Saint Franois plastic surgery clinic, Nice, France, Abdominoplasty on man with loose skin after weight loss. Operation removing the excess skin and fat on abdomen and stretching the skin. Liposuction. (Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
A 30-year-old nurse died after reportedly performing liposuction on herself at a Mexican clinic.
The body of the woman, identified only as Carina, was discovered unconscious at a doctor’s office. She allegedly attempted to liposuction fat from her midsection, according to the clinic owner, who shared details about the incident in a video uploaded on his Facebook page on March 23rd.
Dr. Rolando Samper, the owner of the clinic, confirmed that Carina gave herself anesthesia before the doomed procedure, however, she did not have any kind of training in administering it.
Local news outlet, Presente Morelos, reports that the nurse died of cardiorespiratory arrest, which is the sudden loss of breathing, heart function, and therefore consciousness according to AED USA.
A co-worker who discovered her reportedly tried to revive Carina while calling for paramedics, but she had already died by the time they got to the Clinica Amper located in south-central Mexico.
The owner of the clinic, Dr. Rolando Samper Mendoza, was not present at the time of the deadly self-induced lipo procedure, and done “without my authorization or permission,” he told Jam Press.
“One of my nurses named Carina … decided on her own to perform abdominal liposuction with local anesthetic,” Mendoza added.
He continued:
“The result of this incomprehensible action was that she died due to the massive absorption of anesthetic that she administered herself.”
Reports also confirm that the clinic does not have an operating room suited for cosmetic surgery.
In 2020 alone, over 200,000 liposuction procedures were performed, with another 97,988 receiving a tummy tuck, per the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Most medical problems from the surgery are minor, with a complication rate of just five percent, according to a 2017 study by the National Library of Medicine.
Even still, fatalities caused by the cosmetic procedure are just 1 in 5,000 surgeries, with blood clots in the lungs being the most common major complication from liposuction, amounting for 23 percent of deaths, the study found.
And to make matters worse, more people are having plastic surgery now than ever before, with liposuction, buttock augmentation (implants also referred to as a Brazilian butt lift), and tummy tucks increasing by 63 percent since 2020.
In 2021 alone, Americans spent $14.6 billion on cosmetic surgeries, according to the Aesthetic Society.
Meanwhile, Carina’s untimely death is one of many to occur in Mexico and Central America, where many U.S. citizens flock to in what is called “medical tourism” – where one can receive such procedures at far cheaper prices than in the United States.
Earlier this month, The Shade Room reported that a young mother died just hours after undergoing a laser liposuction at a shopping mall clinic in the eastern Venezuelan city of Cumaná.
Over one million Americans cross the border annually to save up to 70 percent on procedures, Patients Beyond Borders reports, with cosmetic and weight-loss surgeries being among the most sought after.
Carina’s passing comes just weeks after four Americans were kidnapped while visiting Mexico for a cosmetic procedure in the country.
Two of the four American citizens who were kidnapped in Mexico were found deceased.
