Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Routine? Not by a long shot.

Kanye's mother died due to complications from cosmetic surgery. While it was revealed that she had a heart condition that caused her to die, it still underscored the risk any surgical procedure carries. Stephanie Kuleba died recently due to complication from cosmetic surgery. Likely, from the anesthesia.

The article is here.

A couple of things stood out.

"Breast augmentation is one of the most sought-after cosmetic procedures out there. Teenagers are getting these surgeries done earlier and earlier, and the fear is that if they get them too early, it might not be indicated."


There seems to be a lot of evidence that parents allow their teens to have breast augmentation done. I can understand if a girl is overly large, very lopsided, or has some other medical reason to have augmentation done. Beyond those reasons though, it seems wrong to encourage and allow teens to have their breasts done. Very wrong. Forget about the risks. What kind of message is this? Now, I have no idea if Stephanie needed the procedure or not . . . medically speaking. But if she didn't, and this was simply to have bigger boobs, hopefully her death will send a message. There's no such thing as routine surgery.

Also:

Alvarez said the danger with cosmetic procedures is the casual way in which they're sometimes approached.

"In plastic surgery, there's a laissez-faire attitude because people tend to be healthy," Alvarez said. "It’s not seen as a therapeutic operation. That underlying trend could allow you to be exposed to unnecessary risks."


Literally, the healthier you are, the higher the risk as you're not one to have been exposed to medical treatments, tests, and procedures before. Thus, with no history, there's no way to know, definitively, if you're going to react to anything with regard to procedures, medications, and being put to sleep.

I don't mean to sound cold. This is tragic. I just think there's a lesson to be learned.

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