Posted on 03/25/2008 8:26:26 AM PDT by philsfan24
She was captain of her high school cheerleading squad, a nearly straight-A student and a soon-to-be pre-med student at the University of Florida.
But now, 18-year-old Stephanie Kuleba is dead, and her friends and family are pointing to breast augmentation surgery as the cause, The Palm Beach Post reported.
"She was a role model for a lot of people," her friend Vicky Goldring, 16, told the paper. "She was incredibly smart. She wanted to help people. She was just a happy 18-year-old girl."
Kuleba died Saturday of what friends believe were complications from the plastic surgery she had the previous night, though no official cause of death has yet been released, the Post reported.
A friend speaking on behalf of her grieving family told the newspaper that Kuleba had an extreme reaction to the anesthesia.
"The surgery itself was very personal," Perlman told the paper. "She passed away from complications during surgery.
Paramedics were summoned to the teen's aid at the Boca Raton outpatient surgery unit where she'd had the procedure, and they rushed her to Delray Medical Center. She died there on Saturday.
The West Boca High School senior, whom friends described as "perfect" and full of promise and possibilities, was mourned by classmates at a candlelight vigil at the school Sunday night. More than 400 people attended.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This could have happened with any surgery requiring anaesthesia.
There should be a way to test patients beforehand, if they have never been under anasethesia to see if they are allergic.
"Paramedics were summoned to the teen's aid"?
Where the hell was the anesthesiologist or did this "outpatient surgery unit" cut costs by not even having one?
It is sad & yes many girls do have low self esteem. Many want perfect bodies & their parents get them whatever they want. I’ve heard of 16 yr olds getting boob jobs. It is wrong IMO to let young girls do this without getting some counseling or giving much thought to it. Prayers for the girl & her family. Such a needless death at so young an age.
Seems she wanted to be a D student.
Another victim of the culture war.
Tragic.
Why in the world would a young girl do something like that? Her parents must have really been great for her to have low self esteem.
Some supposedly adult women “think” that giving their 16yo daughters a boob-job for their birthday is a good idea.
“Where the hell was the anesthesiologist or did this “outpatient surgery unit” cut costs by not even having one?”
Can’t do that. If they did, somebody’s going to prison.
The anesthesiologist, however, does not have an ambulance to transport the patient. Hence, paramedics in an ambulance are called.
I think it’s a safe bet that medical people on the scene were doing what they could before paramedics arrived, but if this girl had a severe allergic reaction, there was probably little that could be done.
Apparently not very happy with her breasts!
I was struck by that sentence also. So the anesthesiologist and surgeon got in over their heads, and they called 911?????
(Mental note -- never go for breast augmentation surgery in Boca Raton -- oh, that's right, that's not very likely, since I'm a guy.)
The “girl” was an 18 year old adult
Interesting that they described her as perfect. Apparently in her own eyes she felt she was less than perfect.
Very sad. I guess if she was 18 there wasn't much her parents could do legally to stop her.
’ “The surgery itself was very personal,” Perlman told the paper. “She passed away from complications during surgery.”
Heh?
She was captain of her high school cheerleading squad, a nearly straight-A student and a soon-to-be pre-med student at the University of Florida
“Seems she wanted to be a D student.”
The poor girl is dead dude.
not cool
Not in the least funny.
‘Cept not pay for it and ask her to leave the house if she’s going to defy their wishes.
“(Mental note — never go for breast augmentation surgery in Boca Raton — oh, that’s right, that’s not very likely, since I’m a guy.”
On a guy they are called “Moobs”...short for “Man Boobs”...
What a shame though about this young girl and the grief that her family must feel...very sad.
Whew!
Good thing, otherwise she might have had some problems.
There are a bunch of plastic surgery clinics that are only set up for that procedure. Anything happens and they don’t have the proper equipment to deal with it.
The same thing applies to some “birthing centers”. Usually staffed by certified midwives and nurses, but should a real emergency arise, the patient has to go to the hospital.
Paramedics were summoned to the teen’s aid at the Boca Raton outpatient surgery unit .....
This procedure should have only been conducted at a fully and properly equipped facility where emergencies can be treated immediately. What a tragedy. Were these surgeons American schooled, or schooled in India.
Never, never seek medical care at a cut rate joint.
Except not pay for it as I doubt that she had the coin to do it herself.
All of ya, bite me. I will inject my crude and unfunny comments where I see fit.
