High School Cheerleader Dies of Apparent Breast Surgery Complications, Friends Say

Fox News ^ | 3/25/2008 | Fox News

[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.

[ConservaTexan]

Your condescending sarcasm does not affect me at all. My point is, her parents had the responsibility to tell her no. I know that she was 18, but I doubt very seriously that she had the money to pay for this elective procedure herself. The money had to come from somewhere, most likely her parents. I bet if you were able to ask them, they regret not exerting more parental influence on the situation.

It is a sad situation when parents give into their children for fear that the kids will stop loving them. The most common word in a parents vocabulary should be 'no.' Unfortunately, too often, it's 'whatever makes you happy, punkin'.

[ottbmare]

I am sorry for the sarcasm, but I'm trying to make a point: you have no experience at dealing with teenage girls, and therefore you shouldn't judge these parents yet. It may be harder than you think. I know of no father of a teenage girl who did not feel that raising her was the hardest task he ever had.

I too was very confident in my ability to control the way my kids behaved, before my kids became teenagers. I was sure that faith, wisdom, patience, strength, and the influence of the Church would make my adorable children behave so much better than the kids in their school and neighborhood. I'm now more compassionate toward the parents of difficult kids because even the best parents and the best kids can take a wrong step.

BTW, parents don't necessarily have to pay for boob jobs. As long as Visa and Mastercard offer credit cards to 18-year-old girls, they can do what they like. I know girls of that age who have paid for cars, horses, travel, Lasik, and yes, boob jobs, with credit cards, without even troubling to inform their parents. The parents of the dead girl may not even have known the daughter was doing this. Whether they knew or not, they may not even have been in a legal position to say no to a self-supporting adult daughter. We really do not know.

(On the other hand, they may have known very well and may even have approved. And in that case your disgust with them is well deserved.)

[My hearts in London - Everett]

Watch out! You and your daughter will be advised to get over it and grow a thicker skin! Oh, and also, you are talking in a very holier-than-thou manner. You might be taken for one of us Christians if you're not careful! /s

A young girl would almost have to be raised a hermit to make it to adulthood nowadays unscathed by all the magazines, TV, MTV, music, etc. that tell her what society says she must look and act like to get along or have worth to others. Most children raised by parents who aren't there for them fall for all that crap because they don't have the most important people in their lives telling them any different. Heck, it's hard for the parents who are there for their kids to minimize/counteract those influences and teach their kids self-worth!

[Paleo Conservative]

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,

What about outpatient surgery centers that are located just down the street a few hundred feet from an emergency room or even closer than some parts of the hospital are to the emergency room? That seems to be the case in the city where I live.

[Riverman94610]

The kid drove a Lexus to school?
Call me a hater but when I was in high school I either walked or took the bus.
I would have gotten the taste slapped out of my mouth if I had the nerve to ask my folks for a Lexus or the equivalent of such a car back in 1964.
Spoiled little bastards.This is why I do my sub teaching in the hood.Sure,there are times when I want to strangle some of these wanna be thugs but they don’t set me off like these entitled pampered offspring of the rich.
One group is living on State welfare and the latter group lives off of daddy’s welfare.

[Riverman94610]

The hell I will!
You either enjoy the three inches you are getting or walk on,baby!

[ottbmare]

I’m sorry for my tone, if it offends anyone. It’s hard to write about such sensitive matters without giving offense. If I were speaking you could hear that my voice would be quiet and gentle.

Among my daughter’s friends, I’ve seen some very carefully-reared girls from wonderful families go temporarily off the rails. Any parent who thinks his or her child is going to escape the influences of the broader society should not be quite so confident. Even the Amish can’t seem to raise their kids without exposure to the temptations of our sexualized society.

I’m just urging compassion for the parents of this unfortunate girl. They may have said No to her, and it may have done no good. Some children are rebellious by innate temperament, as Dr. James Dobson so wisely tells us, and some kick up their heels when they turn 18 and are theoretically adults.

[Ethrane]

As I said, outpatient surgery centers are different than Doctor's offices...I know that there are plenty of plastic surgeons that have set up their own OR's in their offices, and that some anesthesiologists work in these OR's. Would you be ok in a situation that you described? You'd be better off than in a Doctor's office OR...but you'd still rather be in a hospital IF you had a MH crisis because the support mechanisms are much more developed. That being said, MH is rare so saying that any particular anesthetizing location is necessarily 'dangerous' because of it would be unfounded. People have to understand though that the more remote a 'health care' setting is, the less support will be immediately available and in the unlikely event of a catastrophic event, outcomes may be affected. If anyone wants information about MH, check this reference here: http://www.mhaus.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/OnlineBrochures.Display/BrochurePK/8AABF3FB-13B0-430F-BE20FB32516B02D6.cfm

[Ethrane]

BTW, there is a LOT of updates in this new article at the Sun Sentinel:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpkuleba0325pnmar25,0,1862902.story

Seems tehy recognized the problem, called the MH center (standard procedure), and gave the Dantrolene. The surgery was also to correct 'cosmetic' defects that the patient had.

