A fat embolism is to blame for the death of a Baton Rouge woman who went into cardiac arrest during a cosmetic butt procedure at a South Florida clinic last week, according to a medical examiner’s report released Monday.
Kizzy London, 40, traveled from Louisiana to Miami to undergo the Brazilian butt lift surgery at the Jolie Plastic Surgery Center on Thursday, Dec. 14 where she died during the procedure, the Miami Herald reported. London is now the fourth patient to die at the center since 2013 due to complications from cosmetic surgery. The location has operated under at least three different names since then.
Citing records from the Florida Department of Health, the newspaper reported that Arnoldo Valls, the doctor who performed the surgery, isn’t board certified in any specialty, and does not carry medical malpractice insurance. Valls issued a statement offering his condolences in the wake of London’s death, explaining that she went into cardiac arrest toward the end of the procedure. He said clinic staff tried to resuscitate her shortly before calling 911.
“Cosmetic surgeries, like all surgeries, carry some degree of risk for pain, bleeding or other complications; we take great precautions in running numerous exams to assure the safety of the patients,” a spokesperson for the clinic said. ” All standard pre-operative procedures were administered.”
A statement from the center also described Valls as “a caring and skilled surgeon with over 40 years of medical experience,” under his belt.
London is just the latest victim of plastic surgery gone wrong, as increasing numbers of women are assuming the risks of going under the knife for a bigger butt or a flat tummy. London’s sister told NBC Miami that she found Jolie Plastic Surgery online and chose the clinic because of its affordable prices. The woman’s husband told a similar story, saying that his wife had been researching the procedure for at least a year.
“I wasn’t too up on her doing it, but she kept on and kept on,” he told local station WSVN.
Many women have also turned to the black market looking for low-cost butt augmentation procedures, despite the risks. There aren’t too many hard stats on the matter, but there is still anecdotal evidence that the illegal surgeries are on the rise and women are dying as a result. For example, Mississippi woman Tracy Lynn Garner and rap model Natasha Stewart were both charged with depraved-heart murder after a woman died following black market butt injections administered at Garner’s home, CBS News reported. Garner, who previously identified as a man, was also charged in the 2010 death of a second woman.
“People are seeing unlicensed and unskilled professionals for quick fixes,” Dr. Lyle Leipziger, chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., told CBS News in 2013. “It’s basically egregious. The injections of these illicit materials should not be performed.”
In contrast, London consulted who she thought was a board-certified surgeon for her butt lift, which typically averages $9,500, and wound up paying the ultimate price.
London leaves behind a husband and two children.
