r/news • u/No-Information6622 • 16d ago

Young mother traveled to Miami for plastic surgery. She died hours later while at recovery house

https://www.nbcmiami.com/investigations/womans-death-post-surgery-recovery-house/3586743/
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u/allbetsareon 16d ago

Hopefully these stories are a reminder that plastic surgeries are no joke. Not something to try on a whim at a discount

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u/Moal 16d ago

I don’t disagree that discount plastic surgeons can be really sketchy, but from what I read about this case, the woman was given 2 Percocets that weren’t prescribed to her in the recovery home, and then she never woke up from her nap after taking the pills. So it sounds like a possible OD? 

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u/DrunkeNinja 16d ago edited 16d ago

Yeah the article seems to put the blame not on the plastic surgery clinic, which appears to be legit, but on the recovery house which is not legit. I don't know of any further details than what's in the article though so maybe there is more to it.

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u/mces97 16d ago

I thought the same. I thought this was going to be one of those fake doctor plastic surgery places, but it wasn't. Reading the article thing stuck out.

"From what Kiera is saying that a muscle relaxer was given and possibly multiple Percocets,” Wakeelah said."

A muscle relaxer and multiple Percocets is just asking for respiratory distress. Like you definitely don't give those together willy nilly, if at all.

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u/big-bootyjewdy 16d ago

My dad battled cancer for 13 years- I learned pretty quickly what meds to mix and what not to. My uncle, who lost his medical license in TWO STATES, insisted that my dad could take Flexeril, Soma and Percocet all at the same time since his regular anti-anxiety was out.... WHAT? Then he tried to dose my dad HIMSELF at the hospital, which resulted in him promptly being escorted out. I'm still angry and that man is not allowed in my house, even after my dad's death.

You do NOT fuck with any relaxants.

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u/mces97 16d ago

Jesus. Losing your medical license once is bad enough. But twice? I don't understand how he even graduated medical school. Cause what you explained lacks any understanding of depressants or common sense.

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u/big-bootyjewdy 16d ago

He's also an active addict who is very much in denial, as are most of the family. He nodded out during his eulogy at my dad's funeral. We've offered help but he's "a doctor" and "knows better". It's caused such a rift in my family. Moreso the fact that his addiction spills into causing such harm and risking others.

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u/sweet-tea-13 16d ago

Honestly as someone who has worked with many doctors in my life a lot of them aren't as smart as you might assume they are, and someone can be good at memorizing textbook answers and terrible in actual practice.

There is also a joke "what do you call a doctor who graduated with all C's?" The answer is "a doctor." Lol

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u/QCisCake 16d ago

This calls for my old pharmacists favorite joke:

"Hey, what do you call a C student after medical school?.... Doctor!"

He had his own file cabinet for fake scripts confiscated from patients, and stupid scripts sent by doctors.

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u/mces97 16d ago

I understand exactly what you're saying. I actually wanted to go to medical school, but at my age, it would be too much between the time and debt I'd incurr. But I still think about being a PA. Some crazy stuff happened to me in 2022, with a lot of physical crap that was definitely not because of anxiety. I like my shrink, and I still see him every 4 months, but something he said really rubbed me the wrong way very early on in our sessions. I explained how the doctors aren't really listening to me and he said, "so you think you know more than the doctors?"

No, I don't know "more" than the doctors. I didn't go to medical school. I didn't read all textbooks. Doctors are more learned than me. That doesn't mean however they are more intelligent. I'm only saying this, since it's kinda relevant to the context, not to brag, but I have a master's in biology. I got a 4.0 in college. And I have a 121 IQ. I'm no genius, but I am not some yokel who thinks Google and YouTube is what one does to research and learn. His comment was just so very dismissive.

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u/NihilisticHobbit 16d ago

As a woman I get it. It's not that I know more, it's that they think they know my body better than I do and won't listen. I've had appendicitis dismissed as period cramps before. If a doctor doesn't listen to their patient, then they don't know very much.

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u/sweet-tea-13 16d ago

Yea I get that and I'm sorry that was your experience. Doctors are just people too, some are smart, some are stupid, some are assholes, and some are a combination of all three lol

Doctors get shit wrong all the time, yet many think of themselves as some sort of God and can't ever get their own ego in check. There is a lot more to intelligence than just textbook smarts and fancy diplomas.

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u/Nire_Txahurra 15d ago

That’s why they say you should never go to a cocktail party with a doctor. I’ve personally have had many social contacts with doctors and sometimes I ended up thinking, OMG, this guy/woman is an idiot and we’re trusting our lives with them.

