, surgeon and myself we decide that the risks of operation exceed the benefits. This decision, that their quality of life is greater through avoiding surgery, is never made easily.
There is no medical benefit to cosmetic procedures and there is significant risk of immediate and long term harm. Any perceived psychological benefits are influenced by the heavy advertising people are subjected to. Societal pressure impairs people’s ability to accept their own natural beauty.
While cosmetic surgeons might provide a semblance of the risks involved, how tangible are these risks to the patient? Do their patients see the images of tissue destruction and learn of the misery suffered by many?
Perhaps with cosmetic practice it’s time for the level of counter advertising that’s been so successful in Australia to curtail cigarette smoking.
Should we insist images of perceived perfection be removed, banned, and replaced with the real images of harm from cosmetic surgery?
Below we’ve started collating deaths from cosmetic surgery. Please click on each story to read more:
Florida woman dies from buttock implant procedure
2 people charged with manslaughter after death of cosmetic salon owner having breast enlargement
Payed $35,000 and died from the cosmetic surgery
2 deaths at same cosmetic practice in Miami
29yr old dies having buttock & breast surgery
33yr old dies from fat embolism syndrome during liposuction
Death from fat embolism during penile enlargement
Death after breast lift and tummy tuck
25yr old dies after breast enlargement & tummy tuck
Death after face and neck cosmetic surgery
Death after severe infection from liposuction
10 people who died from plastic surgery
Death post buttock enhancement injection
53yr old commits suicide after facelift
Severe pain after mole removal leads 44yr old lady to commit suicide
29yr old dies from breast revision surgery
24yr old dies from complications related to anaesthesia
29yr old dies from fat embolism
Gold Coast woman dies at hands of Mexican cosmetic surgeon
Death of Farah Qassab from cosmetic surgery
25yr old dies from Brazilian Butt Lift
20yr old dies from silicone injection
Death from multi-organ failure secondary to cosmetic surgery
57yr old woman dies from infection secondary to liposuction
Death from plastic surgery to lips & chin
36yr old dies from cosmetic surgery
4 deaths from cosmetic surgery
24yr old dies undergoing cosmetic surgery
32yr old mother of two dies undergoing liposuction
3 deaths from buttock injections
Death of woman having plastic surgery – for over the hundredth time
56yr old Olympic gold medallist dies having cosmetic surgery
33yr old dies after having silicone injected into her hips
7 hospital staff charged with causing death by liposuction
29yr old dies after liposuction, butt and breast augmentation
24yr old taken off life support 2 weeks after breast augmentation
63yr old leaves behind wife & 3 sons
2 doctors indicted for felony murder of lady having cosmetic surgery
Mother to 7yr old twins dies from gluteoplasty
32yr old dies from liposuction
31yr old dies from cosmetic injections
Woman dies after butt enhancement injections
20yr old dies after receiving injections of silicone and Krazy Glue
Woman dies from pulomonary embolism after plastic surgery
Mother suffers stroke 2 days after cosmetic surgery, then declared brain dead
29yr old dies after lung perforated 4 times
50yr old declared brain dead after cosmetic surgery
34yr old dies from silicone buttock injections
Mother of 3 dies undergoing liposuction
28yr old dies from local anaesthetic toxicity during liposuction
53yr old dies during dual cosmetic procedure
Patient dies from infection due to liposuction
3 deaths from cosmetic procedures
Doctor faces manslaughter after death of 59yr old employee from liposuction
43yr old dies after complications from liposuction
61yr old dies after liposuction she’d paid over $100,000 for
9 deaths in USA from breast cancer caused by implants
2 British women die from Brazilian Butt Lift Surgery
This list represents only some of the deaths we’ve found reported on the internet, perhaps a small percentage of the true number.
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