Teen is Dead From Breast Surgery

Stephanie Kuleba is an 18-year-old high school senior, who was headed to college and then medical school, but felt she needed to be even more perfect

Her breasts were asymmetrical and she had an inverted areola, so she went to have cosmetic surgery clinic in Boca Raton, Florida. But now she is dead. She died 24 hours after undergoing surgery, the victim of a rare reaction to anesthesia called malignant hyperthermia.

Malignant hyperthermia is a rare life-threatening condition that is triggered by exposure to certain drugs used for general anaesthesia. In susceptible individuals, these drugs can induce a drastic and uncontrolled increase in skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism which overwhelms the body’s capacity to supply oxygen, remove carbon dioxide, and regulate body temperature, eventually leading to circulatory collapse and death if untreated.

“This young lady’s death is a tragedy. Our hearts go out to her family. It’s a devastating event,” said the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. He added, “this is something that can happen in any surgery, on any part of the body, in any setting.”

“There’s a medication for this that needs to be given very quickly  [to save the person’s life]”

Kuleba’s family, who did not wish to be interviewed, has hired an attorney to investigate the death. Dr. Steven Schuster, who did the breast surgery, also declined to comment.

“There’s never no risk,” he said. “Our job is to minimize that risk, and we stay up very late to do that.”