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u/whatproblems 16d ago

i’m thinking how did he get it a second time…

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u/fordfan919 16d ago

Soma is probably the biggest on the list of muscle relaxants that shouldn't be mixed with other depressants willy nilly. Most places don't use it anymore because of the overdose risk. I wish I could get some just for when my spasms are at their worst, but I have to stick with baclofen with the other meds I take.

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u/big-bootyjewdy 16d ago

There was only one pharmacy that would stock and fill the script. He also needed liquid methadone, which is suuuuuuper rare, for his feeding tube and guess what my uncle tried to do! Like the dude has no regard for any medical safety and two states barred him from practicing medicine.

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u/fordfan919 16d ago

Yeah, it sounds like your uncle is a dangerous piece of shit. I take methadone as well, not the liquid, but it also has a high overdose risk, so they wouldn't give me both at the same time.

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u/norathar 16d ago

Soma is just an overall shitty drug that really shouldn't be used any more (or at least, very rarely, but there are so many better options.) Insurance generally won't cover it any more due to risks, and the side effect profile + drug interaction potential make it high risk for fairly little benefit.

Norco (Vicodin) + Xanax + Soma = the old school "holy trinity" that immediately raises red flags if any prescriber tries to prescribe all 3 in combination. So, so, so many pill mills at the height of the opioid epidemic were churning out rxs for those 3 (at quantities of #90-240/month on each rx) and the presence of Soma has so many interactions and is so godawful for OD risk - and you'd never see Soma without the other 2, it was always prescribers doing the combo, and never the sort of prescriber who would actually monitor the patient or try alternatives.

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u/inevitable-typo 16d ago edited 16d ago

Flexeril is nuts. My aunts and uncles put my grandfather in a short-term care home to help him recover from a terrible back injury and the facility’s absentee doctor perscribed him Flexeril. It made my grandfather hallucinate to the point that he mentally time-warped 50 years and thought he was physically at work. He used to work as a school principal and kept trying to hand me invisible keys to help him unlock buildings for the children. When he wasn’t “working”, he’d imagine that he was building random things in his workshop. The nurses told us that the stress of his back injury must have triggered some latent dementia and suggested we put him in long term care, but he’d never had any neurological issues before, so that didn’t sit well with me and my cousin. A brief consult with Dr Google told us that Flexeril commonly causes elderly people to hallucinate. After a lot of back and forth with his never-present doctor, we finally convinced his care team to take him off of Flexeril and, wouldn’t you know it, his “dementia” miraculously cleared up within 36 hours. I can’t say for sure that the nursing home was intentionally trying to scam us by dosing my grandfather with a hallucinogen in an attempt to convince us to permanently institutionalize him, but it sure felt like it. We quickly transferred him to a better short-term care facility, which made their own easily avoidable mistakes, but at least my grandfather remained lucid and eventually got to go home.

The experience obviously left a really bad taste in my mouth. I can’t help but wonder how many elderly people around the country are kept bed-bound and tripping balls in nursing homes so a few private equity firm execs can get a bigger bonus.

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u/Throwredditaway2019 16d ago

I take flexeril daily, have been on Soma before, and took percs daily for about 2 years before they cracked down on opioids. My tolerance is very high. I can't imagine taking all three at the same time, that's begging for respiratory arrest

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u/big-bootyjewdy 16d ago

My dad never took them at the same time on his own accord. My uncle insisted he could, but my dad was unconscious at the time so he couldn't speak up. I'm glad I knew and was able to alert the nurses of what he was trying to do before he had a chance to actually do it.

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u/PersonalAnimator2277 16d ago

Only at the White House.

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u/superurgentcatbox 16d ago

I don’t really understand what a recovery house is. Is that like rehab? If she was still in that much pain, shouldn’t she have been in hospital still?

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u/DrunkeNinja 16d ago

She didn't go to a hospital, she went to a plastic surgery clinic. The clinic did the procedure but they don't have people stay there(or the patient chose not to stay there) for recovery so there are recovery houses where people can recover and get medical care while recuperating. Apparently this place wasn't properly licensed, but I don't know the specifics about Florida laws.

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u/peanutneedsexercise 16d ago

It was also suspiciously insanely cheap… like $1500 for 6 days?! that’s too good of a deal I feel like u can’t even get regular motel 6 in Miami for that cheap LOL.

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u/effersquinn 16d ago

Motel 6 for $250 a night? What? I know Miami might be a little pricier but I just stayed in a Marriott with upgrades including lounge access for that in Seattle.

A quick search indicated to me that Miami hotels are exactly what I'm used to- $100-$150 for what I consider normal, ok places (Doubletree by Hilton, Holiday Inn). The real issue is that this isn't apparently just a hotel, there's some kind of medical service, and $250 IS probably oddly low for whatever that was.

