Death by Plastic Surgery

Here's how it starts. I was at friend's 50th birthday and party and the subject turned to getting work done, who's had work done, who would & wouldn't have work done – like that…

One woman recounted this horror story:

"I ran into a woman at a party who was depressed because her best friend had liposuction surgery. She was sent home after the procedure and died later that night. She was 52 years old I think, and was a mother."

Later she told me: "I think most people don't realize the potential for death from this procedure or they wouldn't go through with it. I'm sure they sign a waiver, but no one thinks that a tummy tuck is going to take their life."

Well no, but it is a cautionary tale, to say the least.

I immediately got in touch with Wendy Lewis, aka The Knife Coach, which is just one reason she's our go-to guru on this subject.

OMG, it breaks my heart to hear that," she wrote to me. "It's very true that no one expects to have serious complications from elective cosmetic surgery. Our tolerance for side-effects is very unrealistic (you can't compare a Botox injection to a facelift) — the margin for error is completely different when a procedure offers permanent or long-term results vs. a temporary treatment.

It's the deaths that make the headlines, like author Olivia Goldsmith or singer Kanye West's mother. But statistically, it's pretty rare.

Lois W. Stern, author of Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery, had some helpful comments on a blog regarding this issue:

I did extensive research [for her book] and I would like to help put cosmetic surgery deaths into perspective with an excerpt from my book:

A total of 1,822,788 cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States in the year 2007. …In a study reported in Plastic Reconstructive Surgery evaluating the safety of office surgical facilities, only one death occurred in 58,810 surgical procedures, a statistic comparable to the overall risk for hospital-based surgeries.

Here is the caveat: All of these procedures were performed in office surgery facilities accredited by the AAASF (American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities), which mandates that each doctor be board certified in the medical specialty recommended for that procedure and that he has been granted hospital privileges to perform those same procedures in a hospital setting. No statistics exist for surgeries performed in non-accredited surgical facilities, but such statistics undoubtedly would present a different, more disturbing picture.'

"You can see that it is rare for someone to actually die while undergoing cosmetic surgery in a hospital or accredited surgical facility, but very occasionally a death does occur."

 She goes on to put the statistics in perspective:

Recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation indicate that one female highway fatality occurred for every 12,200 women between the ages of 21 and  64, the gender and age range within which most cosmetic surgeries occur. This is nearly five times the number of deaths that occurred as a result of cosmetic surgeries performed in accredited facilities by board certified plastic surgeons.'

But it's not just deaths people are concerned about – a recent horror story that grabbed attention was about a woman who couldn't close her eyes after having a procedure.

I spoke to Z. Paul Lorenc, M.D. FACS, a highly respected plastic surgeon in NYC, who confirmed what Stern said about non-accredited sites and people performing the procedures. Donda West apparently went to several doctors who declined to do the work she wanted, but she kept looking until she found one who would.

Now there's the Donda West Law , that was passed California, Dr. Lorenc explained, "and it's before lawmakers in New York now, I believe."

This will help.

But he stresses that plastic surgery is not a place you should cut corners expense-wise. This is why Lewis sees so many clients who want to know who and what is safe to do. She once said to me that even though people have money, it doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to spend it wisely. She elaborates: