Woman paid for Brazilian butt lift left with 7-inch hole in stomach, surgeon gives tummy tuck instead
Woman paid for Brazilian butt lift left with 7-inch hole in stomach, surgeon gives tummy tuck instead
A woman who lost more than 100 pounds decided to treat herself to a Brazilian butt lift, only to wake up with a seven-inch hole in her stomach after the doctor gave her a tummy tuck instead.
Crystal Heath, who was hospitalized for 11 days for kidney failure and infection after the botched surgery, said: ‘I almost lost my life trying to get a butt. And it was definitely not worth it.’
Dr. Osakatukei Omulepu, whose license has been partially restricted by Florida’s Department of Health after four other women came forward with similar accusations, is still practicing at a plastic surgery clinic in Hialeah near Miami.
Heath told NBC: ‘I had lost a lot of weight and in the process, I lost my butt as well.’
She found Dr. Omulepu online, where he posted several promotional videos, and went under the knife at Spectrum Aesthetics, where a Brazilian butt lift costs $4,100.
But she awoke from the surgery in February and found she had been cut open across her abdomen and left with a seven-inch hole in her stomach, which she still has.
According to the clinic’s website, a tummy tuck costs $600 less at $3,500.
Heath told NBC: ‘I didn’t need a tummy tuck, I paid for a Brazilian butt lift.
‘At the moment when everything went wrong, I felt like I was going to die. I started throwing up instantly, I start throwing up so bad it was like bursting in my stomach.’
She was admitted in the hospital for 11 days after suffering kidney failure and an infection and still has to see a nurse three times a week.
Heath vowed never to opt for plastic surgery again, saying: ‘I would never let anybody else perform surgery on me, not even if it was free.’
Just a few days after her operation, Omulepu was issued an emergency restriction on his license after the Florida Department of Health found four women had serious complications after he performed surgery on them.
One had undergone liposuction in four different areas on her body, and three others also opted for the butt lift procedure, which sees fat liposuctioned and transferred to the backside.
All of the four women went under the knife within a two-day period in May 2014 and the state’s health department found Omulepo ‘failed to meet the minimum standard of care… resulting in significant medical emergencies requiring extensive hospitalization for each patient’, the NY Daily News reported.
One 35-year-old experienced respiratory failure, while two others were left bleeding profusely after the procedures.
Omulepo is prohibited from ‘performing liposuction, liposuction with bilateral fat transfer to the buttocks, and/or any procedure using the tumescent [liposuction] technique in the state of Florida’, according to the NY Daily News.
Florida Surgeon General John Armstrong signed the order in February, which said he would cause ‘significant harm to his patients’ if his conduct continued.
But NBC found Omulepu was still working at Encore Plastic Surgery in Hialeah, because his license is only partially restricted.
Omulepu has denied the allegations and is fighting the Florida Department of Health, which is working to revoke his license altogether.
Omulepu is not certified by the American Board of Plastic surgery.
