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 young mother died just hours after undergoing a laser liposuction at a shopping mall clinic in the eastern Venezuelan city of Cumaná.
Ana Rosa Mavarez got sick after receiving the minimally invasive procedure at the Marina Plaza Ambulatory Surgery Unit Saturday night, according to the New York Post.
The 31-year-old mother of two was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead early Sunday morning.
She leaves eight-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, the outlet reports.
Dr. Alexander Larrochelle, who reportedly performed the operation on Mavarez, was arrested by authorities Sunday after he visited a local police station to provide a statement.
The Post reports that Dr. Larrochelle will be kept in custody for up to 45 days as authorities continue their investigation into Mavarez’s death.
Larrochelle reportedly performed what’s called a lipolaser on Mavarez, her mother Petra Rivero told local news outlet El Pitazo.
However, Mavarez’s condition took a turn for the worse after Dr. Larrochelle used a laser to break down fat cells and tighten loose skin, causing her extreme pain and discomfort, Rivero said.
She added that her daughter had her own lipo pump at the facility to reduce swelling, however the nurses ultimately declined to use it.
Mavarez reportedly started convulsing shortly after the procedure around 10 p.m., and wasn’t intubated until after midnight when Dr. Larrochelle arrived at the clinic.
Her mother went on to say that her daughter’s death certificate showed her time of death as 11 p.m., and added Dr. Larrochelle and his staff attempted to convince her into thinking that she was still alive.
The family quickly snapped into action and began searching all over Cumaná for an ambulance to transport Mavarez to a hospital that could better suit her emergency needs, however they unable to do so because none of the ambulances available were equipped with oxygen, according to the Post.
She was eventually transported to a clinic hours later at 4:30 a.m., where Doctors found her without any vital signs before confirming her death.
“I am going to fight for my daughter, because she was not an animal. And just as it happened to my daughter, it has happened to many,” Rivero said. “And it’s going to keep happening if they don’t retaliate with that bum. That’s a butcher shop they have there.”
Mavarez is hardly the first person to die from an errant liposuction procedure.
Last January, a mother of two perished following a botched $6,500 fat-trimming procedure in Spain, which allegedly left her with “injuries like she’d been in a knife fight,” the Post reports.