Depends on who paid for the operation.
There is, but it involves a muscle biopsy and is prone to false negatives.
“I was struck by that sentence also. So the anesthesiologist and surgeon got in over their heads, and they called 911?????”
So were the doctors supposed to load her up in their car and take her to the hospital? Of course not. They were calling for an ambulance.
It could have been surgery to reduce their size, a friend of mine’s 14 year old daughter wants hers reduced because they are causing her back pain, etc.
My fire station was close to an area that had a lot of medical specialists. The doctors who do specialties frequently called for help. Plastic surgeons, podiatrists, dermatologists, etc., don’t deal with medical emergencies very often. I had a dermatologist get quite upset one time. He felt guilty because as a doctor, he believed he should have known what to do, but it had been years since he’d dealt with someone having a cardiac arrest.
If I understand correctly, this is why anaesthesiologists (please insert correct spelling)have the highest malpractice insurance rates.
Poor taste man, this was someone’s daughter that died from complication of surgery. Same thing could have happened if she had had knee surgery
“All of ya, bite me. I will inject my crude and unfunny comments where I see fit.”
And we’ll dump on you when you act like a jack-—.
Well, the second sentence says breast augmentation surgery.
I saw pictures of her from the breast up and she didn’t look all that big on top. She wasn’t flat but she didn’t look big enough to warrant a reduction IMO.
I think she was going the other direction.
Breast augmentation? What a senseless tragedy.
There are millions of outpatient procedures done every year under anesthesia - dental surgery, colonoscopy, abortion.
If this young woman suffered a malignant hyperthermia reaction, it kills people in hospitals too.
Your gonna get slammed by the overly sensative crowd, but that is a funny comment.
The overly sensitive crowd can bite me. And trust me, many a short and chortle will occur when reading it, but the vast majority won’t have it in them to admit it.
Why in the world would a young girl do something like that? Her parents must have really been great for her to have low self esteem.”
I cannot blame parents across the board on this one.
There are VERY cruel kids in high school and middle school these days.
We are responsible for that, IMO, because we have given these kids faaaarr too much in the material items they get excited about. Madison Avenue has done an outstanding job on our kids. They think they have to have EVERYTHING that is on the shelves for sale.
The kids in school make fun of someone who doesn’t have the latest fad clothing or the I-pods, etc. I know it is very hard to reject all these pleas from the kids, but I believe it starts at a very young age when you have to shape their reality about what is important and what is just a fad that is very expensive. It is particularly hard for parents who don’t want their daughters dressing like little tramps. Finding jeans that actually come up to the waist often means buying them at the western store. the idols they have are edgy at best.
One of my best stories about a frieis that the daughter had every CD of music as soon as it hit the shelves. She could sing perfectly every word of every song. This same kid said she couldn’t remember dates and other kinds of “history stuff”. I pointed out to her that she had an excellent memory—she could remember songs that were 5 years old. She didn’t like my comment, but Mom looked at me like she had had an eye-opening idea. This kid could have gone to college, but she bailed out of school as soon as she had enough credits, and will be wasting most of her life, I predict. Mom was wealthy enough to give the kids everything they asked for. New I-pod for btdidn’t last a week- he left it on a bench when going skiing. Why he needed the I-pod to ski, I don’t understand.
I know one place you ought to inject them.
Yes they could, by not paying for it. How many 18 years olds have that kind of money?
Probably the anaesthetic was given by a nurse anaesthetist. Many people choose a nurse over an M.D. for elective surgery that is not paid for by insurance, because it costs less. There is no law that requires outpatient surgery centers to use M.D.s, though many of the better ones do. People do not realize that all anaesthetics are poisons and that nurses are not trained to identify or handle unusual reactions to them. ALWAYS insist on an anaesthesiologist when you have surgery of any kind!!
That’s what I was thinking too—I was just responding to another poster that said it could have been for a reduction.
Very sad. I guess if she was 18 there wasn’t much her parents could do legally to stop her.”
Where did an 18 y/o high school student get the money for this surgery??????
Right.
Upon her 18th birthday, she instantly became completely responsible in all possible ways for every decision she made. Everything her parents taught her (for good or ill) became instantly irrelevant. She was a whole new creation, tabula rasa.
So ... her lethally stupid decisions were completely her own damn fault.
Paging Prof. Darwin ... Prof. Darwin, please pick up the black discourtesy phone.
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