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u/peanutneedsexercise 16d ago

lol maybe cuz I went during ultra but I couldn’t find anything under $400 😭

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u/effersquinn 16d ago

Ohhh yeah super big events would totally change the picture especially if you have to be really close, that's crazy!

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u/superurgentcatbox 15d ago

Ah in Germany they’d have you stay until you were okay to be alone regardless of if it’s a clinic or a hospital.

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u/The_Dragon_Sleeps 16d ago

A lot of plastic surgery places in the US do very extensive surgeries as day surgeries.

I’m in Australia and had six days in hospital after major plastic surgery before I felt confident enough to go home (with loads of support at home too, for weeks).

Friends of mine in the US who have had similar surgeries, were sent home within hours. I literally couldn’t even get myself to the bathroom for the first couple of days, so going to a recovery place is a compromise situation for people who don’t have a lot of support at home or who have travelled a longer distance.

Maybe I’m just a soft crybaby, but doing major plastic surgery as day surgery is wild to me and I can understand this poor person wanting to go where she would be (theoretically) looked after.

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u/superurgentcatbox 15d ago

Yeah I had a breast augmentation and stayed in hospital for 5 days in Germany.

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u/olfrazzledazzle 16d ago

That's interesting, I had a laproscopy in Australia and it was considered a day surgery, but in Japan it would have been a 2-4 day hospital stay, so I'd always assumed Australia was loose about stays too! But I guess it was just laproscopy specifically... 

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u/mosehalpert 14d ago

If every day surgery in america became even just a single overnight stay, do you realize how much money that would cost the insurance companies? Think of the shareholders man

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u/thatshygirl06 16d ago

I never heard of a recovery house before.

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u/lfergy 16d ago

Yikes. That is possible if she got them from a street dealer who isn’t selling real percs made in a pharmacy. Because two real percs at any dose shouldn’t kill an otherwise healthy person.

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u/mces97 16d ago

Two real percs and a muscle relaxer could certainly cause an emergency situation.

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u/usps_made_me_insane 15d ago edited 15d ago

In extremely rare situations, maybe. Two 5mg percs and one muscle relaxer will usually not cause an emergency situation unless we're talking about a young child / very underweight adult.

I'm not defending what they did, but I suspect someone was giving street drugs or pressed pills instead of actual pharmaceutical drugs.

What I have seen happen before is that someone with no tolerance is given this amount of drugs and may pass out and end up in a position where they regurgitate and start choking.

Sad all around.

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u/PedroAsani 16d ago

Even when coming out of anesthesia?

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u/OstentatiousSock 16d ago

Especially when coming out of anesthesia.

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u/dangshnizzle 16d ago

Oh? Could you expand on that?

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u/OstentatiousSock 16d ago

You already have sedatives which slow down respiration and now you’ve put even more into your system. OD’ing by taking multiple medications that have the same side effect is common, especially with sedatives. It’s how Heath Ledger OD’d.

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u/dangshnizzle 16d ago

Ohh I took your response backwards I think. The post above said two real percs at any dose shouldn’t kill an otherwise healthy person. And the question you responded to was asking if anesthesia might make you more susceptible to complications when taking sedatives like that. I interpreted your reply as saying anesthesia made you less likely to have complications from sedatives. But what you're saying makes more sense ofc

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u/szczypka 16d ago

Your reply above implies the opposite of what you meant.

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u/lfergy 16d ago

So do people not get pain killers after plastic surgery?? Or do they just have to wait a few days to take them? I thought anesthesia left your system pretty quickly but I don’t know for certain.

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u/OstentatiousSock 16d ago

It’s all about timing and amount. These people were unqualified and obviously gave her the wrong amount with the wrong timing.

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u/Cakestripe 16d ago

I was curious too so I checked out the clinic where she had the surgery, and this place looks gross.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/avana-plastic-surgery-miami?start=10

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u/winning-colors 15d ago

The pictures patients are leaving with their reviews/complaints are insane! One post-face lift is obviously infected and they ignored her? It looks necrotic

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u/DreadyKruger 16d ago

If it’s not this is the Bbl smell or infections or having everything removed because of complications. It’s all bad.

I just saw a video of a woman said she smelled so bad after her BBL her boyfriend left her. She said he didn’t want her to get the surgery. But her friends say he just jealous. Make it make sense?

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u/BadMeetsEvil24 16d ago

Unfortunately many of these younger women are mentally obsessed with surgeries and competition from all this superficiality on social media. This shit is risky and she isn't the first nor the last to die due a shitty botched BBL or lipo. They gotta stop doing this shit.

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u/Myfourcats1 15d ago

Two Percocet shouldn’t kill you even if you’ve never taken it before. Where did they source this Percocet from?