[ottbmare]

maybe if somebody bothered to talk with her & explain that you don't need big boobs to be pretty or well liked she might be alive. I think before any cosmetic surgery is done on young women they ought to be sent to counseling.

What an excellent thought. You're right.

Years ago I dated an immensely successful plastic surgeon. He always talked for a long time to women who came to his office seeking non-essential cosmetic plastic surgery and sometimes told them to go see a psychologist friend of his for a talk. He said he would rather pay the psychologist a hundred bucks for an hour consult and opinion than have to face lawsuits from an unhappy patient. Some people, he believed, were coming into the office seeking plastic surgery to fix what was wrong in their minds and hearts, and plastic surgery can't do that, so he wanted to gently dissuade them.

[Hyzenthlay]

And once the girls are 18, all bets are off; they have the legal right to ruin their lives if they want to.

I remember my parents telling me something along those lines... After I turned 18, I actually didn't do anything too extreme, since then I just got my cartilage pierced and a second set of hole in my earlobes, dyed my hair washable purple a couple times, and ran around campus in a Jedi costume one random non-halloween day... OK, so they were less than thrilled with the piercings, but I was ultra-careful about them and kept the concept of 'getting a job some day' in mind, and the hair dye and Jedi things were nothing really important, just a bit of 'normal' teenage non-normalcy.

[SeaHawkFan]

"When you have anesthesia, there's no such thing as a simple procedure," Rosenberg said. Kuleba was undergoing surgery to correct inverted nipples and asymmetrical breasts, the family's lawyer has said. Friends were told she was having a breast enlargement.

I tend to believe the friends. If it was corrective surgery, why tell friends you are going to have breast enlargement?

The family's attorney is exploring how the plastic surgeon who performed the operation and the anesthesiologist responded to Kuleba's condition and whether the antidote was available in the office.

That didn't take long. Haven't even had the funeral and they are working on a lawsuit already.

[Ben Bolt]

this is pretty sad. do girls today really have self esteem this low they feel need to get surgery to alter their bodies?

Yes . Especially in Boca where there seems to be a rather large populace of people who are self absorbed .

[Eaker]

It is disgusting. I walked to school.

Why didn't you work and buy a car like I did? It taught me the value of hard work and I didn't have to walk.

Win / win.

[Eaker]

Which one is the boy in post# 104 that caused her to do this?

[pandoraou812]

Then he was a good doctor. I wanted my breasts reduced so badly. It was a nightmare at 16 to have 38 DD let me tell you. And I wasn't fat either. I hated to walk down the halls. I truly hated them. What was worse everyone else in my family was small breasted & my boobs were always a joke to them. I talked to a doctor about it & he told me that I should learn to live with them because women paid to get what I didn't want. That helped quite a bit & now I am used to them. I think that people ought to learn to like their bodies more as they are. I can understand some surgery but not on young woman without counseling. What you think you want at 16 or 18 yrs old you may hate later in life.

[Ethrane]

I tend to believe the friends. If it was corrective surgery, why tell friends you are going to have breast enlargement?

Because having a breast enlargement is 'trendy'? What teen wants to tell her friends that she is having surgery on her breasts because they are asymmetric and the nipples are inverted?

This information also came from the family's attorney.

[SeaHawkFan]

Because having a breast enlargement is 'trendy'? What teen wants to tell her friends that she is having surgery on her breasts because they are asymmetric and the nipples are inverted?

Why tell them anything if there is going to be no noticeable difference with clothes on?

This information also came from the family's attorney.

Do I really have to comment on this statement?

[SeaHawkFan]

Because having a breast enlargement is 'trendy'? What teen wants to tell her friends that she is having surgery on her breasts because they are asymmetric and the nipples are inverted?

Why tell them anything if there is going to be no noticeable difference with clothes on?

This information also came from the family's attorney.

Do I really have to comment on this statement?

[Ethrane]

Why tell them anything if there is going to be no noticeable difference with clothes on?

Because she's going to miss some school, and girls don't keep secrets? It is also quite possible that she had the problems the attorney stated, which justified insurance coverage, and she was having implants at the same time as a 'corrective measure'? You really need to learn something about what patient's claim for 'covered medical procedures'.

This information also came from the family's attorney.

Do I really have to comment on this statement?

Yes, you do.

If the patient had a slam dunk lawsuit, it really wouldn't matter what the reason was for surgery...so why would he say that the patient had a cosmetic problem? Why answer the question of 'why'? The only reason I can see for the lawyer to answer that question is because he wants to deflect blame away form the parents in this case, for allowing the surgery.

Otherwise, he'd just keep his mouth shut and sue and not mention any 'cosmetic deformities'.