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 ...
Uh...I wasn’t old enough first of all and when I was able to get my permit and license...we STILL walked to school. It was good for us. Fresh air, exercise, and an appreciation of all the beauty of the seasons. We survived just fine.
PS: By the time I was old enough to drive I already knew the value of hard work. Our family had a rooming house and that was hard work in and of itself. Plus we had to help with housework and ironing and things like that growing up. Dishes, cleaning etc. Oh ... we knew the value of hard work OK because we all received a good work ethic from our parents waaaaay before we were old enough to drive.
I started working full time at a real job at 14 and started driving at 15. By the time I started college I had a very nice two year old car that was paid off. Further, I played sports and ran so walking to school would have just been a six mile round trip waste of my time every day.
Plus I could come and go as I pleased and didn’t need to bum rides or borrow cars that other people paid for.
Different strokes for different folks.
A person dying during unnecessary surgery is a tragedy. It's self-inflicted.
Yes. But again, no more so than dyingduringat the end of a hang glide. That is "self-inflicted," too. And, I imagine, more dangerous statistically. The tragedy, it seems, lies in the fact that physicians dedicated to healing should be instead the cause of death.And yet I am confident that it is not rare for cosmetic surgery to be beneficial to the person who undergoes it - there must be some positive word-of-mouth supporting cosmetic surgery in the face of the inevitable story such as this one . . .
..and it's appalling how many young girls get this surgery as a graduation gift from their parents.
Boca Raton, at some level, is Florida's equivalent of Beverly Hills.....
True.
“Is this the wonderful “socialization” ( or should I say “sexualization”) that homeschoolers are missing?”
I’m pretty sure you can easily find homeschoolers who have had or will have vanity plastic surgery, including breast augmentation (or corrective surgery, whichever it is).
Your comment is exactly why I didn’t need to explain the attorney’s statement. Your thinking is the exact same as mine.
Well that’s wonderful for you.
We couldn’get a license until we were 16. Where did you get yours at 15???
My brother and husband began working at around 9 years old when they could go into places and get a job without all the hassle of today. My husband bought his own car as well and paid it off. He also played sports, had 2 paper routes and worked those routes on weekedays and the weekends.
Walking a waste of time? Wow. Never heard that one before. Walking is great for everyone unless physically challenged of course. Cars are good but walking is healthy and clears the mind. Our town was small so we could walk wherever we wanted and did. When we did ride we could take my dad’s car or double with other people. Wasn’t a problem for us. Most people who had cars were happy to give others a ride as were we. Borrow cars that other people paid for? Who said anything about BORROWING CARS? Yipes. Yes, different strokes for different folks. No kidding.
You could get a hardship license at 15 in Texas.
Try walking across Houston and get back to me on the waste of time thing.
I enjoy walking in the woods and at the deer lease but not next to an 8 lane freeway with cars doing 70 or 80 in 100f heat with another 25 miles to go.
Only a real bonehead would not think that was a waste of time especially after the car was invented.
I have no experience with leprosy, but I know I don't want it.
I have no experience swimming with piranha; yet I feel confident in advising parents not to let their children jump into a river full of them.
Your contention that because I don't have teenagers I am unqualified to criticize the decisions of parents who do, is ludicrous. This is exactly the type of liberal thinking that says, "only a member of a group is allowed to be critical of the group." Not true. I do not need to be a rapist or a rape victim to be critical of the act of rape, nor do I need to be a murderer or a murder vivtim to condemn the act of murder.
On the subject we are discussing, however, I am a parent. That, in your way of thinking, should at least entitle me to some credibility in forming an opinion on this issue. My opinion is this: The parents of this woman failed her.
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.
Kids and parents will make mistakes all the time, I know I do. Problems arise when parents-and children-are allowed to make the same mistakes over and over and over with no real consequences. Sometimes when the consequences come from outside the parent-child relationship, the consequences seem harsh and disproportionate-like having to bury an 18 year old cheerleader that wanted a bigger rack. It is not fair, but it could have been prevented.
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.
It seems to me that the most likely way an 18 year old, high school student gets money to have her chest expanded to porn star proportions is from her family. It is much less of a stretch for me to believe this than for me to believe the (blame the predatory credit card companies) Visa/Mastercard scenario you propose. Why do you keep making excuses for this woman and her parents? They were the last ones that could have averted this situation, yet you seem unwilling to lay any culpability at their feet.
Finally, I would be willing to wager that today the parents of this woman wish someone had told them the things I am saying here prior to her having this elective procedure.
Where did you read she was having her chest expanded to porn star proportions?
I am curious- I hadn’t seen that
That’s a very good point. I’ve known a few women who had breast reduction done and were very happy with the results.
I doubt that you will find many homeschooling cheerleaders. I will admit though the possibility exists.
I was responding in kind to the wild assumptions made by the person to whom I was replying. You caught me.
I worked with a gal who said that her boyfriend wanted to buy her a set a fake boobs.
I told her that her boobs looked fine, from what I had seen of them.
She said , "Really ? "
I assured her that they were just fine. I told her to suggest to him that he get a penis implant first and then they could talk about her boobs.
As far as I knew, she did not have them " enhanced".
As far as the Palm Beach gal, her parents are obviously idiots, (grieving idiots, but, idiots all the same), for going along with princess' wishes for fake boobs.
Even if the operation had been successful, they'd still be idiots.
As far as I'm concerned, unless it's for some type of reconstructive surgery, fake boobs are a freak show attraction.
The callous attitude from many here is sickening. This is nothing short of a nightmare for this family and those that are treating as a personal soapbox for their own little pet ideals are twisted, ugly, cruel people that I desperately wish would not associate with conservatives.
The girl died because of a reaction to the anesthesia, not because of the type of surgery.
Frankly it seems like a bit of armchair quarterbacking when someone who has not raised a child to adulthood criticizes the failings of those of us who have done so. That’s not much different than if I criticized a ski racer when I am a competent but not professional skier.
I agree with you that if these parents subsidized their daughter’s cosmetic procedure they are at fault. But you don’t know that that’s the case, and you are sounding awfully judgmental. As you may someday learn, teenage girls have minds of their own and a good deal of financial autonomy. One of my daughter’s friends is planning to have a boob job next year, and there’s not a damned thing her parents can do about it as she is independent and legally an adult.
I just hope you will never find out the hard way how difficult previously angelic young girls can be. They can surprise you. In any case, good luck, and best wishes to you and your daughter for the next years.
If this was something she had been planning to do when she came of age, she could easily have saved up for it.
That's not to say that maybe her parents didn't pay or help pay, but we don't know for sure.
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