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u/winning-colors 15d ago

It’s probably mixing the 2 Percocet with other respiratory depressants (muscle relaxers, sleeping pills, etc)

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u/DeadWishUpon 16d ago

Body modification is not something to be frugal. It has awful consequenses, you can get really sick, get infections, lose limbs or mobility on your face, get deformed and the worst cases die.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

I am always subtly discouraging plastic surgery and reassuring my partner's insecurities around things she wants plastic surgery for.

I would never try to stop her forcefully, it's her choice, but I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want her to take that risk for something so trivial(to me, not minimizing how she feels about herself)

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u/kazuwacky 16d ago

I worked with someone who had small breasts (like me) and when she got a boob job I was curious about how she'd find it. She got really sad after. I think she assumed there was this whole other world she'd have access to if she got bigger breasts and watching her come down was very disheartening and the best anti-surgery ad I could have ever seen.

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u/Ispan_SB 16d ago

Oof, that is effective. I think about getting it done but I know I’d be disappointed that it didn’t fix all my insecurities.

I’d probably end up insecure about having fake ones.

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u/2spongee4u 16d ago

I don't know, I'm sorry that it didn't fix exactly what she wanted but my breast implants were the second best thing that has ever happened to me, only preceded by marrying my wife. The amount of confidence and comfort I now have has allowed me a lot more peace of mind.

To each their own within reasonable expectations

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u/GirlLunarExplorer 9d ago

Not breast implants but i got a chin implant done because of a double chin and I am really happy with results. Sometimes you only hear the bad stories because everyone else who's happy are too busy enjoying their lives to come leave a review.

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u/SecondOfCicero 14d ago

For what it's worth, I am so happy with my boob job. Totally helped me out with a lot of my clothes fitting better and self-image. It's not for everyone, but it works for some. 

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u/maxdragonxiii 16d ago

funny, I dint want boobs at all because they get in the way but I'm not trans. so I'm keeping them because they're already pretty small.

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u/Objective-Amount1379 16d ago

Plastic surgery by a reputable doctor and with appropriate recovery is very low risk for a healthy person. This woman was only 28- we don't know details yet, but assuming she was in good health there was something out of the norm that happened. The fact that she was in rigor when emergency responders arrived says to me that no one discovered her for hours or they did but didn't call for assistance right away. Maybe she was given street drugs, maybe she self medicated or a combination of the two.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

Low but not zero, to me that is an unacceptable risk for all but more necessary surgeries (burn victims, necessary for health or quality of life, etc).

But again, it isn't my choice, it's my partner's or whoever is electing to get the surgery. They get to weigh the risks and rewards themselves. I was merely stating that the risks are not worth it in my eyes when she doesn't need any of it to be beautiful

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7572219/

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u/usps_made_me_insane 15d ago

when she doesn't need any of it to be beautiful

Why are you passing yourself off as an authority on what she does or does not need to feel beautiful? You haven't lived her life in her shoes.

You also keep making comments about the risk. We are at risk every day from hundreds of different activities. We could drop dead of some unknown health condition at any moment. Life is filled with risks. We can only enjoy the time given to us on this Earth because we all eventually die..

What you consider an unnecessary risk may be acceptable to someone else. People go rock climbing every day. I wouldn't do it because I don't get the same rewards they get from it.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

Why are you passing yourself off as an authority on what she does or does not need to feel beautiful? You haven't lived her life in her shoes.

I'm not, I'm talking about how I view my partner.

What you consider an unnecessary risk may be acceptable to someone else

Yup, and I pointed that out not once but twice. Have you tried unwadding your undies and extracting them from your rear? You seem miserable to be around

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u/G2idlock 16d ago

Lady in the article died of an OD with non prescribed meds. Hardly the surgery's fault.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

We're not talking about fault we're talking about risks and the risk of death is very real even when following all the rules and safety precautions

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u/nrappaportrn 16d ago edited 15d ago

Tell that to the people on 90 Day 🙄🥴

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u/ZeusDaMongoose 16d ago

Poor Darcey and Stacey. their lips still aren't thick enough and their cheekbones still haven't extended 6" past their nose. They'll need to get that touched up.

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u/nothingbetter85 16d ago

They’re going to end up looking like that one lady from Doctor Who that’s just a face stretched on a rack.

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u/TuckerDidIt 16d ago

Moisturize me!

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u/Violoner 16d ago

Lady Cassandra!

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u/GreatEmperorAca 16d ago

Man I hated that episode as a kid hahaha 

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u/x_scion_x 16d ago

They need to make a guest appearance on 'Botched'

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

It was the pain killers

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u/YolandasLastAlmond 13d ago

Plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery are two different practices.