Brazilian police are looking into a plastic surgeon after a 24-year-old patient died following six surgeries in one day. Viviane Lira Monte had her procedures on August 31, which included liposuction, a breast reduction, and having the fat removed put back into her backside.
After the surgery, she developed a severe infection in her abdomen and spent 22 days in intensive care before passing away from heart failure on September 26. She found the surgeon online in Sobral, a city in the Brazilian state of Ceara, and underwent all the surgeries in one session.
The police are investigating her death as “suspicious.” Her family said she was allowed to leave the hospital just 15 hours after the eight-hour surgery, but soon began experiencing serious complications.
Viviane was in severe pain, so her family took her to an emergency care unit. She was quickly rushed to the hospital and put in intensive care.
Doctors were able to treat a pulmonary embolism, which is a dangerous blockage in the lungs, but they couldn’t stop a serious infection in her abdomen, and she eventually died from heart failure.
Her husband, Renan Santiago, said, “She vomited blood and seemed to recover, but she was never stable. There was a lot of swelling and infection from the surgery. She had trouble breathing, but they were able to revive her and put her on a ventilator. Unfortunately, she just couldn’t get better.
“We watched her suffer for 22 days without any good news. Every day, she spoke to us in a very weak voice and had trouble breathing. She knew she was dying.”
Her husband claims that the cosmetic surgeon who performed the six procedures on Viviane is to blame for her death. Santiago said the surgeon offered Viviane a discount for getting more surgeries and then insisted on being paid £42,000 in cash.
He also alleged that the surgeon told them it was “normal” for Viviane to feel “very weak” after the surgeries, and then he left town.
“He saw that she was in bad shape but went to Rio de Janeiro. He abandoned her and didn’t provide any support,” Santiago said.
When he contacted the surgeon to say Viviane was serious in the ICU, the surgeon said she would be fine and that it was just a matter of time before she got better.
Santiago noted that the surgeon only visited her in the ICU a few hours before she died. The family feels it was unfair that he left her to go on a trip while she was unwell.
Local media tried to contact the surgeon for a comment, but he refused to speak.
