Eliete Regina de Aquino was booked in for two ‘dream’ surgeries at a Sao Paolo hospital, but it turned ‘into a nightmare’, her sister said, after she suffered cardiac arrest
A woman suffering complications from two common plastic surgery procedures at an unlicensed hospital was left unable to move, see or speak a month after she went under the knife.
Eliete Regina de Aquino, 35, from Iracemápolis, in São Paulo, Brazil, was admitted to the Plastic Surgery Hospital in the city’s Limeira region on November 14 to receive an abdominoplasty and liposuction on her thigh. She had entered the hospital at around 6.30am on the day, and the R$25,000 (£3,355) surgery began at 8am.
The surgery reportedly went as planned at first – but after a few hours in, Ms Aquino suffered a cardiac arrived and briefly died.
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The shop assistant suffered a heart attack at 12.15pm, and was quickly rescuscitated by medics, with her heartbeat returning around five minutes later. The surgery continued afterwards, according to Brazilian outlet Globo.com, and concluded by 1.30pm, with Ms Aquino rushed to a private hospital via a movile Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at 2pm.
According to family members, she was admitted to hospital while at risk of brain death and underwent brain surgery before suffering from pulmonary – lung related – complications. She remained in hospital until December 25, when she was transferred to the Santa Casa de Limeira hospital, where she was found to be suffering severe neurological sequelae – neurological damage.
The condition has deprived her of the ability to speak or move, and she is also suffering continued neurological spasms after being sent home earlier this week. Fabiana Aparecida de Aquino, Ms Aquiano’s sister, said she has been left with a tube in her neck, and only able to feel her family’s touch.
She said: “Eliete, today, has no movement in any of her four limbs, neither legs nor arms. She can’t see or speak. She has a tracheostomy tube in her neck and can only feel our touch…It’s very expensive. We need support, home care, a lifelong health plan. My mother is alone taking care of her today, she doesn’t leave her side 24 hours a day. She needs at least a nurse 24 hours a day to help.”
Fabiana has claimed in a statement to Civil Police that she was transferred to the first hospital without intubation, and that she had two cardiac arrests. According to Limeira City Hall, the plastic surgery hospital was unlicensed.
She and her family are now demanding answers about what happened to Ms Aquina in the operating room, with Fabiana saying: “We really want to know what happened inside the operating room. If there was negligence, we want justice.” In the clinic’s report, the professionals stated that she suffered a single cardiac arrest.
The hospital has said it would not comment on the patient or procedure, citing a national General Data Protection Law. Civil Police are now investigating the case, and are expected to interview doctors responsible for Ms Aquina’s care.
Fabiana said her sister had sought the plastic surgery procedure after not feeling “good about her body”, adding: “It was her dream [to have the surgeries]. A dream that turned into a nightmare.” Now, she added, the children in her family “can’t even be near her”. She added: “It’s hard, very hard.”