REPORT: Patient Dies After ‘Tummy Tuck’ Surgery, Doctor Sues

Daily Caller ^ | 4/9/26 | Christine Sellers

[CFW]

An Ohio doctor is reportedly suing a surgery center alleging that his patient died of a fatal overdose after a “tummy tuck” procedure.

Dr. Shahryar Tork, a plastic surgeon based in Cincinnati, filed a civil lawsuit against JourneyLite Surgery and its anesthesia partner Associated Anesthesiologists of Springfield, Inc., claiming negligence and underqualified personnel led to the death of patient Rachel Tussey, according to WLWT. Tussey had a “tummy tuck” at the surgery center and was reportedly later found to be unresponsive during her recovery.

[snip]

Tork said the surgery went well and Tussey needed “very low doses of pain medication throughout the procedure,” according to the lawsuit cited by WLWT. Tork alleged that two nurses at the facility administered 150 micrograms of fentanyl and .5 mg of Dilaudid that caused Tussey to suffer a fatal overdose.

“JourneyLite’s unqualified post-anesthesia-care unit nurse administered an opioid overdose, resulting in Mrs. Tussey’s death,” the lawsuit read, according to PEOPLE. Workers at the surgery center allegedly tried to cover up the overdose by falsifying medical documents.

[cpdiii]

Dosing errors happen. Me = 26 years as a hospital pharmacist that mixed the drugs to the patients on the floor. I made errors but very few. Any clinical pharmacist that says he did not is a liar. Fortunately my greatest error was the correct error. I was the only pharmacist on night shift. We had several patients crashing and I was mixing IVs as fast as I could. One was a heart attack victim and needed a clot buster which I mixed and sent to the floor. I was mixing many things for other patients in distress. The clot buster drug needed two bottles and to my horror I found only one used and the other not. I sent up a bag that was half strength. I immediately called he doctor and explained and asked if he needed another half bag. He said no as the clot had broken up the clot and the patient was bleeding out. The right dose might have killed him.

This error has always haunted me. The next morning I immediately told my boss of my error. She said most people would not of told this. I then realized my dear friend was not worthy of my friendship.

[Veto!]

Decades ago, my friend Howard was allowed into viewers’ gallery when his friend Peter, a surgeon and teacher of surgery, was performing some abdominal surgery. In order to get to fat patient’s organs, doc had to scoop out handfulls of fat.

What did he do with the fat?

Threw it up against the wall and swore at the fat patient too. She was, of course, sedated.

I still think of that when some obese person waddles around near me. Supermarket is a great place to find them. Last summer a really pretty 450 lb Black woman and I crashed into each other in Safeway. Both started laughing. “I Cant walk” she said. And I can’t see, “ I said in return. “There’s always smething that gets us”.
At this point there were several people watching and laughing with us. I think of her now and then and wish her well.

[Nateman]

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

[CFW]

Wow! That’s a scary story!

[Jim Noble]

The legal “captain of the ship” doctrine which has always applied to a principal surgeon is going to have to crumble under the weight of novel business arrangements, where everyone is an employee or contractor and the suits make all the big decisions.

[Vaduz]

Patient Dies After ‘Tummy Tuck’ Surgery.

Short cuts are often the last poor choice.

[higgmeister]

Thank you for redirecting my confused brain.   As you pointed out, stomach surgery has so many names for procedures that I wasn't even thinking of plastic surgery.

[Texan5]

Being obese is dangerous for the human body-so is that gastric surgery-and it turns out that the weight loss drug shots and pills are, too. Makes more sense to just start eating real, safe fresh food and follow a good paleo/low carb diet to lose the weight.

If I were going to just do as I please and to hell with my health, I’d rather take up drinking and smoking to really heavy excess, with maybe a few prescription feel-good drugs to abuse every few days-I’d have way more fun before my untimely demise than if I’d just sat on my fat ass and stuffed myself with soda, mac and cheese, candy, cake and chips, etc.

Some people I know tell me that I should give up the healthy natural organic lifestyle-gain a lot of weight and have fun-but being overweight is not my idea of “fun”-it looks like a miserable way to live to me, never mind not being able to just go to any online clothing shop that is cheap, ordering the same size I’ve worn since my teens and having the item fit even if it was made in China or some other Asian country-fat size clothes are expensive...

[Texan5]

All the names are really just for the same thing with variations-reducing the size of the stomach so that the person can’t eat as much. They are all risky-especially if you don’t eat the right stuff in the right amount. It is easier and safer to kick the willpower into gear and eat real, healthy food...

[Veto!]

Have you ever tried fasting? A seriously overweight friend of mine, pretty woman who loved to cook and eat, read some book about fasting, tried it, had good results in terms of getting her appetite under control. After that. she went on a sane, healthy diet.

I have the opposite problem. Never hungry. Hate to cook. Eat twice a day and sometimes forget to eat even that much. Tomorrow I’m going out for lunch (whatever that is) with a few friends, a farewell gift to Sean, my favorite neighbor, who’s moving a short distance away. We’re all gnashing out teeth about that, as he knows exactly how to fix everything.

[Texan5]

I’ve only fasted during Lent-still do-but I’ve had friends who have gotten their weight under control by fasting and kept to a healthy diet since. It is certainly a safer way to get control of the appetite than drugs or surgery.

I eat twice a day, too-breakfast in the AM and dinner in the early evening-eating lunch has never appealed to me-I just don’t get hungry at that time of day. If I’m invited to “do lunch”, I will get a little salad and some unsweet tea with a lime or lemon.

I like to cook-but only cook and eat fresh organic food because I was raised on a ranch in a family of organic healthy food nuts-we grew/raised most of what we ate, and I still follow that organic, paleo type lifestyle, so I weigh the same 100-104 as I did at 17. I live in a rural area, and I am 1/2 of a home-based business with my best friend, doing worker safety classes and inspections-if a household fix is too complicated for me, he can probably help me do it...