Mother of 3 in China dies during liposuction surgery after medical staff assume monitor warning alarm is faulty

• Woman wants to be slimmer, husband warns operation too dangerous
• She dies on operating table, he sues for negligence, says staff not qualified

A 43-year-old woman in China has died during a cosmetic fat-removal operation because of medical negligence, shocking many on mainland social media.

A mother of three, surnamed Zhang, from Anhui province in eastern China, was undergoing a popular liposuction procedure at her local medical beauty clinic, Love Her.

Staff were found guilty of ignoring alerts from the monitoring equipment for 16 minutes. When Zhang suffered a cardiac arrest, the ambulance was not called for 33 minutes, Jimu News reported.

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Zhang, who was 158cm tall and weighed 60kg, underwent the fatal operation on January 7.

Her husband, Pang said his wife was persuaded by clinic staff to have the procedure while he was away on a business trip.

Zhang, who wanted to become slimmer, had sought support from Pang, but he did not approve. He tried to stop her by showing her cases that had failed.

Zhang had argued with her husband before going ahead with the procedure which she hoped would make her slimmer. Photo: Baidu

After consulting with her husband, Zhang agreed she would not have the surgery.

However, Pang later learned from conversations on WeChat, that staff at the clinic had kept pressuring Zhang to go ahead with the procedure.

“They suggested my wife have it done while I was on a business trip,” Pang said.

Staff at the clinic told Zhang the operation to remove fat from her stomach and waist was minor and safe and would make her prettier. She believed them.

The operation started at 10.15 am on January 7, after Zhang had lost all sensation in her stomach and waist under local anaesthetic. At 10.47 am the ECG monitor emitted an alert.

A screenshot from a surveillance camera shows two medical workers checking the monitor, which they assume is malfunctioning, while the doctor continues with the surgery on Zhang who is lying face-down on the operating table.

Despite not knowing what happened in the operating room, the medical workers realised Zhang had suffered a heart attack and they tried to resuscitate her.

At 11.41am, the clinic called the ambulance. She was later confirmed dead.

A medical report said Zhang had died of multiple organ failure from cardiac arrest, and ruled it was a medical accident.

Pang said the clinic had ignored the alarm until the anaesthetist took the ECG monitor tube from Zhang and attached it to himself to check that it was working.

Pang claimed that the medical staff had ignored the monitor alarm for 16 minutes, assuming it had malfunctioned.

The husband was further outraged when he learned that the medical workers were not qualified to perform surgery.

Pang is suing the clinic, but the courts have yet to make a ruling. Meanwhile, the story has gone viral on mainland social media.

Medical staff at the clinic ignored warning signals from a monitor, assuming it was malfunctioning. Photo: Baidu

“This is so horrible,” one online observer said.

“To remove fat with an operation sounds too much of a risk,” said another.

Liposuction operations are popular in China because women want slender bodies.

Fees for the procedure range from 5,000 yuan (US$700) to 30,000 yuan. The surgery is high-risk and has resulted in tragedies.

In July 2021, an online celebrity in eastern China died after a botched liposuction procedure resulted in a serious skin infection and a two-month-long stay in intensive care.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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