![]() ![]() To make his business work, Labrador hired dozens of doctors who were not board-certified in plastic surgery and paid them on commission. They are owned by investors and driven by social media marketing and discount prices that attract thousands of patients each year from across the country. The centers are radical departures from the cosmetic surgery clinics that long dominated the industry. The business is among more than a dozen high-volume clinics that have transformed Florida into a national destination for plastic surgery. The 56-year-old doctor, who was once suspended from practice for allowing unlicensed workers to perform cosmetic procedures, spent years building the business and burnishing a national image for the facilities, crafting social media campaigns that target women with messages that they, too, can afford body transformations. While deaths and injuries mounted, the names of the clinics were changed three times since 2016, but one person has remained at the center: Dr. Seven of the women who died were working-class Hispanics and African Americans - groups targeted by the clinics’ advertising campaigns. The fat pooled in their hearts and lungs, killing them in minutes.Ī 51-year-old mother from Georgia was forced to have emergency surgery after her small intestine was perforated three times during her cosmetic procedure and human waste spilled into her body.Ī 33-year-old woman who had cosmetic surgery was hospitalized after emergency room doctors discovered her liver had been lacerated, which caused her to bleed internally for days. Many of the fatalities and injuries were not the results of unavoidable complications, but of serious mistakes and procedures that went far beyond the bounds of safety.įour of the women died after their doctors mistakenly injected body fat deep in their muscles and tore the veins during a popular surgery known as the Brazilian butt lift, records and interviews show. Nearly a dozen other patients were left with critical complications, including three with punctured internal organs, that forced them to rush to hospitals for help, medical reports and other records show. Together, they account for about 1 of every 5 plastic surgery deaths in the state, the investigation found. In surgeries designed to improve appearances, no one is expected to die.īut in the past six years, the Miami clinic and a nearby facility overseen by the same doctor have lost eight patients in a spate of casualties not seen anywhere else in Florida. Inside, the lobby looks like any other surgery center: polished white floors, sleek, modern furniture, a large flat screen flashing images of beautiful bodies.īut this clinic is run like a factory assembly line, where individual doctors – many with little specialized training – line up patients and operate on as many as eight a day, an investigation by USA TODAY and the Naples Daily News has found. ![]() ![]() They fly in from across the country for deals they can’t get back home – thousands of dollars off cosmetic surgeries, available, if they like, on payment plans. They come in taxis and rental cars, to a strip mall clinic tucked between a barber shop and a discount shoe store. MIAMI – Just after dawn, the women arrive. ![]()
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