A mother of three has died hours after undergoing six cosmetic procedures during a marathon operation on her face and neck. Businesswoman Andreia Vieira Gaspar, 51, reportedly suffered severe swelling and began struggling to breathe following surgery at a hospital in Goiânia, Brazil.
Dream operation
Andreia had reportedly saved for two years to pay around £17,000 for the procedures, which her family say was her "dream" operation. It included a deep-plane facelift, forehead lift, chin reshaping, eyelid surgery, neck liposuction and a "nanofat" injection using her own body fat. It lasted more than eight hours before Andreia was moved to an ordinary hospital room.
According to Gaspar's sister Djiane, shortly after the surgeries, her face and tongue began to swell severely, and she was unable to close her mouth, according to Brazilian news outlet UOL. Djiane said her sister pleaded: "Sister, call a doctor," before telling her that she was "dying", although the family say her multiple complaints were put down as just "nervousness" by medical professionals.
Cause of death
Sadly, their prognosis was fatally wrong. Andreia would suffer a cardiorespiratory arrest shortly after and was pronounced dead on August 12. A post-mortem examination reportedly identified acute coronary thrombosis and pulmonary infarctions as the cause of death.
Her family have alleged that the surgery team is guilty of medical negligence and claimed that her worsening symptoms were not treated urgently enough. Relatives also claim tests carried out in Spain before the operation indicated a possible infection but were not investigated further.
Investigation and response
The Goiás Public Prosecutor's Office has asked police to investigate possible involuntary manslaughter. Surgeon Dr Lessandro Martins has said he was deeply saddened by Andreia's death and expressed sympathy for her family, adding that he was unable to discuss any specific clinical details due to patient confidentiality, but insisted he would cooperate fully with investigators.
Hospital Ankar denied that Andreia had been neglected, stating that she had instead received immediate emergency treatment from medical and nursing staff as soon as things started to go wrong, with all necessary measures taken. The hospital said Andreia's medical tests before the marathon of operations had been conducted elsewhere, adding that all its records would be made available to investigators.
Brazil does not publish a definitive annual tally of cosmetic-surgery deaths, but medical studies put the fatality rate for liposuction at around one in 10,000, rising when it is combined with other major procedures, with blood clots being considered the principal cause of death.
