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 ...
Good observation. I should have been more careful in my writing. I was referring to the poor woman in the story being cute. My daughter is six years old, and very cute indeed.
I knew exactly what you were saying, but the way you wrote it was not how you wanted it to read.
I've been there for several small procudures including a septoplasty/turbinate reduction for sleep apnea. I can't really think of anything wrong with the center, I've had fine service there and no incidents. 3 people in my family have had procedures there and no complaints.
Thanks for the link....
Seems the patient had Malignant Hyperthermia...very rare, but a bad actor.
There will be two questions if that was the case:
1. Was Dantrolene maintained at the surgery office or center? If they were doing general anesthetics with volatile anesthetic agents and/or Succinylcholine not having Dantrolene on hand would be absolutely wrong, and someone is going to be held accountable.
2. What steps were taken to treat the condition? MH is recognizable if one LOOKS for the symptoms AND uses proper monitoring with an awareness/suspicion to the problem.
Even if the antidote drug was on hand, a few things require mentioning...MH is so rare that most anesthesia practitioners probably haven’t seen or treated a suspected case....treatment is Dantrolene, but administering the drug is more complex than just ‘giving it’ (it comes in a powder form and takes some effort to dilute into solution for administration). Treatment of an MH ‘crisis’ is an ‘all hands on deck’ phenomenon, and some surgery centers (or in this case a Doctor’s office?) may not have sufficient personnel on hand to assist, and odds are these personnel that are on hand are most likely to not be trained in MH treatment assistance (once again, especially if it was a MD’s office vice a Surgery Center/Hospital which often run MH drills for practice).
Most people have little understanding about a medical centers capabilities, and I cannot think of a worse situation to be in than to try and treat a full-blown MH crisis in a remote plastic surgeon’s office...but then again, I would never practice in this situation or allow any family member of mine to be treated with a general anesthetic outside of a reputable and credentialled hospital or surgery center...not saying no one dies of MH in these places, but your odds of survival are MUCH greater.
I can think of two reasons right off the top ... first, perhaps mom had hers done and daughter was wondering why nature was so cruel, expecting to have a physique like mom's. Second, as a head cheerleader going off to college with cheerleading and not education as the primary goal, she pro'ly felt at a big disadvantage if her competition was better endowed. After all, how could she be the head cheerleader in college with small boobs? An indulgent mom and pop would easily spring for a new rack as a graduation present.
That’s a shame, truly.
Take it from me, I do know what I am talking about. I practiced dentistry for 46 years and am now retired.
I have a dental friend that found out the hard way. He used Nitrous Oxide in the office and had a 12 year old that had a liver problem that neither he nor the parents knew about. This was thirty years ago and the patient suffered permanent brain damage. If he had been in the hospital the final outcome may have been very different. What you say is true about patients dying in the hospital. In fact most deaths on the operating table are because of anesthetic events. With or without an anesthesiologist being present.
Very sad. I guess if she was 18 there wasnt much her parents could do legally to stop her.
Where did an 18 y/o high school student get the money for this surgery??????
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Come on ,, this is Boca Raton (rat mouth) Florida ... $3-5K is pocket money for this girl ,, I’ll bet you her daddy bought her a new BMW on her 16th birthday ... besides she was planning on attending that 4 year (ok it’s usually 5-6 years now) party called UF Gainesville (she would have loved the “drunk b*tch friday” parties) .. where the only things that get attention are jock sniffing (as a cheerleader she was pretty good at that) and attending classes taught by militant Islamists that have tenure.
It’s too bad she died but bad things happen.. get over it, there’s nothing but speculation here in this story and in this reply but I bet I’m pretty close to the truth...
I’ve been there for several small procudures including a septoplasty/turbinate reduction for sleep apnea. I can’t really think of anything wrong with the center, I’ve had fine service there and no incidents. 3 people in my family have had procedures there and no complaints.
Thank your lucky stars.
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.
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If she wanted to be a D student all she had to do was transfer to a private school,,, her “nearly straight A” average at West Boca High School doesn’t mean a thing as it’s a gov’t school, her pre-med dreams just means that her parents have money, nothing else. My nephew graduated HS from a top rated gov’t HS here in FL with A’s and B’s , he even had some “advanced classes” and he ended up taking remedial classes for 2 years solid in college,, he still can’t reason for sh*t.
“oh, that’s right, that’s not very likely, since I’m a guy.)”
Well, maybe big rubber nutz will become “in fashion” for men!
Graduation present gone bad
Yes, indeed!
How many teenage daughters do you have?
ping
Is this the wonderful “socialization” ( or should I say “sexualization”) that homeschoolers are missing?
In June, one.
Well, when you have finished raising a perfect daughter who has no issues whatsoever—an accomplished, confident, competent young woman of flawless social grace who is entirely without doubts, worries, faults, neuroses, problems, or errors—get back to me and I’ll congratulate you for being a perfect parent. But if you are just commencing the task of being parent to a teenage girl, you might think of reserving judgment. It’s a harder row to hoe than you might think, especially when you discover how very much peers and society influence the thinking of young women.
Personally I’m just glad my daughter and I both survived her teenage years. I’m enormously proud of her now. But I also know that fighting off the effects of the wider society was an exhausting, nonstop task. And once the girls are 18, all bets are off; they have the legal right to ruin their lives if they want to.
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