In South Florida, four convicted felons ran facilities that became assembly lines for patients from across the country seeking the latest body sculpting procedures at discount prices.
And at those businesses, at least 13 women have died after surgeries. Nearly a dozen others were hospitalized with critical injuries, including punctured internal organs,USAToday reports.
The state health department was alerted to the casualties. Government inspectors cited the clinics for serious violations, including dirty operating rooms and sales agents with no medical licenses determining the appropriate surgeries for patients.
Plastic surgery experts warned lawmakers to take control of the centers by screening owners and boosting regulation.
At Seduction by Jardon, a 31-year-old woman nearly bled to death and went into kidney failure as she languished in a back room for six hours before her mother found her, hospital records and a state complaint show.
At New Life Plastic Surgery and Strax Rejuvenation, women died after their doctors injected fat into their muscles in a popular procedure known as the Brazilian butt lift. Medical experts who reviewed autopsies for USA TODAY said the fat was injected too deep and collected in their lungs, killing them.
One woman, who left Spectrum Aesthetics with a stray surgical sponge sewn into her abdomen, said she would have canceled her tummy tuck if she had known the operators had been convicted of defrauding Medicare of $1 million.
A manager of the clinic, Evelyn Parrado, was granted permission to run the cosmetic surgery center during the day while spending her nights under house arrest on the felony charge.
“Why is that allowed to be legal?” said Porche Campbell, the 40-year-old mother who needed emergency surgery to take out the sponge and, later, reconstructive surgery to get rid of the scar. “How can I trust them to keep me safe?”
Most of the women who died – 10 in all – were African-American or Hispanic, ethnic groups frequently targeted in the clinics’ advertising campaigns.
Representatives of three of the clinics – Spectrum, Strax and New Life – told USA TODAY that criminal histories have no bearing on the way the centers are run and that their facilities meet all state safety requirements to carry out procedures.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
